I have contaminated my creative well with the idea of being "famous" or "likeable"

I have contaminated my creative well with the idea of being "famous" or "likeable"

how do i reverse this? I barely even enjoy making music anymore

Good art is made for non material reason, beyond money or fame or greed.
Make art for Spirituality, revolution, love, etc
Something beyond being a cog in a hyper global capitalist machine.

it's not as if I don't know this. I just feel as if I've been infected by something. Like an ocd where everytime I make music my brain switches to "I wonder if people will like this" automatically

>how do i reverse this?
stop following trends and focus your internet attention on consuming not well known art and music production forums.
bascally block/unfollow anything mainstream media

good art isnt meant to please critics, the elite, or normies.
Make it, because you have something inside you you want to get out.
If it makes people mad or shocked or triggered.
Even better

Wanting recognition and admiration is a normal thing for us musicians and artists. Sometimes we get it, sometimes we don't. You have to realize, though, that most people are average and pretty retarded. I hate acting uppity or acting better than them, because I'm not, but most people are just artistically ignorant. They will not "get" where you're coming from. They will not understand. They need big names in lights, commercials, celebrity, those things telling them what to like. It's simply the nature of the beast. In example, I made a trap/dubstep type song that is popular in my area due to yearly EDM festivals we have. I dip my toes in a lot of genres and I like the exercise that comes with trying stuff like that. I know for a fact my sound design was on point and what the kids call "dope". Got a very lukewarm reaction. I'm not exaggerating either, I know for a fact i'm near pro with my sound, I've been producing for years now. I'm absolutely confident if a "name" made it, such as someone like Getter, the people I showed would have flipped about how great it was. Then it really dawned on me, a lot of music, as a business in the Western World, is about branding. Look at Marilyn Manson. His music really isn't that weird or hard to listen to, despite what you'd guess by his appearance. So he has the double whammy of being extremely out there aesthetically, attracting weirdos and outcasts, but also being really poppy and accessible, attracting even more people. I've noticed this with Nirvana too. A lot of their deep cuts and B sides are really strange and pleb filters, but they still get tons of praise in video comments from people that act like they're the greatest thing since sliced bread. If some of those songs weren't released by that good looking man Kurt Cobain then they would have thought it was garbage. Branding branding and more branding. I guarantee if you made the floral shoppe record and told everyone you know about it, no one would care.

This is true. The actual thing you should know is we live in a capitalist society and if you are an artist that wants to be famous you are a product that is being marketed to an audience

give up. Just don't try to be famous at all

Dick, your complaint is about trying to be liked and you came for a second opinion on THAT? Forget it, you are not going to reverse it

cringe

Lmao I would argue that a huge percentage of musicians make music to get women and get rich. It’s not necessarily a bad thing.

I guarantee your music isn't as good as you think it is.

Good music is an extension of the artist. If you spend all of your time dabbling in everything for the challenge of it your music isn't sincere. On the surface it might appear the same but subconsciously people can tell pretty easily that it's fake as fuck, that you don't understand the culture of the music and will reject it.

throw it away and act from your true will

t. a Zuckerberg guy

>but subconsciously people can tell pretty easily that it's fake as fuck, that you don't understand the culture of the music and will reject it.
not true btw

You sound like a 14 year old who saves memes from humans of late capitalism. Btw if you have to think about what your art is about, it's shallow as fuck. True art is self indulgence

These threads create issues because it always comes down to this. "Show us your music if it's so good". I know it's good.

You're seriously implying people give a fuck about sincerity when both irony is super cool right now, and there's hundreds of pop stars being churned out that have not a sincere bone in their body. Products meant to be mass marketed and people eat it up like their personalities aren't just formulated from focus groups. I've also left out that I have received many, many genuine compliments on my stuff. I've also put my heart into things and seen people shrug it off. My music is good, I'm fully aware of it. Could I be better? Yes. Easily. You can always be better. But at the same time, I'm fully aware I'm miles ahead of pretty much anyone locally.

Also funny how one of the biggest genres right now, trap, is mostly fakes. In fact, most rappers are fake. EDM trap is mostly upper middle class whites who found out trap was the new cool thing and learned everything they knew about it from TNGHT/HudMo. And people love it. Not even sensing 0 appreciation for the culture it came from in the music. Music has always been full of fakes and no one has ever. gave. a. fuck. Branding is king.

Then it's just a matter of what this post is saying You have to find a way to market yourself better. Separate the marketing and your work in your mind. Work on your music in the same genuine way you know how to. Once you have something good you want to sell, then think about how to brand and market it successfully. Two separate tasks that can both be optimized in their own way. If your music is already good and people like it but you aren't having success, something is wrong or at least not optimal about your marketing.

making music should be like communicating.

I do hear people saying that they are "sick and tired of talking"

use music to express your feelings of wanting to be famous but that ideal clouding the authenticity of your art.
then go on for a few songs on how much you suck and wont make it to the big time

do not suppress emotions its only going to come out in ways you don't like.

actually people that autistically involve themselves with one genre are generally compensating for the fact that they aren't very good musically but will faux excel at that one genre if they persist with it enough

Slowdive for example

Irony isn't necessarily inauthentic. It's a form of humor and a way to express indifference and borrow from and enjoy things outside of someones usual interests.

Pop are also often very sincere about their goals, to reach and entertain as many people as possible. They're honest about borrowing from anywhere they can, all musicians do it. If anything they're more honest than most unknown musicians who try to project an image of originality when they're just attempting to clumsily borrow from a narrower range of influences with any 'originality' stemming from a failure to do so accurately.

I think to become the best in your field you need to live and breathe the thing you're trying to excel at.

You can't just be a genre tourist and then expect to be better at that thing than the people who have dedicated themselves to it. It doesn't matter if they're not versatile. They're the best at their thing.

>Irony isn't necessarily inauthentic
Here we go, playing word games. Are you seriously acting like the purpose of being ironic right now isn't to have a detached "ha ha just kidding tho if you think it sucks" attitude? Because that's what I and others have seen. Might you be right? Certainly. But it's the exception, not the rule.

>Pop are also often very sincere about their goals
You can stop any time now. Every pop star isn't Michael Jackson, user. This poptimism shit is going way too far. It's about money, baby.
>They're honest about borrowing from anywhere they can
Okay so now you're saying all pop stars wholesale are honest and not thieves, even though pop artists such as Black Eyed Peas have been caught plagiarizing.

>If anything they're more honest
I get what you're trying to say here, but no, they aren't. I'm a pop fan too. I like a good pop song, but to play this whole contrarian/devil's advocate thing is just a lie. It's not reality. Pop stars are mostly built on smoke and mirrors (aka LYING, DECEPTION), see Katy Perry's terrible album sales, Jay Z unable to sell out arenas, so on and so forth. The humble underground musician may be pretentious at times but that doesn't make them more dishonest than your average pop star.

make music you enjoy

Everything is fake anyway.