Last night I had a performance, just a casual little gig at a cafe/bar, one of my favorite in Tokyo. One of the main staff is leaving to start his own thing and I was invited along with another one of the other staff (who happens to be an awesome songwriter) to play a few songs.
I had no idea what the night would be like so it was a little hard to prepare for, but the feeling I got was that they asked me to play as a friend, neighbor and customer. So I was a little surprised this morning when the owner sent me a message to say I forgot to collect my payment. I wasn’t really expecting any for a farewell party, but no complaints!
Usually I get all the details straight beforehand, but I assumed there would be no payment from the beginning, and I was hoping they wouldn’t expect a showy performance by me because they only had one mic and when at most places I use two (vocals + guitar) and I am getting tired of playing my old songs and want to retire them, but still don't have the new songs to replace them.
As a performer you start to notice that there are always two audiences: the people who can see deep into how things work (either through experience or observation) and people who only see into the surface. Any experienced musician or performer is the former by default when it comes to performances, but there are also people who look at things as they are, without any rose colored glasses.
The fact is, how well you perform sometimes has little to do with whether people like you or not. Most people don’t know what they like, they take social cues from other people and jump on one train or another.
Some things look easy but are actually difficult and some things look difficult but are actually easy. Some things are a trade off. People usually don’t know how much effort something takes, how much bravery, how much composure. They don’t know when they are being fooled or when they are being enticed by something that lacks substance. Even the question of substance is up for debate.
Most people assume “if I can’t do it, it must be impressive” but they are often underestimating their own abilities and don’t try things themselves so they can’t assess real technical ability.
Technical ability and creative ability are two different things as well. Listen to the album “In an airplane over the sea” by Neutral Milk Hotel. The whole album is made of 2-4 chord songs with extremely simple structure. The vocalist doesn't seem to be trained...still the album is fantastic and an indie-classic. As an acoustic guitarist, I can tell you, it’s in incredibly easy to play, but as a songwriter, I can also tell you that there are very few people who can make something so simple sound so powerful and original. There are very few people who can make such a magical album.
Since value is relative and creativity is not something that can realistically be measured to any meaningful degree, people often use different indicators to figure out if they like something or not. The most common is whether or not it sticks in their head, but this is heavily influenced by exposure. If you force yourself to listen to a song you can’t understand, eventually you will likely grow some fondness and understanding for it. I discovered this many times in my life with artists like At the Drive in, Tom Waits or the above mentioned Neutral Milk Hotel.
Actually forcing myself to listen to music I don't understand is part of why my tastes are so wide-spanning. Many things can grow on you.
Sometimes it takes patience and attention to discover the brilliance in something, and most people don’t have time or energy for that. So they defer their interests to what sticks in their head or whatever their friends like because it’s easier.
I feel that to really understand your tastes, it takes digging into yourself, your motivations, your deepest fears and desires, your dreams and tendencies and what helped to shape them. It also requires letting go of expectations that anything has to be a certain way.
From there we can also see things more objectively, we are not as fooled by gimmicks and can see things as they actually are. For example, some famous musicians are actually poor musicians and poor songwriters. They rely entirely on their image and marketing, often riding on the coattails of a subculture or trend that they had very little to do with until they or their manager decided it was time for them to cash in on the craze.
There are crappy songwriters who try to cover their poor songwriting and originality with technical ability. They know that moving their hands fast along the guitar impresses people and so they practice that and only that, and it sounds cool, but it lacks originality and isn't as creative or special as it could be.
A very common thing you see around the world is a sweet voice trying to woo you in. There is absolutely nothing original or authentic about it but they sound alright and so they try to use this to impress people. As with most big industries, it matters most who you know and so it’s less about them and more about being in the right place at the right time and having the right friends.
There are other gimmicks people can rely on, using traditional or unusual instruments or blending genres in a way that hasn’t been done before. Sometimes the reason it hasn’t been done before is because it’s not easy to make it smooth and comfortable, but the gimmick can often deafen the audience to whether it’s comfortable or not. These gimmicks aren’t devoid of creativity, but sometimes they get way more attention than they deserve and sometimes the credit is given to the wrong people, the ones who copied less famous acts.
Another trick people use is reputation and association. Because they’ve worked with (insert famous name here) they must be good. Or because they are a good actor they must be a good singer. Or maybe everyone knows they aren’t a good singer but their reputation is so powerful that people will support them anyway.
You see this a lot with bands or artists that never change their style. They did something that worked once and they ride on their reputation for a decade or four, never experimenting, never growing, never challenging themselves. They just become a big name that relies on the success of their early work and the support familiarity gets in the media to make a living. They are essentially office workers on the stage.
It’s easy to fall into any of these traps as an artist and to some extent it’s understandable. They took a huge risk pursuing their dreams and it finally paid off and they don’t want to lose that. Continuing to take the risk is what differentiates a stars from the true artist though.
There is also the “untouchable” and "unattainable" nature of artists. Many people don’t know a very successful artist personally (if they know one, they likely don't know many) and so they feel that being so means they are automatically different in some way. Truth is, the successful artist was probably just a bit more obsessed with practicing guitar or painting than you were and maybe had more artists around them to give feedback or more connections to help them promote or they had a big social circle that helped their work reach further.
None of this is impossible for you. it’s just a matter of priorities. Do you care enough about creating art that you want to make it what you do? Are you brave enough to keep experimenting like David Bowie or Bjork or Radiohead, even when it means risking your career? Are you willing to balance other work in order to survive while you keep making the music you want to make instead of what you know will be popular?
As a note, I will say that I’m not THAT into David Bowie (he's just not my style), Radiohead gets old quickly (although I do love and respect them) and Bjork is incredible but I have no idea what she is trying to do with her current music, it sounds like nonsense to me. Still I respect these artists for taking risks and expressing things truly which bring me to the whole point of me writing this
I would love if more people could see through these gimmicks and patterns and look at the art for what it actually is, something created by a normal person with a purpose that we can make educated guesses at.
I would love if people could look honestly at what drives them to like something. Is it really about the art itself, or is it about fitting in? Has it come from your own exploration or was it fed to you?
Once you start digging into yourself and your taste a bit more, you may find the way you judge music, art, films, writing, and even other things in life starts to evolve.
I still go with my intuition for whether or not I like something but I always dig into the reasoning and have discovered that I can now see value in a lot of things I don’t like. Whether something is objectively good and whether I like it are two different things.
The most impressive thing to me, and a huge factor for whether or not I consider it "good" is authenticity. Whether I like it or not is up to exposure and emotional resonance. I don’t listen to much of Erykah Badu’s music but I feel the artistry and the authenticity, I see real talent and someone who is exploring sounds and emotions and I can appreciate it as such.
I try to have more demands of the art and creative works I consume. Help me to challenge myself, push me identify feelings that I didn’t recognize or see things in the world that I hadn’t noticed before.
If you can do that, I don’t care if you use the gimmick of crazy guitar solos or if you make mistakes constantly and have rough recordings. I don’t mind if you forget the words or look beautiful or hideous. I don’t care if you are popular or if nobody knows your name.
Take everything on it’s own and try to look at the whole picture rather than a single piece.
One last quick story before I go...
We recently saw our favorite Chinese band live, and the drummer was….a bit underwhelming for such a successful band. In the comments section of their live videos, there were heated debates about how embarrassing she was vs. people who either didn't notice and people think she should be supported for trying her best either way.
My feeling was that… this band is popular for the wrong reasons, but absolutely deserves their fame. They are hardly just carrying themselves on a gimmick. Yes they mix traditional and modern, electronic and instrumental in a way that could be perceived as a gimmick, but the vocals are incredible, the songwriting is incredible, the production is spot on and the energy of all 3 members is great.
First of all It’s impressive that records predominantly digital music decides to use as many live instruments as they can. Doing so is a huge risk as it exposes weaknesses....which is exactly what happened.
The drummer should probably work harder because the feeling would have been much more powerful with a steady beat, but I have no desire for her to leave and it doesn't hurt my opinion of the band or her as an artist at all. A band is a complex creature and any member leaving or joining can completely change the dynamic. Plus the three members are sisters and one of them has already been sidelined after getting in some trouble with the law. To cut another sister and make it a solo act would drastically alter the atmosphere of the band and might change things for the worse.
So I would not like to see the sisters split up because despite the poor drumming, the music is already fantastic and have no idea what kind of creative energy that sister adds to the group, so I have nothing to say other than that I hope she keeps practicing. I'd still like to buy a record.
Last night, I forgive myself for not sounding my best, not because the audience didn’t care (they didn’t even notice), but because I only had one mic and I was exhausted. I don’t take the fact that they liked it as a sign that so should like it, because some of them probably just liked my sweater (3 people commented on it 😆), it just is what it is. It was a decent performance and I can do better.
I try to asses everything for what it is, without any bias and to improve upon what I can while appreciating whatever I can.
Like this post….I was a bit ranty and didn't really cover the whole scope of ideas that I wanted to cover, but if you read this far, I truly appreciate you and would love to hear your thoughts.
Oh and if you want to hear my music (and I have no right to criticize anyone for making mistakes!) here is a rough demo of one of my favorite songs:
If you are interested in blogging here and earning some change while sharing ideas and making friends, send me a message on Instagram or Twitter (@ ipluseverything)
ブログで自分の思っていることをシェアしながら小銭を溜まったり新しい友達をできたりすることは興味あれば、InstagramやTwitter（@ipluseverything）でメッセージを送ってください。 英語のオンラインレッスンの興味ある人もどうぞ、メッセージをください^_^
Novels/music/merch/social media/patreon:
https://linktr.ee/selfhelp4trolls
Untangled Knots podcast:
Japanese Upbringing Explained (interview my Japanese student)
Join us in the Deep shitdiscord channel to talk about deep shit, art and culture differences
Confessions of the Damaged 1.1-1.3 on Amazon
Posted Using InLeo Alpha
Posted Using InLeo Alpha
