With a tag that reads “Exploring The Art of Making Authentic Music Through The Acquisition of Money, Power, and Respect” you can expect plenty of the topics to be straightforward.
Exploring The Art Of Making Authentic Music
There’s obviously 3 different focuses that should contribute to the art of making authentic music.
Money: One Of The Main Forms of Validation
Money is seen as one of the main forms of validation when it comes to authentic music, just to put it plainly.
But when you look at music as being a Social project (so to speak) that connects different pieces together that will continually produce as much (as the source being the artist) is able to produce.
It’s something where it becomes a social Growth experiment in a way where one of the key ingredients that you will need to have your music taken seriously is money.
Money is one of the main forms of social status that shows you are worth listening to.
There’s so many people that are looking to get more money out of life. And in many cases, they’re looking for that to be done through a form of entertainment, in this case, being music.
In some cases, music is taken more seriously to where it’s not even as entertaining as it is informative.
But Either way the case goes, Money ends up justifying why many people will tend to listen to you as the artist.
And it’s one thing to just show that you popped up with a bunch of money, but It becomes a lot deeper and more validating when you are able to Produce it for business.
You’re able to show that you have a bunch of money available to be spent on different business ventures. This ends up being another thing that will attract more business your way because you are in a position to where you can invest and convert a traditional form of Money (or paycheck, whatever it is) that you would get paid with a traditional W-4 or what have you, It becomes highly anticipated.
To see how you plan on having the money that you are showing currently, being able to get produced and put to use in other capacities that will draw more business and get more deals going.
The money that you have Ends up being a form of validation too, because of the emotional attachments that you are able to exploit and manipulate in some ways.
It’s where when you have a bunch of money, you can control a lot of emotions of the people that are around you.
And it’s interesting how that works, but money is contagious with its effects. You could show you have a lot going for you, so more people will gravitate towards how you are feeling when they are around you, or you might be in a position where that’s the opposite effect.
Because you don’t have as much money, you are really a drag and many people, get exhausted hanging around you and it becomes less fun and more of a chore than it has to be. There’s a few dangers actually associated with The need to be financially validated.
If your money is the only thing that shows that you are worthy of attention, It becomes very misleading in a way where The money is a means and it’s not an end, idealistically speaking.
Just because you have a bunch of money doesn’t mean anything if you’re not doing anything to Put it in other places and have it serve purposes Other than just sitting in your pocket.
The metric that might be misread or misled is how much you actually have.
There’s people that may dress out of their wage that doesn’t match what it is that they actually own as far as income or assets are concerned.
It might even be a case where you might not actually be as happy as many would believe someone that has the amount of money you earn or have currently would be the case. Works the same in reverse too.
And the other issue with financial validation, that that could stem from it (Which is important to remember) is The fact that your self-esteem could dwindle as a result too. If you continuously lead with your money, There’s not a guarantee that you’re going to feel the same way all the time.
Especially if you don’t have it in secure enough assets to where you completely feel as if you always have money.
And if you are someone that gets it in a freelance position for example, where there’s not really much of a telltale sign of when you will get paid, it can be a very unstable mood that you have and that can be a social Killer in a way.
It could be where you don’t have many reliable friends or people that are willing to be with you because you are so unpredictable in characteristics, especially when it comes to finances.
Power: The People Makes Music Worth Listening To
Power is another acquisition in music that makes it much easier to create a genuine sound that’s universally appreciated. Ideally, it should be seen as where people are what makes the music worth listening to.
Your power when you are creating it is through the people that you are speaking about, speaking to, and everyone that directly influences your life as an artist or musician. The reason people make music more real is because these are going to be real emotions that you yourself are going to be dealing with and making songs about.
Because you are attempting to share the gift of being able to relay these different feelings that you go through and share that vulnerability, it becomes a worthy challenge that, if answered to and done correctly, ends up being highly praised and credited.
But the people who influence your music, and your appreciation for the power that others in music hold, also come from history. These are people that might have arrived at different points in your life that only add to what your chapter is. And there might be others that appreciate this chapter that you are willing to finally speak about.
History in itself places context and provides more understood meaning behind the things that you say because other people are going to be able to draw different parallels and connect dots in places that might not even have been there when you, yourself, as the artist, were trying to articulate your thoughts or share them.
The people also make it real because of the empathy that’s shown. You personally, with the ones that positively support you and have your back through everything that you create, understand that they feel you and get where you’re coming from, even if they haven’t directly experienced what it is that you’re speaking to.
It’s the same as how you would appreciate another artist that you might not have met directly or can say that you know well. You are still able to exercise empathy, which isn’t shown to everybody. It can’t be done with everybody that you end up meeting in life.
But the music connects us, too. Through group bonding, most social settings involve music. Because of that, it sometimes ends up being the force field in a way, something like a gate that, once passed through, allows everyone who accepts it to become part of the moment that we’re experiencing together. It becomes a group-bonding experience where everybody is learning to embrace what is being shared.
However the music is being played, whether that’s out loud through speakers for a dance party or being mixed in with a film that’s supposed to capture a specific scene correctly, it ends up being another group-bonding experience that music can potentially create.
That speaks to the power in itself of how much music can influence and drive people to do things that wouldn’t have been done without it.
It also works because of its universal language. There are several things that go into music that can be appreciated regardless of the genre we’re speaking about. Whether that is someone who appreciates someone playing a guitar really well or the drums at a pace that they like themselves, the things that we appreciate with music vary.
But because music is still scarce in a way, it is universal in how it speaks to us. There aren’t a whole lot of different things just yet to where you aren’t sure about certain capacities of music. You have probably gotten to the point where you’ve heard enough and can group and categorize them safely enough to figure out what it is that you like.
Even if you’re not too sure of what it is that you like about what you’re hearing yet, you can still be sure that you are likely going to like what you’re getting out of the music.
And the last point that has to be mentioned with the power that music holds is that it is highly therapeutic in the way that it heals us. It does things that make us feel better about things that we ourselves might not have spoken about too much, or things that we hear constantly but aren’t explained well.
However, it is in the music that we choose to listen to or create. This is, again, where the type of power music holds can make you feel better about yourself or the situation you’re going through or going through with somebody because of what the music is doing.
Whether it’s an encouraging feeling or an opportunity for understanding that you can appreciate, all of these positive feelings that I’m speaking to are forms of power that, if harnessed correctly, can do serious things throughout the whole world.
Respect: Acquiring The Feeling of Worth Internally
I’ll be clear in admitting that I’m speaking mainly from theory, but there are some personal accounts that I am able to back up with what I understand about acquiring respect, especially as a musician. The best way to go about it, so far, based on what I’ve gotten out of it, is clarifying your values.
If you’re clear in this regard, you will be respected for the greater good. It might not be as immediate, but when you clarify your values, you’re making it very clear where you stand in terms of the things that drive and motivate you as a person.
These are things that, whether people want to admit it or not, they care to get out of an artist that they are going to be investing plenty of time and money in.
On top of your values being clarified is aligning your daily actions. Because you’re going to be making music, it’s going to be a demanding thing that will call for you to put several days together that are consistent for the most part. Even if they’re inconsistent, the way you deal with them should be consistent.
Those daily actions can fluctuate depending on what stage of your artistry you’re in. But figuring out a way to align them and make sense of them toward what your bigger goal is, whether you attain it or not, ends up garnering the respect that is going to be needed just to make authentic music.
You don’t have to be the person with the most respect out of everyone in the entire world all the time, but if you have enough and are able to work with that, it can be leveraged.
Putting one day together and making it well with the next ends up creating a great week, then eventually a month, then a year, and ultimately a life if you can string it all together that way.
Respect also happens from setting firm boundaries. These can go closely with your values, but your boundaries are simply letting people know where your line is.
There are a lot of people who don’t know where theirs is, and they seek understanding and guidance in that capacity from people of all walks of life. That does not exclude musicians of any sort.
Being able to let others know what your boundaries are makes it clear what is acceptable for you and what isn’t. That can be important for you personally as an artist if you’re someone reading this and aren’t sure how you have to conduct yourself in order to at least maintain longevity from a career standpoint.
It’s about having these boundaries in place and letting people know what your price is, in a way. On top of the other corporations and businesses that would be looking to partner with you, you also want to be able to have that relayed to your audience as well.
And it’s going to show what your boundaries are. Things won’t even have to be explained by you because the way you conduct yourself and carry yourself will communicate those boundaries. There are going to be limits that you will reach and some spots that will be understood as places you don’t go toward. It might be understood and sometimes it might not, but as long as you are aware of them yourself and are able to set them in place, you’re going to do great in terms of having more respect.
On top of that is doing something with self-compassion. Being able to have self-compassion will allow you to at least make mistakes and move forward. It might not even be the best thing to say that it’s a mistake, but rather to take risks and be okay enough with the outcome to where, whatever happens, you’re able to move forward and continue your artistry.
In this case, musically speaking, being able to practice that actively is inspiring in its own way. Being able to show others that you can do self-reflection to a point where you can get real progress out of the process can increase your respect as well, because people understand that you respect yourself in that way.
The more you can show what you can do for yourself, it doubles and triples-folds to levels where others will give you what you give yourself and more. The respect game just continues to go on as you also come to grips with perfection and its relationship to you.
A lot of what you’re looking to get is what you are giving to yourself, and the same goes with perfection. You’re not going to have an audience that will demand you be 100% perfect all the time and always have hits without any misses if you don’t treat yourself and your expectations the same way.
As long as you’re understanding that there are things that you’re going to be able to throw in the trash bin, so to speak, or have a throwaway tape or project, and realize that this one body of work might not necessarily define you as a musician or what your true capabilities are, you get respect out of that, too.
People are going to be more informed or aware that you are self-aware, and that is just another thing to be respected because people don’t always have to explain things to you about yourself that they feel you should probably know.
And last is the self-talk—the way that you approach yourself and how you speak to yourself. When you address yourself and the way that you talk, you have others notice the way that you speak to them in many situations. It becomes more clear that this is also the way that you feel about yourself.
Getting to where you can stop the negative part of self-talk ends up being something that increases your respect, too, because you are going to be doing things that will grow you as a person. There’s a genuineness that is going to be manifested just from cutting that out.
Once you stop negative self-talk, it’s going to allow the door for more positive things to be done. Whether you’re not saying it to yourself directly, at least in the beginning, the more you’re saying it about others, it eventually gets to where you are able to speak that way about yourself because you’ve earned that capacity and the right to speak positively about yourself.
But sometimes, stopping the negative is what’s going to encourage a better form of the positive.