There are two kinds of people who make music nowadays

[mellotronaut]

i do it for the cats

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

i do it for the cats

perhaps you misunderstood when you were told to do music for pussy

[jancivil]

I make music to get laid.

Seriously, I think everyone ultimately makes music out of a desire to communicate, to be seen and heard, and to receive attention. Whether it's the bedroom crowd or the O2 arena, that's what it's about. I don't buy this idealistic "I have a drive to create" thing, which is somehow designed to make you feel superior to vacuous, superficial chart toppers.

"designed to make you feel superior to vacuous, superficial chart toppers' is pretty loaded, is it not? I think you have stated an inferior in the latter clause. I would admit to feeling superior to 'vacuous and superficial' kind of as a matter of course because of my 'deeper' interest.

I felt an impulse to drumming when I was pretty young. My father enjoyed that as something we shared and encouraged it, but it is not founded_in other people for me.
I received positive feedback from 'society' until I didn't.

What would you say about Varese, who dropped completely out of the game of being a composer for a couple decades? Even making statements against it. Made music very few people ever appreciated. Ives, whose profession was insurance in order to not give a shit about commerciality and whose vocabulary as a young man was far ahead of the avant-garde even.

It isn't 'idealistic', it is what it is. I have ideas knocking around in my head, they don't stop. They do not arrive as impulses to take me to another person and you won't see me doing it. I would prefer recognition to naught, and as I said the other day, there is no person unto themselves, there are a lot of people in anyone's head, but it really is its own drive.

I would say as per the OP, there are two basic areas, people that are interested first of all in music qua music, and people that are interested first of all in the approbation of others.
I would say the person that wants that instant result, and before they ever made beats with their hand must 'make beats' and buy loop packs in order to act like they did, in order TO SHOW, fall into this second area.

[mellotronaut]

i do it for the cats

perhaps you misunderstood when you were told to do music for pussy

yes, i was sooo confused and now i live it.

[CableChannel]

I do it for the synth coders, so they can sell their products to someone.

[Hink]

well by now everyone should know how I feel, I am not a busician and money is not a good motivator for me. But I wasn't always this way, I like so many others had dreams of grandeur, puking out of tour buses, overdoses, rehab, you know that sort of stuff. Now it's like vurt said, I really do not know any other way. Before I had such rock star dreams I was still always pursuing music in one way or another and started playing my first instrument before such dreams began.

In the song "A year or a Day" by Uriah Heap there is a line Young man cried the old man
There is victory in staying alive and now I understand what success really is and there are no dollars signs to be seen for me (at least not incoming, plenty of out going). I look around and see my peers from my youth, my contemporaries from today and I really there is victory in keeping the drive

[Hink]

I make music to get laid. That's why I started playing guitar, even though keyboards are my main instrument. Keyboarders never get laid, and playing those pseudo-guitar strap-on keyboards just makes you seem desperate. Don't get me started on hiding behind a laptop.


Seriously, I think everyone ultimately makes music out of a desire to communicate, to be seen and heard, and to receive attention. Whether it's the bedroom crowd or the O2 arena, that's what it's about. I don't buy this idealistic "I have a drive to create" thing, which is somehow designed to make you feel superior to vacuous, superficial chart toppers. We're all the same, we want to receive acknowledgement for what we do.

That said, there can be an artistic motive in there, as well. Art, of course, is what you want it to be, and I want art to be the attempt to create something that is a true reflection of yourself. Which is easy as pie and hard as hell, because "all you need to do" is to be honest with yourself and not stand in the way of your self-expression. "Wanting riches and fame" is most certainly something that gets in the way of self-expression, as well as "make something complicated for complexity's sake", or the popular "I want to sound like DJ X or Jimmy Page".

So there's music, and there's art, and when the twain meet, the heavens rejoice.

Er, what was the question?

just curious, as much as we change as we grow do you think that perhaps the motivation for something like making music might change as well? I'm not disagreeing but I'm not agreeing either. I think a lot of people fit your generalization at one point or another but I also think that we evolve, we grow, we see things different...we mature.

Do we still like to share our music? Yes, but that does not mean it is the primary reason behind it. I have HD's full of stuff the world will never hear but even more important are the many, many hours of playing I do that does not get recorded at all. At one point in my life this was called practicing but now it's more often just because it brings peace to my heart and soul. The amount of completed songs I have over the years bares this out quite well I think. It certainly has nothing to do with being designed to make you feel superior to vacuous, superficial chart toppers.

I'm mean no offense by this, but you simply do not know me well enough to make such an assumption about me and when you say everyone that means me too. Those who do know me deeply would know it is the exact opposite and tbh that has been one of, if not the biggest, obstacles in my life and I am not just talking music.

[trimph1]

Or pusic....

[cryophonik]

There ARE two types of musicians, but the OP got it wrong: those who make EDM, and those who complain about EDM.

[ariston]

I'm mean no offense by this, but you simply do not know me well enough to make such an assumption about me and when you say everyone that means me too. Those who do know me deeply would know it is the exact opposite and tbh that has been one of, if not the biggest, obstacles in my life and I am not just talking music.

Well, that's why I clearly put "I think" in there. I'm taking a psychological perspective, basically assuming that you can't not communicate, as Watzlawick put it. Making music that doesn't get heard is a way of communicating, as well. You're just saying different things about your music (and yourself) than if you were performing it for people.

"I don't care what other people think about my music" - I might believe this sentence if it came from a truly enlightened person, but I haven't met one so far. Humans, especially intelligent ones, are great at rationalizing their actions, but rationalizations shouldn't be confused with the real motivations behind those actions.

[Tricky-Loops]

"I don't care what other people think about my music" - I might believe this sentence if it came from a truly enlightened person, but I haven't met one so far. Humans, especially intelligent ones, are great at rationalizing their actions, but rationalizations shouldn't be confused with the real motivations behind those actions.

I sincerely doubt that truly enlightened persons were making music without any motivation, only to fill up their hard disk...

[V0RT3X]

Seeing how i have barely any formal music training, I find it hard to identify myself as a musician because I always figured that a trained musician approaches his craft like any other well honed craft.

I figure that a lot of the better musicians have their song organized and structured with all the proper elements taken from theory that help them memorize their work, which allows them to take pride in how much thought they put into it. I mean it's like a trained painter versus a paint by numbers approach in my opinion, so I think the trained painter gets much more joy out of it since they took the time to study and practice throughout the years the fundamentals of their craft.

People who work with premade loops and learn tricks via magazines like CM might have "fun" but I think it's no different than playing a video game in many regards. You can learn a bunch of "methods" on how to mimic (insert famous muso here) from a magazine or video tutorial but in order to really follow in their footsteps i think you should start where they did and practice like they did.

I have learned a lot technically about the different tools that are available to me now throughout the years, and i am understanding more about how they work and how i can use them. I feel that I am just kind of getting on the proper band wagon now, and that will only be felt more so after I have a good understanding of musical theory under my belt in which to apply to my music.

Hopefully this opinion won't offend anyone, but this is how I feel about it after about ten years of "messing around with computer music"

[V0RT3X]

I should point out that there is the rare person who is naturally gifted with melody such as Vangelis and HZ.. but I think most have to work really hard.

[Hink]

I'm mean no offense by this, but you simply do not know me well enough to make such an assumption about me and when you say everyone that means me too. Those who do know me deeply would know it is the exact opposite and tbh that has been one of, if not the biggest, obstacles in my life and I am not just talking music.

Well, that's why I clearly put "I think" in there. I'm taking a psychological perspective, basically assuming that you can't not communicate, as Watzlawick put it. Making music that doesn't get heard is a way of communicating, as well. You're just saying different things about your music (and yourself) than if you were performing it for people.

"I don't care what other people think about my music" - I might believe this sentence if it came from a truly enlightened person, but I haven't met one so far. Humans, especially intelligent ones, are great at rationalizing their actions, but rationalizations shouldn't be confused with the real motivations behind those actions.

I often hear the younger generation (and I was the same way) saying "I dont care what people think" as if that is something to be proud of. Caring what people think is human nature and forme it's part of pride. I think it's hard for you to speak to the motivations of others and that motivation should change as we grow. I just simply cannot agree that the single basic motivation common to everyone is to impress others.

Whether you care to believe this or not matters not, but if you come to my house what you wont hear is me playing. If we went into my studio I would hand my guitar to you, I would do my best to play as little as I could and this has played out several times over the years. I seriously am not comfortable in those situations, the last time I was doing anything close to performing was in 2000 while working at a music store and we had a jam party with all the employees. As a salesman sometimes I would have to play but that would be showing the instrument or amp's capability, not mine (but tbh I was not even in the guitar department and for that reason).

If someone asks to hear my music they can, but that does not motivate me. Hell my ridiculously low page hits proves that, if I get one hit a day I'm surprised but if I get none a day I would not stop. Posting music online gives my music a final destination and a reason to finish songs.

I do indeed care about what people think about my music, but that does not mean it's ego based. Again at one time it was but now it's based in peace and growth for the most part with sharing second. You could say I do indeed care less about whether people like my music or not and that seems to be a trend for me. A good example of this is it was 8 years between me finishing songs, that song I finished has a file size of around 34gig and over 2000 guitar takes alone. But I did play parts of it for others to hear their comments for the sake additional input (one drawback to being alone)

Finishing songs is not about showing them off, it goes far deeper than that, it's about finishing things I start and the positives I gain from that in my life. (from my psychological perspective) So much for my primary motivation being impressing others, but I assure you over those eight years there was plenty of life giving peace to my heart and soul from playing with my headphones on, my guitar going into an attenuator and then to an iso cab doing the very best to make sure no one hears me. I will gain more of what I seek from my playing when no one can hear me and that is when I am the most comfortable. FWIW, trust me I am not alone, KvR has a lot of people like me.

Maybe we're just the exception to your rule

[jancivil]

you can't not communicate

I agree.

"I don't care what other people think about my music" - I might believe this sentence if it came from a truly enlightened person, but I haven't met one so far. Humans, especially intelligent ones, are great at rationalizing their actions, but rationalizations shouldn't be confused with the real motivations behind those actions.

For me both of these statements really overreach. I don't care what most people think about my music, because most people are musically stupid. If you don't believe me, I don't care really about that either.

The real motivation for me is to make things I want to hear, and build my own musical muscle by it. I don't think it has to be 'original' in some big way, it's built on what came before quite obviously, but it isn't about someone else's approval. When I was 14 my father's approval was a vanishing aspect of it, even. There are definitely people that should they talk shit about my music, my view is 'given what you do think is good, I'm quite happy you hate this'.