Instead of writing an article of my own concepts regarding this question, I posed it to Artists. The following are a few responses that I picked out among about fifty responses.
“I think as a musician, I NEED to be heard, not just want. How else can you determine if what you are doing is worthy of the time you invest?
It gives me the drive to continue when another human being says “That sounds good.” Especially when it comes from another musician. To be appreciated by one’s peers is an endorsement of the highest value. Not to minimize the opinions of non-musicians, they listen from another perspective. Less technical perhaps, but more personal. Two different views.
A fellow musician is more likely to analyze the song structure and mechanical abilities of the players, and possibly offer alternative ideas to take the song to another level.
A non-musician might simply say “I like it” or “It sucks.”
Both forms of feedback are valuable in developing musical ideas. You can’t get any feedback at all if you can’t get heard.
Of course, I play because I enjoy it as well. Kinda like baseball, it’s fun, it’s good exercise, but it’s even better when there are people cheering you on.”
Johnny of Wild Goose Chasers
“A musician wants to be heard just as a painter wants his paintings to be seen.
A painter’s work may hang in a gallery for years until one person, that sees what no other person has seen before, appreciates it for what the artist was trying to express.
A musician tries to express a feeling or an idea that means something to them, and hopes that someone that hears it has the same impression.
It’s an attempt at communication and understanding. ”
Van of Gunsight
“I want to be heard, because I have something to say, and what I have to say is different from what many other songwriters/musicians have to say. You may not like what I have to say, you may not even like the way that I say it, but I WILL say, lyrically and musically.” Shaky Tee
“I write my best music and lyrics when I’m angry. It’s good therapy.
I want to share a small part of myself with this world. Music, writing, and other creative pursuits are ways to leave your mark . . . so your existence doesn’t go unnoticed on planet earth”
Shauna Skye
“I feel like being heard is a certain level of validation for the creation. Whether I’m at a party and someone asks me to drop some guitar and sing or if I’m at a club and hear one of our tracks blowing up the dance floor, there’s a certain validation in the creation. I don’t ‘need’ it, I enjoy the process of creating music, but it’s really nice to see others appreciate the work I’ve done. Personally, there is nothing greater than playing live or hearing our music in clubs and seeing people enjoy that, I think that’s what drives the creation of music, getting it on aurally with someone else. It’s amazing.”
N.R.K. of Over
“I want people to know who Nina is and to get those nice fan emails.
It’s also great if I could earn my living on it. But I guess that’s a utopia these days.”
Nina Goddess of Dance
“music is meant to be shared. It’s a language that can be understood by most of the creatures on this planet. Something gets lost when others beside the creators can’t hear it.
Ted Lehman
“A world vision. A united view. A better and more peaceful environment. Harmony.
If a journey begins with but one step, the first step is telling people. Music is the media chosen in this instance. If you could point to the problems of the world, smile at the beauty, and get other people to see through the same lens that you do, be it a telescope or a fly’s compound eye, allowing the differences that make the world rotate, then the first step is taken.
Thousands of perspectives, some skewed. Take a step back. Look at yourself, your neighbor, your history examine minutiae and macronic. Find the common threads. Use the disparate threads to build a tapestry, a blanket to wrap the planet in safety.
But someone has to step up and say LOOK FROM HERE. See the whole thing. Through these eyes, through those eyes.
Eventually, perhaps, through the sheer power of concentrated will and determination, eyes open. You look through my glasses, I through yours, and understanding is born.
Soon that initial voice becomes the dominant one of tolerance.
The step towards world domination.
For years we have been performing and assembling lyrics for an album to say “Take a step back. Look at it this way. Isn’t this a problem? Isn’t this a point of view? Can’t you allow for this other point of view?”
Sooner or later, you take a step back and see it all in the glory of its diversity and totalitarity. You ‘ll sit back from far away and say “Hey, what am I doing on the moon?” and you’ll be amazed at what you can see.
And that’s why the title of the next THFTR album is “Hey, What Am I Doing On The Moon” and how every song, from silly to serious deals with perception and viewing a problem from a new angle. A concept album about looking at things differently through wordplay, understanding, examination and compassion. World problems, relationship problems … step back and see the whole picture. Is everyone in the world too blind to really see past their own agenda?
Geo aka Paul DeSantos
“It is the Artist’s mission to communicate…to reach the “feeling nature”…inspire,uplift,illuminate…reflect and interpret the times in which we live.
Performing,writing,singing is what I do best..The best I have to give…to others…to myself..”
Patti Sterling
Why Do We Want Our Music To Be Heard?
“Great question Phil…
I myself couldn’t care less about having my music heard.
Because the Internet was going to be the leveling of the playing
fields for Indies I think I felt that it would be a great idea to
expose my work to thousands of listeners. Then I got heavy into this
time management thing. I looked very heavily at the time spent to
reward received and posting tons of music on millions of ODM’s proved
to be a huge waste of time.
I’m sorry if this offends someone, but the facts are the facts.
You simply can’t eat “great songs”.
I have been voted one of the 12 best unsigned guitarists by Guitar9
mag. and I have had tons of great reviews and all this has equaled
little more then a pat on the back.
I fully understand the fact that we play music because it makes us
feel good, it takes us to a special place, etc..But my real issue is
the fact that we spend all this time making music, recording,
rehearsing, practicing, mixing, and making a CD only to have nobody
buy them! When does it turn around? We want to be heard, but we also
need to be “owned” and the fact that folks are so caught up in getting
heard that they forgot the other part.
Owned, means that folks are purchasing your CD’s, not signed to a
label.
I didn’t mean to make this a negative vibe..I just feel that we must
have a reward beyond a good review to show for our hard work.
If we spend all this time with the goal of just “getting heard” we
will eventually loss interest in recording music to disc because it
is not worth the effort and plenty of great music will be forever lost
(just like the 50+ songs I have unreleased).
Well, that’s just my opinion, how about others to help me see the way
here?”
Bend’em Don’t Break’em
Charlie Harelson
“Most of what I write is either subtly or blatantly political and my main
reason for wanting to be heard is to shake people out of their apathy and
start seeing some of the real problems that hide behind such masks as
anti-smoking campaigns and other bandwagon legislation designed to get
folks concentrating on specific, unimportant issues rather than taking a
close and informed look at the whole picture.
The highest compliment you can pay me after hearing one of my songs is “Man,
that made me think.” I don’t even care if you agree with me, that’s not the
point.
We have a president who bought and bribed his way into the White House, a
Supreme Court that allowed this to happen, and a citizenry that still, in
spite of these unarguable facts, favor him in the polls. And that’s just
the surface of the political corruption that we allow to continue by doing
nothing.
I just want people to think and I believe they will be more inclined to
think if you come in through the back door with your message disguised as an
entertainer. *g*
Then, too, I want people to hear my music because I created it for them . .
. For all of them . . . and in the creation, found some joy and peace along
the way.”
Jef Peace
“I want my music to be heard for 3 precise reasons:
1. To help my Daughter
2. To bring a feeling to someone else, whatever that feeling is they may want
and
3. Because I like the stuff I write
As for the being judged part, I do not really care what people say. if
they like it great. If they do not, oh well.
Does everyone else suck except for me? Yes most do 😉
I only care about the people that actually DO like my music. For those who do
not….there are many more artists who they can listen to.”
MARK.
“Wow, what a question. I’ve been staring at it on the screen and
thought it best to take a day to reflect on it so as to be accurate,
though I doubt if many other than my close circle of friends here at
Ev;or would truely give a shit anyhow.
My music drives me to the point of obsession. I spend endless hours
through the night working on music that probably will never be heard
except through these portals of the web. It is everything, personal,
political, social, antisocial, my music pushes me where it would
have me go. I do not feel so much in control of it these days as it
is in control of me, and as to why I would share this, well, you
asked the question.
In my day to day life I feel like many do I’m sure, lost in an
endless race of a madman to nowhere.
The day to day grind to make
money to pay the bills, feed & clothe the kids, to be productive at
work, to stay atop the heap while it feels as if it slowly pulls you
down.
There is only one escape for a middle class working stiff such as
myself, that is the music. If I wasn’t making it, I’d be listening to
it, but somehow in the making of it I have found a way of release
that has become essential to my mental health.
In song I can be anything, the lover, the serial killer, the
thrashing guitar, the flute as it passes on a breeze. I can
experience every emotion and feeling I can imagine and play it out
from the safety of a private studio.
Though as many musicians go I know that I am an egotist, it is also
through this creation process of the song that I gain my identity in
a world that many days I feel lost in a faded grey of the masses.
It brings my life into Technicolor, and I wish only for it to play on
and on until my heart beats it’s last thump, for I am a musician, and
this is what I do and what I am.”
Neal Allen
SouthernLogic
