Music Is Subjective, So Love Everything You Make

Name your absolute favorite song. I'm not talking about just a good banger, I'm talking about the song that when you're feeling like you're in the worst place of your life, or in the best situation you've ever been in, you immediately hop in your car and blast that song on full volume. Maybe you're sobbing uncontrollably, or maybe the smile is so big on your face that it becomes truly painful. You know every little nook and cranny of it, exactly when the snare hits before the big chorus or the seemingly impossible vocal run that you've learned to master. Think of that song and how much you love it. How deeply you resonate with it. Sit there for a second basking in that moment.

There is a person, maybe across the world, maybe sitting next to you...who absolutely DESPISES that song.

They look at it and think: "How can anyone like this absolute filth?". They can list off reason after reason of why that song is trash. Sometimes the reasons they list off are the exact reasons why you love that song.

How weird is that?

That someone can love a piece of sonic art so deeply and so profoundly, and the next person can see it as something so worthless?

This is music. This is sound. This is recording and creation and writing and media and everything in between and outside. Sometimes when you look at that juxtaposition, it can feel really demoralizing. Have you ever written a song or a part, or created some type of art that you felt really connected to and proud of, but when you showed it to someone else, all they had were criticisms and ideas on how to make it "better"?

It's a weird world to live in, our artist's world. Sometimes it is equated to a mythical construct where all of it is so beyond our understanding that it isn't even worth it to analyze but instead just a reason and rhyme to experience. Other times...it's equated to mathematics. Objective right and wrong. This version is good, this version is bad.

As musicians, we will forever be subjected to this battle. Making music (and even more specifically, sharing our music) is intrinsically connected with feedback and analysis. This can be potentially destructive especially if you are a newer musician or someone who can be particularly self-critical. And if you collaborate with other musicians often like in bands or recording engineers, the feedback only multiplies.

It's important, I believe wholeheartedly, to be diligent in understanding that everything about it is subjective. Everything. No seriously, everything. From the way lyrics are written to the type of guitar strings to the EQ in a mix to the notes used in the keyboard riff to the way it is posted on social media. If people have the means to share their opinion, they will. I can't tell you how much I am approached with the sentence "You know what you should do...".

In a way, they are right: YOU know what you should do. You only need to believe in yourself and your vision and your feelings, and it will be exactly what it needs to be...whatever the "it" is.

The trick is to open your mind and strengthen your will. All feedback usually comes from a good place; they want you to succeed or be "good" (at least how they envision what "good" is). But really, it is up to YOU what needs to be done. If someone shares a piece of advice for you, and you hear it and feel connected to it, then follow your heart. However, lose the grip that exterior opinion has on your art. No matter what you put out there, someone is going to love it so powerfully enough to get a tattoo of it on their body, and the next person is going to do everything they can to convince as many people as they can that it is the worst thing created by humanity.

Let today be the day where you unshackle the chains that criticism has on your music. Pump up that EQ where you're not "supposed" to, use the chord you like that doesn't fit the typical pattern, do whatever it is that you feel connected to. And when the responses come in, live as fully into who you are as you can.

What's the worst that can happen? You made something that someone (even if it's one person) will love. That's worth the entire world.

Good luck out there, I believe in you.