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"Your main motivation should be fun and enjoyment of making the music." On principle I agree with this. Tracks made following a tick list of successful tropes

"Your main motivation should be fun and enjoyment of making the music." On principle I agree with this. Tracks made following a tick list of successful tropes with an eye on getting released are liable to be highly forgettable. Having said that, as someone who tinkered a bit with production some twenty many years ago before lapsing, and tinkering and lapsing once again a couple of years ago, I would argue that some form of shared community outlet is essential in persisting and making something of greater merit. I tend to think that the best music is emergent from real-life communities: people, time, place, culture, politics. That is, communities that have an aesthetic and reason for being that goes far beyond, say, craving new synths after watching youtube reviews. Music that is not performed and shared, ever, is somehow stillborn. Fun and enjoyment come from the attribution of meaning, and to me, meaning ultimately comes from real human context. I feel that the lack of this killed my desire to keep making it and improving. It was just an expensive way of shouting into the void.

drawqrtz 5y ago
If you are playing for an audience (can be tiny too!) you will always be much more motivated to produce quality and improve your skills. That being said it can also put pressure on you to the point where you also lose your joy due to stress. I guess some middle ground can be found but as with everything that is easier said than done.
joeberon 5y ago
> Having said that, as someone who tinkered a bit with production some twenty many years ago before lapsing, and tinkering and lapsing once again a couple of years ago, I would argue that some form of shared community outlet is essential in persisting and making something of greater merit. Still most of your time with music will be solitary. If you accept that, anything social is just a bonus. > Music that is not performed and shared, ever, is somehow stillborn. Fun and enjoyment come from the attribution of meaning, and to me, meaning ultimately comes from real human context. I feel that the lack of this killed my desire to keep making it and improving. It was just an expensive way of shouting into the void. Well you basically just proved my whole point here. You stopped making music because you weren't happy doing it alone. Learn to be totally content doing it alone, and you won't have this issue. It is possible, because I was stuck in your situation for a long time, and thought myself that music was pointless if not socially shared. I realise now that it just isn't true, and in fact that mindset puts huge pressure on yourself and indeed on the community around you. It is possible to enjoy making music without the need for social reinforcement.

drawqrtz 5y ago

If you are playing for an audience (can be tiny too!) you will always be much more motivated to produce quality and improve your skills. That being said it can also put pressure on you to the point where you also lose your joy due to stress. I guess some middle ground can be found but as with everything that is easier said than done.

joeberon 5y ago

> Having said that, as someone who tinkered a bit with production some twenty many years ago before lapsing, and tinkering and lapsing once again a couple of years ago, I would argue that some form of shared community outlet is essential in persisting and making something of greater merit. Still most of your time with music will be solitary. If you accept that, anything social is just a bonus. > Music that is not performed and shared, ever, is somehow stillborn. Fun and enjoyment come from the attribution of meaning, and to me, meaning ultimately comes from real human context. I feel that the lack of this killed my desire to keep making it and improving. It was just an expensive way of shouting into the void. Well you basically just proved my whole point here. You stopped making music because you weren't happy doing it alone. Learn to be totally content doing it alone, and you won't have this issue. It is possible, because I was stuck in your situation for a long time, and thought myself that music was pointless if not socially shared. I realise now that it just isn't true, and in fact that mindset puts huge pressure on yourself and indeed on the community around you. It is possible to enjoy making music without the need for social reinforcement.