My blog has been very centered around beauty the last few weeks and so I wanted to write about something that has been bothering me a lot for a very long time. Some of you may be aware that I am an aspiring musician and that I post regular YouTube videos of covers and original material etc.
I spend about 2+ hours every night working on new material which I make sure I fit in around my school work and family life because it's important to me. I can do a lot more at the weekends and, despite being in a dry spell right now in terms of gigging, I usually play at least 1 gig a month if not a lot more. I've been on half term this week so I've dedicated a lot of my time to learning a new cover which I posted on Friday. I am constantly writing lyrics and looking out for new songs to cover. It is always on my mind what I am going to do next and how I can improve. I play acoustic guitar and I'm learning keyboard and baritone ukulele. I try to pay close attention to other musicians around me that I know and whose music I enjoy because you can learn from those people and pick up new skills which is vital. I think that I work extremely hard on everything I do and I'm always thankful for all the support I get which is usually about 100-200 views per video. Don't get me wrong, I am amazed that my covers get viewed that much. It is only disappointing me because of how much effort I have to put in to push these videos to get more than 10 views when other 'musicians' who put in minimal effort can effortlessly get 1000's of views in minutes.
Allow me to elaborate before you assume I am ungrateful and jealous - which may just be true. The kind of musical videos that get hundreds of thousands of views are always the ones with the fancy video editing. You can spend ridiculous amounts of money on software that allows you to edit out the parts of a track you recorded that don't sound right and redo them without having to redo the whole song. You can also have multiple camera angles to show off your fancy setting that you chose to film in. You can even auto tune the cover so that it sounds perfect and there's no fault in your voice. I hate to be so general here but when I watch these videos I never ever connect with the music as much. I'm not saying that I am better than the people who choose to film like this because I really don't think that I am. But I know musicians that have flawless talent but get no recognition because they can't afford this fancy software. Since when did musical popularity become about how it looks? Or the quality of the video? Surely what really matters here is the TALENT?
Personally, I don't think anybody can call themselves a musician if they don't MAKE music. Moreover, learn to play an instrument, play a few gigs, get to know an audience and how to please that audience. Develop your own voice and learn what you can do with that voice. People don't want to hear a karaoke singer when they go down to an acoustic night - they want to hear some real music.
I could get friends to film some fancy videos for me every time I want to post a cover but I chose not to. I prefer live covers. I want to focus on their voice and the song. You hear famous singers live and they almost never sound perfect because nobody is! Everyone misses notes and sings a lyric wrong so why should we hide that? Music doesn't have to be perfect only true to what it is.
I honestly think the popularity of an upcoming musical artist is more to do with how popular they are in terms of friendships and how much money they have. If you can afford all the fancy equipment aside from just your voice and your guitar then automatically you're more likely to make a 'good' video and then more people with inevitably watch it. Also, if you have hundreds of facebook friends that are genuinely really interested in your career then they'll watch your video no matter what song you're singing, regardless of whether it's what they like to listen too.
I mean, maybe it's me and I'm just not meant to be a recording artist and that's okay. I'm not going off on one because I feel like I deserve more views. I was just using myself as an example because I know first hand how hard I try at this. The point I'm trying to get across is that music is becoming more about what it looks like than how it sounds and it's wrong!
I know an incredible artist who has an amazing voice and outstanding talent when it comes to songwriting and rightly so he is doing extremely well for himself and will be releasing albums into the charts in no time. He didn't make fancy YouTube videos. He performed at a massive festival, just him and his guitar and people fell in love with his TALENT and that's how it should happen. I feel like if we carry on the way this is going we will lose that. And we'll end up with thousands of karaoke singers in the charts and no feeling in the music.
I just wish that an amazingly talented musician could post a low quality, phone filmed cover onto their YouTube channel and get the same support as those who use fancy video editing because the music is just as good and that artist deserves just as much support.
I am aware I probably sound very much like I'm just complaining about people being better than me, I'm not. I'm complaining that talent doesn't matter anymore and it makes me sad.
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