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theblue1
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newguy1
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drcmusic
: I’m enjoying your discussion.
After trying (and failing) to respond to all the specific quotes that caught my eye, here’s a general response:
I think songwriter forums draw two different species of songwriter: Let’s call them “Happy Community” people and “Trying To Get Somewhere” people.
Happy Community people: I think if someone writes songs purely for self-expression, and enjoys community with other kindred souls, with no professional ambitions, then fine. In that situation, the more the writers are bound together by *something*—genre of their work being the easy way to do it—the better that community will probably be. And it’s not surprising that the unwritten rule might be, “Don’t slam anyone else’s work, even if you think it’s awful.” Because the hang is the thing, coming together around a shared passion.
Trying To Get somewhere people: OTOH, if someone is trying (realistically or not—who knows?) to draw an audience, to perform, to get attention or sell a few recordings—then everything about the “happy hobbyist community” model is almost useless. The ambitious songwriter
needs critique from someone whose opinion means something—either gatekeepers who can advance the artist’s professional agenda, or songwriters whose work seems similar, but who have already crossed the line into being wanted. Because if a gatekeeper, or a pro you relate to, tells you your work needs to get a lot better, and how—that information is powerful; you may hate the negative feedback but it’s a reality check.
And as subjective as art is, there usually is a Truth where someone in a similar genre, at a higher altitude, says, “I think you’re ready,” or “I see what you’re trying to do, but you’re nowhere near ready until you’ve fixed A, B, and C” ... or even, “I don’t know how your kind of music even fits into any genres I know, so I don’t know what to tell you.”
Songwriting forums are usually lame, I think, because the two groups don’t need the same forum. One could argue the ambitious people really aren’t served by a forum at all, unless it provides practical tips —what they need is to keep getting out into the harsh world of gigs, contests, publishers, and so on, and bang around until they figure out where they stand. At least that’s how it seems to me.
Sorry for the length of all this ... hope you guys find something in here relevant to the conversation.
As you were ...