Stoneman
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2/23/2016 10:31:56 AM
The Value Of Unbiased Opinions
You ever finish producing a song and then you share it with all your friends and family and they all say they love it? You walk away feeling like you have done a fantastic job and have a hit on your hands. The only problem with this scenario is that most of your friends and family love you and tend to love everything you do. Their approval may be an automatic response regardless to how bad the song is. But there is always that one person who has no fear to tell the emperor he has no clothes on. You know? That person you try to avoid because he/she does not shy away from giving the bad news about your work. Believe it or not, that is the person whose critique is the most valuable to you. That person will tell you the truth regardless to how much they love you.
Unbiased critique is crucial to your growth and development as an artist. As much as we all hate to be badly critiqued, it is the essential element that will help propel you to higher heights artistically, technically and inspirationally. Personally, when someone gives me a bad critique I am usually inspired to fix whatever issues they perceive in my work. It is such a rare occurrence these days that I really take note of it and I study the issue until I am confident I have a fix. But in the old days of my youth I pursued bad reviews with fervor and intensity. I knew my shit really stank badly and I wanted to make it better. I sent out hundreds of demos to recording companies, producers, publishers and other artists. I didn’t expect to get signed. I expected to get quality feedback from people who were not emotionally connected to me. One year I received about 200 scathing rejection letters from industry folks all over the world. I studied those reviews obsessively. Each issue they brought up was extremely important to me and I looked for ways to correct my inept abilities. Of course there were a few that I ignored because they had no quality advice. But for the most part, even if they hated my music, there were always clues that I picked up out of the dirt being thrown at me. Things like Vocals are weak, bad song forms, flats and sharps, poor production quality, Drums too loud, Sax too low etc. By studying these things I would correct them and send a new demo to the same people that trashed my work. If they responded in a positive way I knew I was headed in the right direction. Eventually one of those people sent me my first publishing contract offer.
Now I know there are artists out there that could care less about what other people think. They just do their thing and damn the rest of the world. In their eyes everything they do is hot. They are legends in their own minds. Unfortunately, people like this seldom grow or learn how to elevate their artistic abilities. Sort of like those sad folks that show up at the American Idol auditions with their family and friends in tow. When they get turned down because they sound so bad they look hurt and frustrated. Their families try to comfort them but the truth is that if the family and friends had been telling them the truth, they would not have faced the humiliation of the rest of the world hearing their bad singing. Delusions are usually internally created but they are fueled by those who support the delusion. Most of these people actually think their terrible singing sounds good. Someone should step up and say uh, Stoney, you sound terrible long before they make the mistake of becoming the national joke.
An unbiased opinion is an opinion with great worth. Here at IMP we have the Review/Commentary area. It is where some of us boldly display our work for unbiased opinions. Most of the reviews are positive because most of the artists here are really good at what they do. But there are those artists that need the truth to be told so they can grow. Instead of just saying “Your shit sucks” I like to give advice on how to make it better. It is one thing to say someone sucks but a much better thing when you give them specific advice on how to make it better. This is the main object of the Review/Commentary forum. It is to confirm what is good and to help those who need it to get better.
Recently I submitted a song that a few people gave good critiques on but mentioned that an effect I had on my vocals was not a good choice. Up to that point, everyone else that had heard the song (family/friends/my label) all loved the song just the way it was. But I took the critique back to my studio and after intense examination determined that the effect was a problem that I would fix in the final mix. Getting that feedback here was an extremely valuable thing as my song will be so much better when it is released publicly.
So, I would like to invite you to pass a song through the review/commentary process and see if there is anything that will help you to get better. Your work may be so impeccable that most of us reviewers will tell you so. But if there is a flaw that needs to be fixed we will tell you that also. We are not here to put people down. We are here to help build people up. IMP is a place where indie artists come together to inspire, nurture and grow. Plus, you have the right to review our work also when we post it. That is a really fair thing don’t you think? Try it today. See what unbiased artists have to say about your work. Their input may help you to make your work shine even brighter. Or, maybe you will discover some artists whose work will inspire you. Give it a try. The best part of all is that it is free. Ya can’t beat that right? Looking forward to hearing your latest masterpiece
Much Respect
Stoneman
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2/23/2016 1:38:50 PM
I agree with all you said there. Music sites like ours are filled with nicey nice reviews, schmoozy stuff that is not only untrue but unpleasant to read. Many on the internet fall in line with the attitude that if you can't say something nice, don't say it at all, but it is the ones who are brave enough to come out and say the truth that end up helping the cause more often.
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