Why do you make music?

I've been making jams for close to decade now, but I take breaks from it... the most recent having been about 3 years. Just bought a new laptop and came back to it - realizing I still love the act/process of crafting sounds. I like pleasing/surprising myself and having a record of different accidents I've created - and that's what they mostly are... accidents that I fine-tune into art. Overall I just love manipulating sound. Why do others make electronic music? Fame and glory? Personal enjoyment? To share with friends? To make money? DJ?

 

Edit: By the way, I'm new. Hi-5.

Edited August 15, 2015 by D1Beard

Short answer is that it's fun.

Longer answer is that it's fun and I love feeling that sense of progress whenever I feel I've made one of my best tracks, or feel like I've done something productive, verses say, playing video games all of the time or something. Dunnno.

Also welcome to WATMM, random first post! :P

Edited August 15, 2015 by Brisbot

Personal enjoyment in my case, even tho most of my trax are incomplete.

Inspiration seems to be the single most challenging aspect as a music maker. But sometimes the best ideas come from completely unplanned spur-of-the-moment flukes.

I don't know what else to do.

The dog wants it

it's a puzzle...a continuing process of learning...a passion and obsession....sense of achievement...love of music in general....it's a mirror revealing weakness and strength...for fun...to connect with close friends...as a record of feelings, times and places in life....music tech is awesome/innovation....something to share....fear of mediocrity.... .... ....

It acts as therapy for me

diabetes

Boredom.

  On 8/15/2015 at 4:03 AM, D1Beard said:

Overall I just love manipulating sound.

 

Pretty much this

The sound of a creamy analogue filter!

 

Basically, I cannot get through my day without music and I found that when listening to most music I have other rhythms/melodies/ideas I am head singing while I listen. So the chance to use these ideas in my head to make a piece all of my own with all the elements of my choice I can create something just for me.

and yeah, it's fun, frustrating, emotional, etcetcetcetc

Lots of reasons but I also feel as if i don't have any chioce...nor any real reason at all, at the same time. Strange thing!

Edited August 15, 2015 by xox

Hearing sounds and combinations of sounds that no-one has ever heard before.

 

Putting sounds together to make something cool.

 

Also. To relax, combat boredom, have fun, experiment, learn something and keep me from wasting time online.

birches and mooney

  On 8/15/2015 at 8:23 AM, Chartreuse said:

I'd go insane otherwise.

I start to feel wrong after about a week with no attempt at choons. It seems like the healthiest outlet (besides programming) for my neuroses.

Therapy basically. Escapism. Fun and very exciting when the accidents happen.

It's the most fun creative endeavor I've been involved with, partially due to the instant-grat aspect of recording a part and listening back. With painting, or at least the way I paint, it takes a great deal of time and focus before something materialises, but when making a track I feel entertained all the way through the process. Layers upon layers!

 

It is a daunting task getting others interested in a musical outlet compared to visual arts I find; a painting is laid bare in front of the viewer and can be received wholly at that moment, where music reveals itself over the span of a track-length. People's attention spans are waning due to overstimulation, etc. Therein it cannot be overstated that I primarily make tracks with my own gratification in mind and listeners I pick up along the way are a bonus.

Its a compulsion.

I agree with everyone here. It's one of the few things I feel the urge to come back to on a daily basis.

Because the feeling you get when you're making a track that you dig is just incredible. It's the same feeling you get when you're falling in love. Nothing else comes close, and I'm addicted to it. I wouldn't be able to stop if I tried.

  On 8/15/2015 at 9:26 PM, Salem1976 said:

Its a compulsion.

This. I feel like I have no choice in the matter, I must involve myself with music and sound to feel alive, doesn't really matter which medium/instrument, although polyphonic playing and composing has the most immediate appeal. It's the most natural thing in the world, pure and simple. I can go without it for a while but it's like breathing smog instead of fresh air.

i do it cause i can. I'm pretty lazy though, so the cumpulsion thing only kicks in after i've not been lazy for a few days in a row, and then it's still a struggle to get myself to do it, once i'm doing it though i'm fine. I think maybe because i've got a terrible memory i am unable to remember how great it feels so don't develop the comebackanddoitpulsion that you kids have. That said, if i'd spent the time over the last ten years at university that i had playing guitar i'd probably have a couple of degrees and a nice job by now. Whereas with guitar you leave it for a couple of months and you have to climb back again, it's fucking gae. If i'd spent that time making computer music i'd have so many tracks dusted by nao.

 

So i don't know why i make music, i just do it cause i can, and don't really question it, it's a habit i spose, at my age i don't really know how to do much else, maybe i should have taken up golf.

because i need to. i love the process of creating. i hate the process of not creating. it helps me develop into taking more initiative into creating .. well everything really, which is something that was kinda lost after a decade and a half of a relentless avoidance of taking any responsibility in this (though i still created unintenionally or unawaresally)

 

musically-wise, i am starting to know my software machinery a bit better. this is helping me in decoding the impulses in my head into sounds and structures and makes the whole process more of a conscious and directed process (thought often still, i am presently surprised by sliding bars and eris' riddles).

 

music works to me on many levels, as i am sure it does to everybody, and the ability to creating a web of interrelated sounds that sounds phat and dope just gives a certain saturation not much else can give me.

 

still have lots to learn; it's a life's journey :) future research projects are octave/chord structures (considering the Hz approach), microtonalities, modulation & arps

Edited August 16, 2015 by Guest

  On 8/16/2015 at 2:08 AM, Phoenix said:

because i need to. i love the process of creating. i hate the process of not creating. it helps me develop into taking more initiative into creating .. well everything really, which is something that was kinda lost after a decade and a half of a relentless avoidance of taking any responsibility in this (though i still created unintenionally or unawaresally)

 

musically-wise, i am starting to know my software machinery a bit better. this is helping me in decoding the impulses in my head into sounds and structures and makes the whole process more of a conscious and directed process (thought often still, i am presently surprised by sliding bars and eris' riddles).

 

music works to me on many levels, as i am sure it does to everybody, and the ability to creating a web of interrelated sounds that sounds phat and dope just gives a certain saturation not much else can give me.

 

still have lots to learn; it's a life's journey :) future research projects are octave/chord structures (considering the Hz approach), microtonalities, modulation & arps

That's pretty interesting. Thanks for articulating that.

  On 8/15/2015 at 4:05 AM, Brisbot said:

it's fun.

 

 

 

  On 8/15/2015 at 8:17 AM, Oscar said:

I don't know what else to do.

 

 

  On 8/15/2015 at 8:23 AM, Chartreuse said:

I'd go insane otherwise.

 

 

  On 8/15/2015 at 10:29 AM, mokz said:

Boredom.

 

 

  On 8/15/2015 at 9:21 PM, Goiter Sanchez said:

my own gratification.

 

 

  On 8/15/2015 at 9:26 PM, Salem1976 said:

Its a compulsion.

 

 

  On 8/16/2015 at 1:01 AM, delet... said:

cause i can.

 

 

  On 8/16/2015 at 2:08 AM, Phoenix said:

i need to.

 

All the above + it gives my life some sense of meaning. It's one of the only things that doesn't feel like a waste of time.

Edited August 16, 2015 by Zephyr_Nova