How many of you genuinly listen to your own music?

Somewhat misleading thread title. My question is more directed at those who are trying to make music that can be personally enjoyed on the same level you would enjoy music made by your idols.

I ask this question because I believe the fun act of creating music can provide an illusion that the output is maybe better than it actually is from the perspective of purely a listener. If you were to eliminate the enjoyable experience of the exercise as a factor, would you find yourself going back to listen for pure pleasure? Or are we deluding ourselves?

Maybe this isn't even a real question though. Like who really makes this the goal ever.

I love listening to the music I make

  On 12/28/2017 at 2:05 AM, Salvatorin said:

I love listening to the music I make

Not gonna lie I enjoyed a few of your tracks on sc. Hie

Way too much tbh.

Usually requires a little break once I've written/mixed etc, but yeah I enjoy listening to mine a lot.  In fact there's a direct correlation between the length of time since creation and the enjoyment of a track.

  On 12/28/2017 at 2:21 AM, msdos said:

 

  On 12/28/2017 at 2:05 AM, Salvatorin said:

I love listening to the music I make

Not gonna lie I enjoyed a few of your tracks on sc. Hie

 

thank you!

Somebody has to.

Why make music you don't enjoy/wouldn't listen to? I don't understand the question.

If I don't enjoy a track I've made then it's a sign that something is missing from the work or it's otherwise incomplete. I still feel the 'paralysing self doubt' occasionally when playing stuff back but can usually remedy that feeling by taking a sabbatical from the track which helps to lend perspective and strips biases.

I think that's natural, to be self conscious or feel self doubt that OTHERS wouldn't enjoy it. But I don't understand how one would string together sounds that they themselves, don't enjoy. 

That's like intentionally cooking food for yourself that you know you don't enjoy. =/

I don't do it enough. I crave sounds like I crave foods and it's usually something pretty specific (and seasonal) I'm after and it's rare that my own music scratches the itch. I should probably focus the vibes a little more, or just sample / mix (DJ) / reverse engineer the tunes I listen to over and over.

I did it more when I was younger. Also I find myself listening to my 2016 WeeklyBeats tracks more than other recent stuff, for what it's worth.

I don't feel the paralyzing self-doubt either. I'm open to the possibility that my music is shit but I also don't care. It doesn't matter, I don't feel right if I don't do tunes at least once a week & it's better for my brain than video games.

I've noticed that the tracks I've written spontaneously get the most playtime in my library. The tracks that were premeditated and slaved over for hours need time to cool down before really enjoying, otherwise all I think of while listening to them was how I couldn't get a certain sound perfect, or some percussion placement seems off. When I sit down in an afternoon with some waveforms/samples plugging away at my tracker is when I enjoy them the most, especially when I'm not torturing myself over minor details. 

  On 12/28/2017 at 4:02 AM, Bulk VanderHooj said:

Why make music you don't enjoy/wouldn't listen to? I don't understand the question.

I guess I'm trying to say I doubt most people sit around enjoying their own music to the degree they enjoy Aphex, Autechre, or insert your favorite artist here. And I'm personally trying to get there. By being critical of my own bias that favors anything of my own making. A higher threshold of quality and value.

I suspect one way of getting there is differentiating the pleasure of the act of creating from the pleasure of enjoying the output as a listener.

  On 12/28/2017 at 5:06 AM, msdos said:

 

  On 12/28/2017 at 4:02 AM, Bulk VanderHooj said:

Why make music you don't enjoy/wouldn't listen to? I don't understand the question.

 

I guess I'm trying to say I doubt most people sit around enjoying their own music to the degree they enjoy Aphex, Autechre, or insert your favorite artist here. And I'm personally trying to get there. By being critical of my own bias that favors anything of my own making. A higher threshold of quality and value.

 

I suspect one way of getting there is differentiating the pleasure of the act of creating from the pleasure of enjoying the output as a listener.

 

That is a much more articulate way of putting it, and the way you've worded it now, I understand. 

Is there a reason to differentiate the pleasure of creating from the pleasure of enjoying the output though? If the end result is enjoyment I mean? 

Only analogies I could draw are those that enjoy cooking for themselves/others even though it's not  5 star restaurant output, or loving your own children despite deep flaws more than others in their perfection (probably mostly a function of perception). Or something.

It's YOUR product I mean. That should be worth something; should be worth a lot.

often when i'm working on stuff i'll listen to it over and over.. and when it's done.. when there's a bunch of tracks that will be a release of some kind i'll listen to them a lot but only in the studio. 

sometimes i go back to things and listen.. usually it's because i've not gotten something from it or maybe i'm wondering if it's shit sounding after a while or whatever. 

short answer is yeah.. sure. sometimes. 

You're wondering if you think its shit, or if others think its shit?

  On 12/28/2017 at 5:23 AM, Bulk VanderHooj said:

 

  On 12/28/2017 at 5:06 AM, msdos said:

 

  On 12/28/2017 at 4:02 AM, Bulk VanderHooj said:

Why make music you don't enjoy/wouldn't listen to? I don't understand the question.

 

I guess I'm trying to say I doubt most people sit around enjoying their own music to the degree they enjoy Aphex, Autechre, or insert your favorite artist here. And I'm personally trying to get there. By being critical of my own bias that favors anything of my own making. A higher threshold of quality and value.

 

I suspect one way of getting there is differentiating the pleasure of the act of creating from the pleasure of enjoying the output as a listener.

 

That is a much more articulate way of putting it, and the way you've worded it now, I understand. 

 

Is there a reason to differentiate the pleasure of creating from the pleasure of enjoying the output though? If the end result is enjoyment I mean? 

 

Only analogies I could draw are those that enjoy cooking for themselves/others even though it's not  5 star restaurant output, or loving your own children despite deep flaws more than others in their perfection (probably mostly a function of perception). Or something.

 

 

It's YOUR product I mean. That should be worth something; should be worth a lot.

Right. And so I should clarify on the original post that the question is more directed at those who are trying to make music they can enjoy at the level they enjoy music created by their idols. Which probably not the majority of music creators in existence. And maybe it's a little insane to even try. But also a fun challenge. But definitely not the only game in town.

I think making said differentiation might be a mental tool of getting there.

Ahh yeah. Gotcha. I'd be surprised if many enjoy their tunes as much as those put out by those they (probably) idolize. 

To be fair, I wonder/doubt if any of those artists we idolize enjoy their own music to that extent. 

Or is v snares listening to/enjoying autechre more than his own music, and autechre listening to aphex, and so on. lol

Kind of depressing perhaps.

Do you maek teh iddems Bulk?

I do. 

But am too self conscious to share. 

  On 12/28/2017 at 6:00 AM, Bulk VanderHooj said:

Ahh yeah. Gotcha. I'd be surprised if many enjoy their tunes as much as those put out by those they (probably) idolize.

 

To be fair, I wonder/doubt if any of those artists we idolize enjoy their own music to that extent.

 

Or is v snares listening to/enjoying autechre more than his own music, and autechre listening to aphex, and so on. lol

 

Kind of depressing perhaps.

Yah I'd love to know.

Maybe not so depressing if this type of enjoyment ends up being simply about communication and what others have to express.

You ever just unload all your barbells and dumbbells and just spread out?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QBJaTtF7XI

I make music that I want to hear, so ofc I listen to it. Sometimes I take a long break between listening to tracks / albums, but sometimes I get really into a track or jam right after I’ve finished.

Usually I get really into a piece of music while I am playing and jamming on it, to the extent that right after it is very difficult to edit down long repetitive stretches of sound because I am afraid to lose all the magical worlds my head went to while playing it. Usually it becomes easier after some time has passed. I think I could call it the first and most intense wave of enthusiasm, because it's me enjoying totally new music and tripping in totally uncharted waters.

The second wave of enthusiasm comes when I listen to work in progress renders scattered around on my desktop - in fact the album I released earlier this year was pretty much all made up of songs that I had first decided they "need more work" but after letting the initial enthusiasm cool down it turned out that many of them took only small tweaks and were ready to release after all. There's probably plenty of this kind of half-finished material left that I could do this again. The enjoyment is a little bit different than compared to the feeling when actually making music, because in this case I am actually listening to ready recordings and it feels good to think that "I have this and it already sounds really good, there's no uncertainty in whether I am able to pull off the idea in my head".

The third wave of enthusiasm (which is rare but I really would like to have more of it) is when I can play my stuff live either in a DJ set or a full blown live set. It is kind of a combination of the two previous waves, first because I am a big believer that the location and atmosphere and state of mind is very important when listening to any kind of music, and playing my things live allows me to emphasise my sound so that the listeners will get a more immediate feeling of what is going on. Even when DJing I really try to stitch everything into a coherent whole, so there is some ephemeral story or trip I can take the listeners along to. When working on individual songs, I kind of try to simultaneously think about the song on its own, and about how it could be fit into a larger whole (i.e. what loops could be used to introduce a song in a longer set and how the song fits in with the rest of my material so it could find it's place in any larger "story"). So this brings me to the second point - since I greatly value the improvisational component in performing live, a big part of the enjoyment I get from my music is when I can build something entirely new in the course of a performance by re-arranging some loops or pieces or just playing some wicked solo or whatever.

In some cases it is just enough to hear a bunch of formerly "meh" pieces put and arranged together in a more coherent whole, or hearing something that I used to think of as "bland" in the right mood & time & place and just be blown away by that.