This is just something I've been figuring out lately as I've been seeking out what kind of music I truly want to be making. Not sure if I should post this, but maybe there's value: (yellowgreen = ADHD attention points)
----
Every successful band and artist have had a movement in their music and career. Today everyone wants their music heard and to take on a fan base for their name, but there are far too much music everywhere and music is simply used for the purpose of music playing. Great songs and great artists may never be heard or discovered with their indie releases.
As one looking to find my fit in music and genres and purpose of music making generally, it comes down to the mission of my work. Why do I want to make music? Why does this music need to exist? What are the effects of my music on people, society, and culture? What is my mission of my work?
Urban areas of a city tend to be filled with beats and flow-talking to keep up with the city lifestyle - and the population needs it to exist and belong. A small town relies on country pride and blues about their lifestyle. The electronic age has set the trends to coexist and overlap, where pop radio is a constant frequency of background music for a workplace, as well as a shallow talking point to fill the workplace void. Outside my window right now there's a ratchet girl walking by with music blasting full volume out of her portable speaker - carrying a boombox is still a thing.
People use music to create an environment where they are accepted and feel comfortable.
I've always felt that music I listen to is too random to "just turn on" for a stranger to enjoy. My music environment that I enjoy is of deeper thought and much less of the initial shallow acceptability or conversation maker. The statements made by the music I listen to, often align with the reasons that I make music.
The music I make, also tends to rely on a deeper connection rather than a shallow one - which means it won't get to the pop radio or a mass social acceptance until I am able to blend more shallow aspects into it as well. And I'm ok with that, if it's to the guidelines of my mission.
If your musical style can create an atmosphere for a target audience successfully, then your band/name enters a market. Notice: You enter at the bottom of the market, fighting upward to gain fans. Indie music is filled with home recordings from people not considering all aspects of music making. This is where the artists separate from the vast indie overflood - the separation is success - success is an active fan following/growth born from a motion that artists take on.
If one wants to be successful, one need to take music as seriously as a annual-income job. This just goes to say that people would rather work for 15/h and get 30k annually while expecting their music to make them the same money for an album's worth of minimal-thought artistic expression. Artistic expression alone is great, but only if you're established. Artists who have been in the right place and the right time succeeded by riding a wave of a movement at that specific part in time.
A movement in music isn't tied to politics, a movement comes from culture and ways that people spend their free time. Sometimes culture creates and changes politics, but usually music stays out of politics for the reason that political stances limit your outreach while strengthening aggressive political fans. Take weed in music - it has had huge culture movements in media including music and eventually made it's way into political rights. There were times that artists became popular with their involvement in the cultural movement. I'm not into weed, so another example I'm familiar with is the russian rock revolution. A handful of artists and bands started playing rock n roll music they heard from the west. Rock n roll was outlawed in Russia, but the artists loved the culture and so did their neighbors, more and more of them. They were on a movement without necessarily knowing it, but they did know that good music is good music and they'll succeed because you can't restrict good. To this day those bands have a good following, even tho russian rock was short-lived before the government reformation and the popularity of techno. Techno became big in russia because people were so sick of the socialist crap that all they wanted to do was party. Just like that, an atmosphere and target audience ready for musicians to fill that void - a movement.
I keep thinking that in an ideal world, music wouldn't need to exist. Music even in notes, carries the blues of a musician - or - creates an environment that is other than the reality without the music. So who and what is your music for?
- Ask what you think is a good music environment or movement that your music making mission accompanies.
There needs to be a place for the music to play, and an audience to live in the music because their life is surrounded by it.