Are apologies in order on my part?Yesterday I openly shared my excitement about "Thinking of Someone Else" approaching the Top 20 slot in the UK on my blog, and my gosh, did I regret doing so shortly afterwards!
A series of comments and immediate feedback from some followed within minutes (thankfully, behind the scenes and not plastered across the myspace wall!) and a lot of the messages, except for a few lovely notes, were surprisingly... Judgmental, if that's the right word?
They say if you want to be successful in any shape or form, you've got to learn to take it all in, good or bad, within your chin up and mouth sealed tightly. So instead I flipped through the private messages with a smile on my face. Or wait, was it me smirking in front of the screen?
To make the long story short, I was reminded that art is only art and not a gamble nor a race for the desperate. Some accused me of over-reacting to a mere Top 20 in the making, "big hairy deal", etc. Funny, truly funny, and taken with vast amount of humor and a big smile on my face.
But deep down, let's be honest, who'd want to be rained upon their ultimate parade in that rare moment of... well, yes, bliss...? Not me, not I!
Initially, I seriously thought about apologizing for making the chart results public, but then I realized there's nothing really worth feeling guilty about.
On a slightly more professional note, I may have said this before but perhaps I wasn't in the right frame of mind to know exactly what I was referring to. Commercial success of any kind, especially when we decide to make music or any other form of art a career as opposed to a mere hobby can be a very stressful process. In fact, it should be handled like a business, not a creative venture for one's own satisfaction.
The chart results are as important as the quality of of the product itself being marketed every which way in the industry. Not only do our personal egos thrive of commercial success or lack of it, but it's the team of people involved in making this happen that need to see the outcome and always hope for the best results.
Quite frankly, who would want to invest time, money and effort into something they don't believe will ultimately generate income that surpasses the initial advance budget? Again, we can't ignore that music is also a business - even more so now than ever before, as it is shrinking as an industry day by day and those involved in it are, mildly speaking, becoming desperate for that extra bit of dosh.
If you are among those treating any form of art as a hobby rather than a career, that is of course a personal choice, and you can feel free to disagree with all that's been said above by a relative beginner in the field. I am not simply writing based on my limited experience (or arguably, the lack of it) but it's the reaction, the feedback and at the end of the day - reality - of what we have to face in order to either make it or break it in an industry that's unfortunately not at it's best nowadays.
This is all subjective, of course, but the beauty of living outside of the Soviet lock is undoubtedly the freedom of speech!
