Musicians and Artists

[Frunny]

I know that this has nothing to do with sexuality or any of the many things we talk about in here, but I would just like to see how many of you feel the same.

I just watched Almost Famous for the first time... wow. That movie really brought to life, everything that I feel about music. How great it is, the people you meet, the vibe, and also... that things don't always work out. It was a realistic view of life, of who we are, and what can become of us when fame hits our starry eyes. What would fame do to any of us? Would it hit us off the deep end? Or would we brush it off our shoulders, searching elsewhere? If music is our calling, our love, and the very reason we get up in the morning... why should fame take that away from us, as it has done to so many in the past? I believe that music, when played and felt for what it really is, sends us into harmony with the world and who we truly are and want to be! Yes, I know that this is the hippie in me speaking, but I believe it. Some people wander through life, never knowing who they truly are. They seek themselves in different ways. Drugs, alcohol, seeking spiritualism of any kind, sometimes they try to grasp it from the very people they sleep with. Searching for someone they can be... knowing deep within them, they will never find it in another person. But music! Music is where you are and nothing else. Diving into the Spring of Creativity within your soul and pouring it out with no shame, no boundaries! THAT is what true music feels like.

Peace on, man!

[12voltman59]

I have been pursuing my creative side for the past decade or so by writing and doing abstract art---I do believe that pursuing creative things is perhaps the best thing a human being can do....probably the most worthwhile and most vital thing--I think it is built into the very structure of our being---

Things like music, art and writing can be so fulfilling to create but there does seem to be that razors edge--so many of our brightest talents throughout time have been unstable people--I have always tried to figure out why that is so--is it that if you strive for the creative---that exploration leads us to dangerous places???

Perhaps--it does seem so--just look at the those would were great talents who wound up on the rocks below--but thankfullly they did it and we are better for it---

I know that I do write a great deal about politics and the state of the world--it can seem from those writiings that I must be a rather cynical person--I am not really that way--I am rather optimistic and hopeful--it is because I know that we can achieve great things when we try to be better--creating music, art, literature, etc. are the best things we can do--I pains me that so much of our effort in terms of intelligence, money, natural resources, etc. are expended in the pursuit of things that can destroy instead of turing those resources to the good--my god--I watched this show the other night about how theoretical physicists are actually trying to figure out how to create matter/anti-matter and proton weapons like on Star Trek---isn't it enough that we have thousands of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons sitting in arsenals all over the planet??
If they someday perfect such weapons--the galaxy will not be safe from us..LOL

It just hit me though--they say there are no "aliens"--if that is the case--why try to develop weapons that would be a deterent to more technologically advanced civilizations if they don't exist???? one of those things that makes you go: "hhhhhhmmmmm????" LOL

Well--I digress-but to get back to the subject--I also find it interesting that those with a creative bent also seem to have their sexual "thermostat" set at something other than just good old pure straight...

[EludedSunshine]

I feel pretty much exactly the same way about music. For years, I aspired to write music, but I never had any faith in myself. Although I've since given up for a number of reasons, music's still absolutely central to my life. I can say with conviction that if I didn't have music, I would not be alive right now. I could go on about it for hours, which is exactly why I usually choose to avoid music discussion... ;p

(Oh, and my username is a music reference. A million brownie points to anyone who knows it.)


Things like music, art and writing can be so fulfilling to create but there does seem to be that razors edge--so many of our brightest talents throughout time have been unstable people--I have always tried to figure out why that is so--is it that if you strive for the creative---that exploration leads us to dangerous places???

I've thought about this a lot, myself. To me it seems that to be a really good artist in whatever field, one needs to be a bit off-kilter to begin with. Instability "helps" in this respect, because a person is willing to go to greater lengths and delve deeper into him/herself for the sake of the piece. Then it seems to be a sort of cycle. The art adds to the instability; the instability to the art. But again...this is just how I see it, and I could blather on for hours...

[Haemoglobin]

from little on my mum forced me to sing in open places , was it family gatherings , christmas , or even on tv when i was little i won a contest just because she send me there .

today i like to sing rock songs , though i do it by myself . i do not have an angels voice , i got more of a rocky voice and im quite good at imitating voices of some other singers ..its just a little side talent also .
but thats cause i listen .. once i sang with a band my friends play in , it was only a little thing in a night club , but i loved it and they loved it too .
somehow i think there are too many selfdoubts and other things which keep me away from taking a singing class or jaming with people , proving my talent ,
i see no point in doing it somehow . and songWRITING is smth i got no talent for actually :)

anyways , music is a really good way of expressing yourself as well as writing and painting might is ! i think that if you got a talent you gotta do smth about it , but somehow i cant follow my own advice so,, ;)

[Nara_lovely]

In regard to the fame....I think the performer forgets to believe in themselves and their talent; instead buys into the 'glam' and hype from everyone else. They lose who they are.
How many talented bands have broken up because someone believes they are much more important than the other?

Deep down, a real musician is just happy to be performing. We still see some of the high up Aussie singers, doing Pub Tours, going back to their first love and the real people.

It takes a rare person to not get caught up in it all....I performed for years as a drummer. I NEVER got used to people wanting my autograph (the first time it happened, I thought it was a prank). Guess I kept it real...I was just a part of a larger group.

I now enjoy writing much more than performing; although I NEED music in my day, or else I feel lost, alone. So music will always be important. With writing, I have music playing in the background.
Music is a friend. It's in my soul.
(and I agree...if you don't feel it that way, it would be hard to understand)

I like this thread! Thanks Frunny.

[arana]

I think music is comfort food for your soul. It can bring back memories and feelings of things that you thought were long forgotten. It's very powerful.

When you become famous a lot of outside influences filter in and try to manipulate. That can be difficult and some aren't strong enough to deal with it. Maybe creativity and sensitivity are related.

Creative expression in any form is healthy. Everyone should bring out their inner child and play for awhile.

[Frunny]

Thank you for answering people! I'm REALLY loving reading everything you have to say. Thank you again!

- Frunny

[onewhocares]

It is funny how music plays a very emotional role in your life. I have found a very interesting pattern evolving from this site. As I have said before I have had the pleasure of meeting so many wonderful people from this site. All as friends, a few as lovers. During my time with them, or driving to meet or flying, it seems that a certain song will come on the radio or I will hear it and it catches my thoughts. And somehow, that one special song signifies what I am feeling either about myself or my friend or my lover.

When at a later time, the song is again heard, the wonderful moments I associate with it flood back into my heart and my minds and fill me with a sense of wonder and want. What a lovely memory I have.

Music was made to soothe the savage Beast, or in my case....Belle.

Just my thoughts,


Belle

[jedinudist]

Since coming out, my artistic energy has returned and keeps growing! I haven't felt this since I was a teenager! I am pursuing my writing and my photography. I even have a gallery online now where I am getting some good feedback on my work! We're looking at getting more professional level photography gear and turning this into a business to help fund my artistic endeavors!

My love for music is back, bigger than ever. I used to play an instrument in school (and was good enough to be asked to sit in with an orchestra in New Jersey) and am picking a new instrument up to learn gradually. Music and art are much more powerful means of expression and truth then mere words. Words can not approach the power of emotion, and emotion is the base for art and music (well, good art and good music).

[LouiseBrookslover]

Wow, it is almost creepy how in tune I am with certain posters on this board. I was reading the post about "bisexuality and the military" and it got me to thinking about a lot of things. One of which is that my bisexual side, my artistic side, really believes in flux, in chance, in a life lived on the edge.

How ironic, then, that I could never pick up a gun in anger.

Not that side of me, at least. And not because I don't believe in killing, but because I don't believe in anything but a certain aesthetic sensation. The artist in me either is in the midst of that wonderful amorphic feeling or he is in the deepest of depression. The good times are better than I suspect most people have, although this aesthetic sensibilty, even in its best times, provides no real mooring. Nothing to truly believe in. Or to fight or die for.

But maybe life truly doesn't supply these moorings, and only artists can see this. Only artists can see that there are pleasures, beauties, but they are fleeting and they must be enjoyed while we have them. Nothing is guaranteed, and nothing really persists to moor us down. If this is in fact the case, artists see the truth but it might not be an especial blessing. We who are inspired by a glance, a word said perfectly, the perfect turn of phrase, a beautiful girl we will never have, live in a different world than those who find their thrills from a story that ties them back to a group, a culture, a nation. Such people get these aesthetic thrills, but they come from belonging to a group. Think of those people who get goosebumps from Lee Greenwood songs, for example. They feel emotion that comes from evoking a group myth. The emotion that this group myth evokes leads them to unequivocally volunteer to die for it.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not sure these people aren't happier. That's just the point. I believe the artist in me sees the world as it really is, and it can be a terrible thing. It is a basic human need to believe in something larger than ourselves, in a myth. To deny the myth and strike out on your own is the bravest, saddest, most noble thing in the world. But a part of me, sometimes, wishes I could be like those who don't feel as I do. Who can fight the nihilism that haunts my darkest hours by engaging in war.

I'm posting this to two threads, as it was inspired by both, and covers both questions.

[EludedSunshine]

Since coming out, my artistic energy has returned and keeps growing! I haven't felt this since I was a teenager! I am pursuing my writing and my photography. I even have a gallery online now where I am getting some good feedback on my work! We're looking at getting more professional level photography gear and turning this into a business to help fund my artistic endeavors!

I love your photographs. I've wanted to say that for about a week now, but I never knew how to bring up the subject... :cutelaugh It's inspiring to hear that coming out has had such a positive effect, too!

[Azrael]

I enjoy music not only for it's situational flexibility but it's downright subjectivity.
I use music for many things, to motivate and inspire, but mostly to heal my wounded self. It is perhaps the ultimate opiate. I have a bass guitar that I've learned a smidgen on, but I'm admittedly pretty half-assed. My true passion is the written word. It allows me to thoroughly exercise my analytical tendencies, plus seriously dick with a persons perspective. When I write I have the power to create my own twisted world in my image. I've not done any in a long time, but fantasy is fun because you literally fabricate reality in itself, or something :bigrin: Sadly I've lost most of my notebooks from my teenage years. Need to get productive again.

[jedinudist]

I love your photographs. I've wanted to say that for about a week now, but I never knew how to bring up the subject... :cutelaugh It's inspiring to hear that coming out has had such a positive effect, too!

Thanks!!!!

:bowdown: EludedSunshine

[mistymockingbird]

I started working professionally as a singer and a pianist when I was 14. Singing in the chorus with an opera company and doing concert work as a soloist. Later moving to more operreta and musical theatre. Jazz piano primarily. For charity functions and the like, you know, background music with the fish bowl for tips on top of the piano. I've worked as a performer in Washington, Idaho, Texas, Colorado, Germany. I've spent time in recording studios. I've arranged music for choirs and I've written piles of stuff for solo voice and piano.

But somewhere along the way, I lost the desire to perform. I enjoy the work that goes into honing my craft. I love rehearsals and master classes and studying. Pushing myself to be better. But performing no longer holds the draw that it once did. I sort of fell into the business side of the arts and found that it was not only suited to my left brained, anal retentive nature, but that it was more fulfilling.

People ask me sometimes if I miss performing. If I'd go back to it. The answer is easy for me, no. I don't miss it, because the music will always be with me. It's just become very personal, no longer on display for the world. Music is very much a part of my life. I still play the piano daily, to keep my chops up, but also to soothe my soul. I'll always be studying voice, singing for myself. Music keeps me centered. It quiets the noise in my head.

As for making a living in the arts, I do it on the management side now. PR and marketing mostly, but will get my masters degree in performing arts management. Hoping to someday be running a theatre of my very own. The arts have given me so much, I want to be able to give some of that back. There are so many talented artists in the world. I want to provide them with a place to hone their craft. I want to expose children to the arts. I want to give the non-performing types a place to go and be inspired.

[Herbwoman39]

Sadly I sing about as well as your average ungreased hinge. It's really depressing because i love musigand i love to sing along with my favorite songs. I just have little talent for it. BUT I tend to follow the Rennaisance faire addage: If you can sing, sing well. If you can't sing, sing LOUD!" That's why you'll see me in my car with the stereo cranked belting out those tunes :bigrin:

My creative side comes into play in other areas of my life. I'm an inventive person in general. I just can't sing :-)

[12voltman59]

I like this thread---

of all forms of art--music is perhaps the one that seems to be able to immediately evoke an emotional response...something I strive to do in the art I do and in my more creative type writing.

The one thing I do regret--when I was young I tried my hand at several instruments but do to being perhaps a tad lazy, gave them up--I do regret that now.

One of the instruments that I did play--I quit because I when I got to be a teenager--I thought it was a bit "geeky."

That was the accordion....

Gosh--I wish I had been exposed to Celtic, Cajun/Zydeco, and Tex-Mex Ranchero styles of music in those days-----the accordionists in all three styles really rock... I would have packed up my bags---moved to someplace in Louisiana to flop and seek out some folks who could have taught me how to play that instrument.

Especially zydeco/cajon....et toi....

I have bought a guitar and have been trying to teach myself some chords without much success--I do believe I will take some lessons and I may see if I can find myself a button accordion so I can learn to play me some cajon/zydeco music....they have festivals and such that feature sessions with some top notch players....