It’s sad.
I feel for folks with OCD. Have you ever thought about how obsession robs folks of joy? OCD folks can’t even like my songs. There’s too many mistakes in them.
If I’m a little pitchy, or the acoustic and the snare don’t hit at the exact right moment, those folks wince. They can’t help it. They have a disorder in their brain that sends up signal flares every time humanity shows up in an audio recording. They literally can’t help it.
Just because it’s sad doesn’t mean it has to be unfair.
My only issue is, why does all music that’s “popular” these days cater to an OCD mindset? I have my disorders, no lie. However, I wouldn’t expect every song to come out to cater to my bipolar. Yet every day, songs come out that cater to OCD music fans. What’s wrong with sounding like a normal human?
Ever watch PBS?
If you ever watched Antiques Roadshow, you know that the vases, quilts, paintings, toys, carvings, jewelry, and all kinds of crap, is worth more being made by hand. The factory shit has uniformity and commonality that make it banal. The good stuff is made handcrafted.
Now look at music. How much personality are you getting in “perfect” music? It’s made in a music factory. Just because you might be OCD doesn’t mean you’re a music fan. It might mean you aren’t. You may just be a pattern fan. Pattern-seeking behavior is often OCD.
Everyone’s a critic. Some are really great at it.
When you review or judge music by quality, whose quality are you referring to? If you hear pitchy vocals or sloppy, why does it not occur to you that sound was intended? Some of us enjoy cutting loose and not sounding like robots. Why should that bother anyone? Must have OCD.
What I’m getting at is as bad of a disorder as OCD is, it shouldn’t dictate popular or even unpopular releases. 1 in 40 adults have experienced OCD. Why in the world is a whole music industry slanted to them? I love them, don’t get me wrong. But why does 1 in 40 get to have the most popular opinions in music? Music is for everyone, not just folks with OCD.
AI music is wonderful for folks with OCD, I suspect. Teddy Swims thinks so. What Teddy and I see differently is the definition of arts and crafts, not AI. If Teddy is OCD, of course he likes AI. It’s smooth, easy, clean. That’s not arts and crafts at all! Arts and crafts are rough, even dirty, messy, and there’s a serious learning curve to be good at it. It’s going to be difficult for someone suffering from OCD. It’s not good or bad, just the way it is.
What’s the point of a message?
Music isn’t about getting things perfect. It mostly never has been. That’s a recent notion. Music is about getting it right. Perfect and right are not the same things. You can make something beautiful and right, but not perfect. I mean, what do you think you are? Hopefully something similar. I imagine that’s hard for the 1.2 percent of the population of OCD folks out there. We do not do them a service by letting them pick what everyone listens to.
Adventures in listening.
Being a music fan can be gritty. It’s not for the feint of heart. You hear lots of difficult things. But that’s the adventure. OCD type listening behavior only hears mistakes. It’s a bummer. I feel bad for them. But I don’t let them make my playlists.
In chasing fortune, we left behind crafts. Cooking is not as popular. Music has robotic tendencies. Easel sales are at an all-time low. Folks who demand perfection for the sake of competition in a market have lost what it is they’re looking at. Humans. Humans are beautiful because they’re imperfectly perfect. Other humans compel us to heights and thoughts we’d never get to otherwise. How does robotic perfection celebrate any of that?
This is many folk art and crafts people out there.
Many musicians I’ve come across have been afraid to put themselves out there because they don’t feel “good enough,” for scrutiny. This must be OCD. I feel bad for that musician. They’re probably sitting on good messages.
Key thing about me
To be honest, I’ve always had a fire inside me that told me I made good songs. I don’t feel like I’m a great musician. I don’t feel underpaid. But I do feel very fortunate I make songs l like listening to. I like it, so I share it. I feel bad for folks without that fire inside.
I really do feel bad for you if you can’t enjoy music, not just mine.
OCD snuffs out those fires. I feel bad that happens. I’m glad those folks don’t tell me what to listen to. They seem to have a lid on the market, tho.
Return to home.
Food for thought.
Judy Garland makes me cry every single time I listen to “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” It is the perfect song for sad Christmas vibes to me. One thing, she’s pitchy. Doesn’t bother me. I don’t even think about it. But it makes me wonder how many folks miss out on this amazing song because they can’t get past pitchy? That’s not Judy Garland’s problem. Obviously.