Does the Age of an Artist Matter?

[GovernorSilver]

3 hours ago, Anderton said:

I do a project every year. It's interesting to look back at them, because I get to do exactly what I want. There are no commercial pressures, so the projects are all unfiltered and very different.

 

I do think that my production chops improve from year-to-year, but I've also drifted more to "composition" from "playing." For example, I'm more interested in adding a sampled cello in just the right place than playing a blistering guitar solo. That might be a function of getting older, and wanting to explore more directions rather than sticking with what worked in the past.

 

Aging gracefully is something I agree with, for sure. Even when I do something more EDM-like stylistically, it still has a veneer of experience from playing other forms of music.

 

 

You're still a relevant musician in my book.

[Notes_Norton]

8 hours ago, Anderton said:

I do a project every year. It's interesting to look back at them, because I get to do exactly what I want. There are no commercial pressures, so the projects are all unfiltered and very different.

 

I do think that my production chops improve from year-to-year, but I've also drifted more to "composition" from "playing."

There is more than one right way to make a career in music. I've listened to some samples, and you do nice work, Craig.

 

All of my projects are commercial. I've been playing popular music most of my life, and really enjoy doing it.

 

If a song gets requested often enough, or if a special, customer makes a request, I do my best to make a backing track and sing/play the most fun parts live on stage. We've had varied requests from Glenn Miller, to Bob Marley, to Bob Dylan, to Aretha Franklin, to Zac Brown to Metallica and everything in-between. It's fun putting different genre hats on and working to make what I'm doing authentic. And making the backing tracks hone my MIDI production chops. I don't even want to play some of the tracks I made back in the 80s anymore, and I've redone a lot of the ones that are still popular.

 

Writing aftermarket styles for Band-in-a-Box is where I get original creativity out. I play drum, bass, and comp parts that come out of my head. Sometimes they are similar to songs out there, sometimes not. I don't make them with a particular song in mind, although sometimes they will fit, others not.

 

Years ago, I had a stint in a jazz band, It was fun, the leader taught jazz at the University of Miami, and was a whiz on the guitar. He also played with Ira Sullivan for a while, and big giants of jazz used to come sit in. At times, I felt like a guppy in a tank full of whales, but I kept within my limits, and I think fooled those giants into thinking I was a better player than I believe I am. It was challenging, interesting, and fulfilling, but one day a week meant I needed a day job to pay the mortgage, so I eventually left it. Day job and I didn't get along well.

 

I think playing music for a living beats any day job I can think of. I'm not a wage slave to some faceless corporation. There is no boss telling me what to do, and I'm living life on my own terms. I can take or refuse jobs (sorry, we're booked). I profit from good decisions, and hopefully learn from the bad ones.

 

From my first pro gig when I was in junior high school, to the last one I played (yesterday) I'm having so much fun on the gig, it doesn't seem like work. I'm not rich by any stretch of the imagination, I live modestly without luxuries, but I think I'm living a charmed life.

 

I started gigging in my adolescence, and here I am in my Social Security days, still gigging, still pulling a crowd, so I guess, no, age doesn't matter.

 

Insights and incites by Notes ♫

[Anderton]

5 hours ago, GovernorSilver said:

 

You're still a relevant musician in my book.

 

Thanks for that. It made me think.

 

Perhaps the reason why I think my music gets "better" is because I have more depth of experience to draw on lyrically. For me, lyrics and music are inseparable. Better lyrics lead to better music, and vice versa. All my songs are true stories, or at least based on them. So whether the vocals are "better" or not, they have increasing conviction. I believe that draws people in more than vocal acrobatics, which I can't do.

 

Three years ago, my wife was dying with no hope of survival. I felt compelled to write a song that wished her goodbye, because words weren't enough. Writing that song crossed a threshold of what music meant to me. She didn't live long enough to hear the song, but writing, singing, and recording it permanently changed my relationship to music.

[zeronyne]

I think some genres have an age limit built-in. Genres that have an added visual component, genres that have a lifestyle component, and genres that consider anyone under 30 to be a “prodigy” will have various restrictions of audience tolerance.

 

I discovered the KPop industry in the last few years, and I am older than almost every single producer active in the genre. The biggest girl group right now in the industry besides BlackPink has only two of five members that could drink in the US, and only three could vote.

 

But still, I’m powering ahead, hoping to maybe present my work THROUGH a younger producer or just being completely anonymous.

 

I’m still learning music and learning FROM music every day, but like bungee jumping and crypto, I’ll leave some stuff that I like to younger hearts.

[Notes_Norton]

23 hours ago, Anderton said:

 

<...snip...>

 

Three years ago, my wife was dying with no hope of survival. I felt compelled to write a song that wished her goodbye, because words weren't enough. Writing that song crossed a threshold of what music meant to me. She didn't live long enough to hear the song, but writing, singing, and recording it permanently changed my relationship to music.

Sorry about your wife. I don't know what I'd do if mine died. I'm not a songwriter. I'd probably play screaming blues on the sax as loud as my lungs could power it. Then I'd sit down, cry for a month, and get on with my life.

 

Losing a life partner has got to be tough. I'm glad there was a silver lining for you.

 

In my duo, I play a lot of genres, but Rap and KPop are not two of them. Not of any personal reason, our audience doesn't relate to that. We do play a few songs with rap choruses, but not an entire song. When playing everybody's music, if you go too hard core in any one direction it'll be nobody's music.

 

The last two songs we learned for our crowd were "Nothing Else Matters by Metallica and "Summer Rain" by Johnny Rivers. Both recent requests.

 

Back on topic...

 

I've noticed through the years, that here in the USA a black, male, singer can be a star in a younger generation's pop music easier than a white come can. I don't know why that is, or if I'm seeing it correctly.

 

As a musician, I don't care about anything but the music, but the public is very different.

 

zeronyne, I can't see a grandma being in a KPop girls band but I can see one as a producer/engineer/session musician, behind the scenes.

 

Notes ♫

[ProfD]

In the Pop music business, age definitely matters especially for newcomers in certain genres/styles of music.  Surely, there have been exceptions. 

 

Tina Turner was mentioned.  She had to toil on the gig circuit a few years.  Then, with the help of a few good people, Ms. Turner was able to reinvent herself to become a Pop star of the 1980s. 

 

Otherwise, artists still lie about their age in order to be accepted by a certain audience. 😎

[KenElevenShadows]

I suppose the genre matters just a bit!

 

K-Pop and hip-hop might be a little different than bluegrass or jazz.

[techristian]

I don't have the same stamina as when I was younger, but I have way more ideas, and facility for studio work. Age has also taught me when to play less !!

 

Dan