It struck me recently that probably a lot of the people whose music we listen to and revere was, most likely, born out of very repetitive listening habits on the part of the creator, if they even really listen to music outside of their own.

Do you think this is the case?

Or are musicians constantly listening to other people's music as they create their own?

Poll result (12 votes) Yes. (10 votes) Vote No. (2 votes) Vote

1) The musician is inspired by something. They want to go back to this for reference.

2) Usually, when you create something, you are proud of it. This means you will probably want to hear it, criticize it and analyze ways to make it better. You can only do this by listening to it.

3) If you are actively writing songs, you really don't have time to play a lot of records and just sit with them.


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>1) The musician is inspired by something. They want to go
>back to this for reference.

What if what they are inspired by is--as often is the case--the work of their peers? Or are you using "inspiration" in the mystical sense of some anointing from heaven?

>2) Usually, when you create something, you are proud of it.
>This means you will probably want to hear it, criticize it and
>analyze ways to make it better. You can only do this by
>listening to it.

Nah. In my experience, most artists create and then move on from that moment. A lot of folks actually can't stand to listen to their own stuff too much. I know I can't... because I analyze it and criticize it to the point of self-immolation and eventual paralysis.

>3) If you are actively writing songs, you really don't have
>time to play a lot of records and just sit with them.

NOBODY is writing songs 24/7/365. And NOBODY lives in a vacuum. Particularly not professional, commercial musicians.

The process of creating can be so intense that one ends up depleting all one's creative oxygen, and you gotta open up a window to let some fresh air in from outside so you're not endlessly recycling your own carbon dioxide.

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>Nah. In my experience, most artists create and then move on
>from that moment. A lot of folks actually can't stand to
>listen to their own stuff too much.

It's worth pointing out that between a song is written and released, there is *generally* lots of work done in the studio with numerous takes etc. Then it's the mixing which can take days or even months. Then it's about the master and co-signing its release (of course, not all artists have this luxury; I guess I'm referring more to self-containded acts here).

And of course, there is the live-situation where the act may spend a while rehearsing a good chunk of the recent album in order to make it sound good (actually, if it's a band, that often happened long before the recording) only to play the same fucking songs night after night.

It's VERY natural to not listen to your own material if you put all those things into consideration. In fact, artists who sit around listening to themselves *after* they had finished the record are somewhat suspect to me; I read somewhere that Prince do that; it explains a lot (and no, I don't want to turn this to another Prince-post; still, for better or worse, I do think the idea of Prince actually listening to himself because there's nothing else around somewhat disturbing not to mention telling regarding his music in the past 25 years)...

bottom line you know who is hot and happening and you know who is fading out.

you name the genre and I will tell you they know who is hot and happening.

Miles Davis knew who was smoking as a trumpet player, who he needed to watch and who was a jive turkey and who needed a hit.

cats know and watch and read Billboard.

mistermaxxx R.Kelly, Michael Jackson,Stevie wonder,Rick James,Marvin Gaye,El Debarge, Barry WHite Lionel RIchie,Isleys EWF,Lady T.,Kid creole and coconuts,the crusaders,kc sunshine band,bee gees,jW,sd,NE,JB

Miami Heat, New York Yankees,buffalo bills

was at the manager's hotel room asking to hear it. The listened to it, then begged him to play it again. They heard it then left. If I could remember some months later they finished Revolver.

I think the same happens with alot of those top artists, Mike Jackson, Stevie used to listen to records and ask to be introduced to the musicians that had those keyboards, your Miles Davis example is a prime one.

Some people create in a vacuum (like Brian Wilson) but most absorb from the environment.

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http://adevotedappraisal.tumblr.com - Essays, reviews, short stories and free writes on music, film and life around us.

self isolation is an important thing in seeing through the creative muse, but they *must* come up for air to put it all into context.

vladislav delay is an interesting counter example though. some truly inspired work and he spends the majority of his time in complete isolation. but even in that case he does a tour and gets a feel for whats going on around then back into his isolated bubble.

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Big PEMFin H & z's
"I ain't no entertainer, and ain't trying to be one. I am 1 thing, a musician." © Miles

"When the music stops he falls back in the abyss."

And that doesn't stop at any point, it's a continual process. Part of studying your craft is listening to other music. Whether it is your peers, music from the past, music from other genres, whatever it is.

whether or not they're listening to music as they write their next masterpiece may differ from person to person.

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avy by buckshot_defunct

When they're still young at making tunes and trying to get on, they're listening to tons of music (old & new) but once they get signed, get production work, etc. they listen to less and less.

Some get to the point where they don't listen to anything but the radio and their own music or music of the people they're working with/for; I hope I never get that jaded, I love listening to new music.

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"We in here talking about later career Prince records
& your fool ass is cruising around in a time machine
trying to collect props for a couple of sociopathic degenerates" - s.blak

Personally I don't see how you don't listen to music and still make it. If you don't listen to the music in your genre so you don't bite....I get that, but if you haven't heard much of any music where will the music go?

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...if you think about it, isn't that why you start making music in the first place? Because it's something you love!


That being said, I also don't think *most* musicians are particularly different from music-fans in general meaning that they are the most passionate listeners in their teens and maybe let it hang on until the twenties but after that they just go back to the old favorites they heard back in the day while buying/downloading/listening to just a few new (new here meaning everything from current shit to old stuff that's new to them) albums every year.

Othersie, I don't think there's a rule as a whole; you have people like Miles Davis who were consistently checking out new shit; on the other hand, you have someone like Keith Richards who just go on year after year about the fucking Robert Johnson-record he heard in '61 and Chuck Berry and Stax.

Also, there's the musicians that claim that they never listen to anything within their genre so as to remain "independent" while going on about classical and jazz while playing three-chord rock or a particular brand of pretentious assholes who claim they don't listen to ANY other music in order to keep their creative process "Pure" and instead get their influence from movies or stand-up comedians or the birds, trees and ants...

Basically, I don't think there is a rule of thumb here; it's ERY individual.

Some I personally remember as standing out:

Robert Plant back in the 80's when he said he listened to Husker Du and Butthole Surfers. Can you imagine Eric Clapton in that era listening to Husker Du? He seemed to have lost his interest in cutting-edge *new* music by the 90's but it was fun to read an interview with him from 98 when he was talking about some dude sending him rehearsal tapes from the 60's of Love and Skip Spence. Basically, he was *still* a collector/fan/dork, even while being a multi-millionaire rock-icon; I'm not *that* much of a Zeppelin-fan but shit made me happy...

An interview with Brian Wilson where he just went on and on about hearing Ronettes "Be my baby" for the first time. Actually, he has done that in several interviews. I suspect music was "frozen" to him then; that was his goal-to outdo "Be my baby". Sure, he may have been in competition with the Beatles etc. but a part of me suspect he was *still* trying to outdo "Be my baby" years later. Actually, that may explain why Beach Boys sounded so terribly out of date by 67-...-he was still trying to beat Spector; that Hendrix or Cream or Creedence or (insert name) was ruling the rock-landscape didn't phase him even when Beach Boys dropped out of sight commercially. Maybe a bit of a stretch but *I* like to think of it like that

When thrash-metal legend gary Holt (Exodus, now in Slayer as Hanneman's (RIP!) replacement) said that he collected 80's Prince-bootlegs and loved Madonna (only 80's there too; he hated her later stuff)in the same era *and* said they inspired him (*how*?) in a swedish metal-magazine. Generally, when metal-musicians in this segment of the mag are asked what outside stuff that inspire them, it's ALWAYS NIN/Pink Floyd/prog/Dead Can Dance (seriously, I suspect most of this bands fanbase are metal-musicians after reading this shit every issue)/Massive Attack/Muse/ (insert anything "dark" and/or "weird"/proggy) so when he said he dug Prince, shit made me SO happy, I don't know why; I guess I was just waiting for a metal-legend (post-70's; the older guys are more open-minded obviously) to NOT be predictable and "evil"/dark/whatever...

see the father of this site

what i find interesting is artists talk a lot about music outside of their "genre"
that they like

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Prince covered a lot of artists during his career so yes, he was inspired.