Art vs $$$ first.

PEOPLE LOOK FOR AN EDGE

It's no different from Sony selling Mariah Carey singles for 49 cents to go number one. Everybody's trying to rig the system. But when this is so, it's he who is honest and has credibility who gains people's ears. That's what today's musical artists don't understand. That by chasing the buck, whoring themselves out to anybody who'll pay, they're losing their identity, they're becoming no different from their compatriots. Want a tribe? Go your own way, have integrity, speak from the heart, people will follow.

I love great art, no matter the medium.

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... "Go your own way, have integrity, speak from the heart, people will follow." I've heard this sentiment many times. I used to believe it when I was young and going my own way and speaking from my heart. No ... people don't always follow. It would be nice if it were true. But just as often going your own way and speaking from your heart gets you nowhere. When you've spent decades speaking from your heart and going your own way, waiting for the followers to show up and they just don't ... then what? What if you know you're not "wrong" and still believe in what you're doing but still have to struggle to make ends meet and don't get the recognition you know you deserve while others seem to just breeze along. Then what?
— Mark Newstetter
Please forgive me if I sound cynical. But even though I am an optimist by nature my experience (and the experience of others I know and have known) has been that a person can work really hard for many years and believe in their work and in spite of their talent and perseverance, find themselves shut out. It's fine to retain ones integrity as an artist in a philosophical sense, but that doesn't pay the rent and you will have less time and energy to "be an artist" (if that's what you know you are) as your bills come in and your future becomes less and less certain. Maybe this particular bit of wisdom is an issue for me because of my own idealism. I have always felt strongly about my art and have always believed it when I'd hear more successful people urging me to be true to my art and not "sell out" or compromise for commercial considerations. That was until I got doors shut on me for doing just that. No matter. I would press on. I would continue to learn my craft and grow as an artist. Sooner or later there would be some reward beyond the doing of the thing. Sooner or later I could stop breaking my back unloading trucks and waiting tables and stocking shelves. Well ... now I teach guitar and still write songs ... because that's what I love doing, but it's a continuous day to day struggle to pay rent on a small apartment and slowly see my small savings diminish as I wonder when I'll get what I once believed was going to come my way. I don't know ... maybe I shouldn't expect anyone to care. I've known many people over the years who have gone on to considerable notoriety and who seem to have forgotten they ever knew me. Funny. I'm writing this with mixed emotions, but I can't help but feel if I don't get it out of my system somewhere, that I'll just be eaten up by it ... and that would be worse than whatever consequences I may suffer for this rant - considering the well intentioned advice to which it responds. Hardly a day goes by - or has gone by for many years now - that I don't ask myself "what am I doing wrong?"
— Mark Newstetter