Creating Lasting Music

Learning how to turn your personal life experiences into music that will past the test of time is something that artists and musicians looking to make a big impact in the music industry should be focusing on.  You only last long if you’ve made a big impact in other people’s lives.  If you haven’t impacted a person’s life and emotions, people will listen to your music sometimes, but their interest will slowly fade away.  Your listeners will carry your legacy, not you.  After all, what is the point of music anyway:  to vent, to inspire, to teach, to insult, to gather, to speak or to reach?  Yes you may argue that all of these things reside in music and music can consist of all things.  

But, long lasting, impacting, life changing and emotion driving music comes from a deeper part of our being. Your life has a purpose greater than your needs and wants.  If you live in this way, you will start to gravitate towards creating a type of music that will always be felt by the people who listen.  

For instance imagine a baby crying outside of an abandoned shack with torn clothes, laying on a dirt road with no family members and nobody to take care of him.  He had been abandoned and starving for 3 days.  Nobody came to his rescue until a day before it was too late.  A few hours later and the baby would’ve died of starvation.  Why does this story impact you? Why do we feel sadness for this baby? God has written on our hearts what life should be like regardless of if we’ve ever picked up a bible or not. Deep down we all recognize and can relate to the fact that we want that baby to be safe.  

The problem is, the music that we create doesn’t connect deeply on that level at all so there is no impact whatsoever.  For example; if you want to make a song about how your day went, don’t just write a normal song about waking up trying to make your way to the top.  Even though we all are trying to do the same thing and most people can relate, it will not become a legendary song.  Don’t focus on writing lyrics; focus on evoking emotion.  Instead, make the song about your morning only, or maybe about one particular moment in your morning. Talk about a moment in your life that evoked a big emotion and focus on making the listener feel that emotion when they listen.  

We may tell a story with our emotions and take others on the ride with us.  This can be done with your tones, melodies, volume changes, speed, strength changes in notes, lyrics etc.  Creating a lasting song is a musicians dream. Not only will the song last for decades, but the musician should earn royalty payments even after they have passed away. The beginning is learning how to shine the light of God through music, and this light is love in the midst of hardship.  If you believe in God or not, this is the way that life works.  We rise and we fall, we learn and we grow.  And we all realize that life is not guaranteed on this earth.  Our lives are fragile.  When all the knowledge of this world passes away and life comes to nothing and the clothes are wiped away from our bodies and our desires no longer hang on advancing our lives, it is evident that we are put on this earth to love the people who are here and on it with us.  If you’ve made it through hard times, speak about it and tell how someone else can do the same.  The person who listens to that song and receives help will always be your fan because you provided them with a gift bigger than just a good song to dance to.  Make songs that matter to people’s lives. Tell someone how much you love them in a song.  People will inevitably feel those songs.  Make songs that evoke emotions.  Here is a list of only a couple songs that have lasted the test of time.  These songs testify to the facts written in this short blog.  Do your hard research on the most influential music of all time and you will recognize that surviving in the music industry starts with love.  Without it, you will be fighting an uphill battle the whole way.

Rock My World

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1kHeeEMe-s

A Change Is Gonna Come

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbO2_077ixs

Making It In The Music Industry

I’ve only scratched the surface of the many long hours of dedication it takes to become a legend in the music industry.  Throughout the years many artists, musicians and producers have come and gone.   Only a few have been able to sustain a meaningful career.  Speaking directly to urban Hip Hop and R&B genres, you really need to know your roots before embarking on a journey of becoming very successful in your field of choice.  If you’ve read my first blog post, you will see a definition of what I think success is.  This blog post is going to focus on the need to be connected with your passions so much that you want to know everything about its past, present and future.

I create Hip Hop and R&B music and after doing a lot of research, I realized that I’m nowhere near the point where I want to be.  I’ve realized that the knowledge that I currently have is light-years away from the knowledge of some of the leading music makers in the Hip Hop and R&B genre.  Being connected with your passion means constantly looking to learn, constantly planning and wanting to absorb information from people who are smarter than you.  If you are not humble enough to admit the fact that you need help, then it will be very difficult for your journey to truly begin. 

In this industry, if you are not learning, then you are not moving.  And this industry is all about making big moves.  One of the best things that any of us can do is learn something new each day.  Learn something new that interests you each day.  You have to be truly interested in learning.  You have to be willing to spend hours on You Tube discovering new things related to your industry.  You have to be willing to spend hours reading books related to your field or be willing to spend $40 for a 2 day bus ticket to New York for a music conference.  Your passion and drive is one thing that will fuel you in your career. 

From experience, when your passion for learning slows down, your personal “Success” within your industry will follow suit.  There is an interview with some of Hip Hop’s most influential music producers/beat makers hosted by Red Bull’s Music Academy Festival.  Take the time out to watch this interview in full.  Watch it even if you are not interested in becoming a music producer.  This interview says a lot about the passion it takes to truly survive in the music industry.  Thank you for reading.  Be on the lookout for more blogs coming soon in the next months to come.

Native Instruments. (2015, June 10). Hip Hop's big leaguers talk beatmaking and MASCHINE. Retrieved July 12, 2015.

The Youth's Success Depends on Us

The Youth's Success Depends on Us: 

Refusing Mediocracy and Investing in The Future.  

         Why do some people fail and others succeed?  Sometimes there is a thin line between opportunity and being able to grasp it.  There is a big difference between seeing opportunities and making something out of them.  But what happens to the people who cannot see those opportunities even when they present themselves in plain sight?  Are they blamed for not knowing any better?  Do you discredit them for their inability to seize what was in front of them? 

         Everyone starts as an innocent child.  The way that these children are raised has a very large effect on how this world will be in the future.  According to John C. Maxwell, “even the most introverted person will influence 10,000 people in his or her lifetime.”  Take a city with a population of 1 million.  The amount of people being influenced in a lifetime would be 10 billion.  Why don’t we invest in the youth as much as we invest in our future?  We can invest in the future by investing in our children.  It is as simple as that. (How parenting affects children)

How can we invest in the youth?  By creating content geared towards loving and molding them to be the best people they can be.  Why does it seem like the content that matters is never the content that goes “viral?”  Instead, we have completely pointless video’s, music and content on TV that do not promote the well being of others.  This is why we fail our youth; because not a lot of people are investing in the well being of the next generation.  We only begin to realize our faults when we are close to dying.  We have 100 or so years to live on this earth.  The least we could do is fill our youth will perseverance, boldness, love and hope.   

I guarantee the ones who don’t succeed are the ones who don’t think they could succeed in the first place.  With technology at an all time high, reality shows flooding tv stations, radio shows that play music geared towards material possessions, children will only follow what they see and hear.  Give it another 20 or 30 years and these children will be running the economy, if there is one.  What do you want to feed the next generation? 

I am a student of the entertainment industry.  I have a Bachelors in Recording Arts and I am also earning my Masters Degree in Entertainment Business. Personally this industry needs a complete overhaul.  There is content out there that has high value and is geared towards making a change.  But the focus of the industry is on other matters.  For the focus to change, people in the industry need to help change it.  The responsibility also lies with the listeners and watchers.  We need to refuse mediocre content.

-Justin M. Black

JustinMalikBlack@gmail.com

Redefining Your Success

My personal definition of success is, "being a part of something bigger than yourself, while loving it enough not to let go for any reason."  Success is holding on to something so great, that you want to spend your whole life continuing to pursue it.  Money, fame, big record deals, and worldwide sales are not the attributes that made Michael Jackson, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles and BB King successful.  What you see is only the after effect of their individual desires and successes within themselves.  Many artists today are going on tour and getting great sales.  This does not mean that they will be remembered 100 years from now.  To explain how to survive this chaotic industry would take much more time than I have at this moment.  However, given the right insights, you can learn how those meaningful legacies are left.  This blog will highlight facts that will help you make strides in your journey of success.

Most of the time, we think success is achieved by a set of rules that will lead us to what we are looking for.  Many times, we fail take a few minutes out of our day to reflect on what the rules actually encompass.  We spend countless days following a path made up by our own thoughts, feelings and desires.  We make the rules.  This is not a bad thing.  However, if we do not recognize it while it is happening, then problems arise.  

Success starts at a deeper level than most of us tend to grasp on a daily basis.  To survive in the music industry, you have to stop looking towards the industry.  You have to look inside yourself.  What you see is only a shadow of what is happening inside the minds of these great artists.  The only difference between the ones who we never heard about is money, promotion & marketing.  Later posts will go into more detail about that concept.  

One person who has truly stood the test of time in this industry is Blues legend, B.B. King.  There is a documentary about B.B called The Life of Riley that was released not too long ago.  This documentary goes through the life of a man who has been in the industry his whole life.  As of today, B.B King is the “King of Blues.”  The best part about this statement is the fact that he is still alive.  He is a living legend.  B.B is someone who has and will continue to stand the test of time.  Explaining his journey would be very hard.  However, watching this documentary will highlight key insights about someone who has achieved a permanent spot in the music history books for years to come.  It is much deeper than music.  If you watch closely, you will assess that much of this documentary correlates with the writing in this post. B.B. King The Life of Riley Video

Michael Jackson should also be looked at in depth.  Try not to focus on his career.  Try to focus on his life.  The way he lived his life was a reflection of the thoughts and feelings that he had on the inside.  Please note how Michael stood for something a lot bigger than himself.  The music that he made was for a purpose people felt it all across the world.  Take a listen to “Earth Song,” by Michael Jackson.  

Earth Song Video

This song highlights many problems that society has laid upon this earth.  The emotion in this song speaks volumes.  If you are an avid music listener, please sit with this song and listen to it about 10 times.  Also, try to listen in a quiet environment that will allow you to get the full affect of the music.  This song is one of many that caught the hearts of people all around the world.  Why is that?  It connects with our hearts because the music was made from the heart and voices opinions and thoughts that are usually kept quiet by the average person.  It is something that the world recognizes because we all know that this earth is only temporary.  He made people focus on things that really matter in life through one song.  That is success.