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
A Change Is Gonna Come
