Pretty long lasting thread with lots of good observations. One question I have for everybody: How many "Big Boy’ recordings do you listen to and have mix critiques that come up? I can think of a bunch of massive selling recordings over the years where things slipped through the cracks that shouldn’t have, but never suffered in popularity. When you compare that to the bashing you get on here, it puts things into perspective, and allows you to take most things with a big grain of salt.
Most people on here are truly trying to help, so applaud yourself for bravery by putting something up, then take the good with the bad.
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I post songs for bashing (although I haven’t done so in a long time) purely because I’m not sure what I’m doing.
I’m in my own world of writing/creativity/mixing…everything.
Generally, I usually think the songs are at least okay. Every thing else, I really have no perspective on, particularly the mixing.
So, in a nutshell, it’s the mixing element more than anything else as that’s where I’m most likely to go badly wrong. At least (guess) 25 people on here are far more experienced and have more finely tuned ears than I have.
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Yes, I have made lots of observations on this as I’m listening. It’s surprising, but then music is such an art form it kind of reminds you that there are “no rules” in a sense when it comes to creativity. Whether a certain thing was intended or not, it met some bar of acceptability at the time it was produced.
And the reasons some (or many) records that are massive selling don’t always have to do with the quality of the song or the mix (which are subjective anyway) … they may have to do with catchy hooks and well funded promotion by record companies and radio stations (or now streaming services). Promotion many times is the name of the game, and if people believe something is supposed to be good, many times they will believe it without question because that’s the popular thing or they don’t know any better, or the song just happened to resonate with them at a point in their life where it made a strong connection (even to a socially relevant historical era).
Marketing campaigns and social persuasion can be powerful seductions.
Yes, exactly my intent for the thread. Take what may help you, with the advice as a guide, but follow your own instincts and intuition to implement - and leave the rest if it doesn’t apply. Try to not get a big head if there’s great praise, and also don’t let some criticism ruin your day. They are opinions, and ultimately it’s probably most important that you are happy with the results.
To be able to get good feedback at all is a gift.
And what is also a gift is your ability to create! Before anything called BTR existed, I wrote and recorded songs and did my best. Then, I would marvel at the fact that I made a song! A creation you can listen to that seems cohesive and makes some sense. Then, I would put one or more songs on a cassette tape and give them to people to listen to. Even there, I got praise and criticism. The praise was along the lines of “Wow, you did that?” and the criticism was usually about not being radio friendly or something, which is how most people had been ‘trained’ to like music. I was always so proud of creating something, even if it was weird. It was a reflection of my inner self coming out to greet the world. My own Van Gogh, without the ear surgery. 