Just a little angry

gavinbas · Member

Just a little angry

Jack · Senior Member

...and I'll share a little known but not much cared about secret right back at ya. It comes in two parts, it may turn into three, but for now, two(2) will get us going.

1. Whoever is biting you about rating your self, it isn't anyone that has been with this website for the past 18 months of it's existance. How would I know that? Because most of us that have BEEN here for that time realize that there are some things that just will not change, and I will enumerate with two more sub-points.

A. Rating yourself is a childish, foolhardy method that in the end only serves to show what an idiot the rater really is.

B. The music they submit will really suck, it will be moronic and the rater will post scathing reviews in the song comments area until it no longer suits the Id and will then spill over into the forum area only ready and able to kick sand and raise hell with any yahoo that steps into the conversation.

2. Having been here for those 18 months, I have noticed a cycle, a trend if you will. While more people become familier with Artist Weekly that DO play music, there are always family members, husbands, wives, friends and current concubines who do NOT play music that show up, after telling someone from the aforementioned group about AW. Now you have the "artist" who will rake you over the fire for rating yerself, the friend of the artist that will say your song is aw-ite and possibly the current concubine that may or may not say anything at all.

It isn't a "we" thing...dig?

It is actually a group mentality thing, an extrodinary event that seems to resurface time and time again with no prodding or support from anyone of the five or six members who actually monitor this sight on a semi-regular basis, much like you would monitor a bad wreck:) A wreck, I might add, that we all have been part of and will most likely continue to do so in the future.

3.(I told you there may be an addendum) I don't have 50 close friends and I am close to fifty, so you will forgive me when I say, fifty close friends my fat ass:) If I had to throw a name at what I thought was achieved by using facebook, it would have to be, poor marketing stratagy.

Solicting people that you do not know to review something that they may not have had interest in to begin with can often bring a negative effect.

Which is what you got...

p.s. I dunno if anyone told ya or not, but those ratings are only there to passify the musicians while the numbers are being placed on last weeks submissions. I wouldn't place too much stock in them. Or what the masses say about your song. Fact is I wouldn't place too much stock in what I say:)

-- Edited by Jack at 20:48, 2007-06-11

gavinbas · Member

well, i'd be dumb not to defend myself, but i'd also be dumb to keep up the snarling personal comments, I'm sorry if i offended anyone, particularly any veterans that have seen this happen before, i'll admit i do feel a little foolish after realizing it probably does cycle up again and again....
As far as facebook friends, the way the program works you go along building friends over the course of years- and it's not hard to keep in contact with them all. The exact number of people that recieved the message is 102, i also instructed them to leave their name. These are people from middle school through college, summer programs, and a trip acrtoss europe i took a year ago. There really are 100 people i can call my friends (maybe close is stretching it) and i have on average between 35-45 reviews per song, with about 15 comments, many of them leaving their name or initials or privately emailing me indicating which was their review. So I'll admit i was exagerating the numbers a bit, but i reiterate the reason the numbers are high is because the majority of the reviews are friends (or aquaintances) of mine. The 35-45 that did follow the link are mostly pretty close friends actually although there is one i haven't seen in a long time. anyway, my point is i don't see anything wrong with this strategy, if it is set up for you already. In fact the people that expressed interest or support are the ones i will continue to message and later add to the email list.
I'm sorry for lumping everyone in the forums into one negative entity, that was wrong and i take it back. I wonder if a simple one time vote mechanism could solve the problem, although i see it being an administrative nightmare to make everyone sign up or install an ip tracker that is sofisticated enough to limit votes.
Finally, yeah i shouldn't get so fired up about something that doesn't even really affect the end result, which, it seems, doesn't affect the musician's career quite as directly anyway, i'm starting to see it now as more of a "maybe you'll get noticed" thing anyway- which i guess has little to no input from somebody telling me i rated myself.
so finally thanks jack for the good perspective, and as one little question i cant resist asking, did you mean my music sucks? Or were you talking in general about whats happened in the past. If so i would love for you to come out with it, but with actual constructive criticism so i can improve my songwriting. what makes me mad is

"Kinda cool how you can rate your own song over and over, huh? Wouldn't you be interested to know what people really think of your music? I think this is a 2 flame song."

with no hint as to why its a 2 flame song. something simple would work, like i didn't like whatever or its lacking in whatever.......and i'd take it like i should but this is just a bad review.

Ronnie · Senior Member

When the few of us, who actually take the time to rate these songs, see a whole bunch by the same artist rated at 4½ and 5, it's only natural to assume they were pumped up by the artist himself, and that's a big turnoff. Although some of your songs are really quite good, they're not 5 flamers, and your strategy of directing a multitude of acquaintances to them actually produced a negative result.

Also, it would have been a better strategy to not post so much all at once, but rather to spread them out over the weeks, because listening to the same artist over and over gets tedious, and all of your material may not have even been heard. Anyway, I hope you have more left to share, as there's definitely some quality there.

gavinbas · Member

hey thanks for the advice- i bet your right about spreading them all out, that would be better for the regulars anyway. as far as having friends rate me, I got alot of good feedback alot quicker than i would otherwise have gotten, although i did get some crummy as well.

Jack · Senior Member

Ronnie wrote:

"... who actually take the time to rate these songs..."

That'ed be you and who else?

Ronnie · Senior Member

Who else indeed!.....You, Mark, CA's still around, I think, 2 or 3 others. Songs used to get dozens of ratings, but these days, when there's no scarcity of submissions, no one's bothering with it. How can that be explained? ...

Jack · Senior Member

yeah...nah, I don't rate the work, seldom...if it deserves a bump, maybe...same with if it warrants a push under, but not as a rule. I Just listen, if it catches my ear I may open my mouth, may not...mostly not.

I may still come over and start something in the comments area if I'm really bored, but whatever it is it's pretty much something I stand behind, the good the bad and the ugly:)

SteveHanlon · Veteran Member

Well, I still rate songs and Mchristopher does as well, perhaps some others.

But it has gotten to be a pretty pathetic site in terms of a place to help song writers. Even after a song has won or not won, we have no ideas why the judges thought song A was worthy and Song X doesn't cut it.

I'm not sure why I really keep coming back... I guess just to see if something starts to jump start itself again...

Not too many folks really want to co-write. Not too many folks want to participate in playing parts or singing parts...

Certainly not the charged site it was 11 months ago.

I have often thought of starting a song writing club here where I live (Vegas). Kind of like a dance class, where you have to switch partners every 10 minutes. But switch partner per song. One would have to write in different styles. Have to be the lyricist on some songs while being the composer on others and 50/50 roles on other songs. By the end of the 5 months, we'd all have demo reels.

Anyway, Jack I believe it's your turn to jump in and lecture us on the nature of creativity and the psychology of this site and how we're all just specks of subatomic matter holding guitars fluctuating in infinite space...

Wait, did I just hear a pulse in here...?

Coffee Anon · Senior Member

Yawn. A five flame rating and a two bucks will get you a cup of coffee. BC and his 100 imaginary facebook friends pick the weekly winners without regard to ratings anyway. So flame on little man, flame on.

Ronnie · Senior Member

Now you're back and Jack's gone. Can't stir up no **** no how in here these days ...

Jack · Senior Member

and look at that picture...my my, if CA was good looking he could use his own instead of yours Ronnie:)

Ronnie · Senior Member

Ok then, here's what CA looks like. I really am cuter though, dontcha think? ...

Jack · Senior Member

I think, like gavinbas pointed out way up there, it's good to shed ourselves of secrets...such an awful weight to on otherwise tiresome day, wouldn't you agree?

Ronnie · Senior Member

Go for it! Get your "mug" up here ...

Jack · Senior Member

TV reporter in Omaha posted a photo of herself on Facebook.com with a congressional candidate, ... is no longer working at the station.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19415989/

I didn't think that facebook thing was a very good idea either...it just makes trouble for the users!!!But I must admit, her boobs were OK!!!

-- Edited by Jack at 19:55, 2007-06-25

gavinbas · Member

has anybody been over to garageband.com - beleive it or not, its an actual sophisticated site allowing users to upload whatever they want but people have to review other music before they can submit their own, so you don't hear people's crappy babblings- and another thing, the reviews are rated- wow, isn't that a novel idea? so reviews like (and i quote, "barff, lame, She said it's pretty terrible, I guess my wife's not on your facebook?, what an idiot, ..." get cited and the reviewer becomes discredited. It's funny how people hide behind their anonymous computer screen and say nasty things isn't it? Or even funnier how embarrased they are when people see what they've been saying/doing online all day?
but anyway, my point is that this site is (or perhaps has become) kind of a joke- and there are better alternatives out there.
oh yeah and it may be interesting to note as well- the people who climb to the top of their genre's on garageband get a pretty particular prize- they're featured on the website as well as the ilike application that is installed and used in facebook to deliver genre specific free downloads to users- both on an itunes plugin and a profile modifier on facebook. Funny how whole websites and even some big name musicians like Feist, or The Shins, are offering new music and full downloads through ilike and facebook huh? its wierd, some people are predicting that facebook will overtake myspace, hmmm, is it possible that there are marketing capabilities within a social networking websites, even the horrid aforementioned facebook?

-- Edited by gavinbas at 15:21, 2007-07-09

Jack · Senior Member

gavinbas wrote:

some people are predicting that facebook will overtake myspace, hmmm,

Yep, with over 28 million members facebook will surpass myspace with...the most members:). Now, your job is to send another email to see if you can get all 28 million to come on over and hear what yer cookin'!!!! While yer @it, see if you can get all 28+/- million of the myspece cats to join in!!! That would be a whooping, lets see, 2 plus 2, carry the 3, it is a big bunch o' millions all coming to listen!

And then they will see thru your eyes and become enlightened to the dim failure that you have proclaimed AW to be and to the stength of your mental reasoning in selecting facebook as your home away from home.

Well, you and 28 million others:)

Lets face it kid, if at least a couple hundred thousand people haven't come and squatted to get some free ****, which only results in big bucks for the site developer if the expansion continues, you, people like you and about 27 million others wouldn't give it the time of day.

That's what is real. Musicians are freaks, as a rule they do not like crowds unless they can be somehow in charge. We have safety here and allow others to grow. But if your ready to move on...do not hesistate.

Do not look back.

gavinbas · Member

hah, so you mean that maybe sometimes when artists can't be in control of large groups they shy away from them and find some smaller community that nobody gives a crap about and then try to take over that communinty in self proclamation? Gee, I've never seen that before, *cough*

All I'm trying to say is that there are fair contests out there where people don't have to deal with self-proclaimed leaders telling them there music is crap because they/their wives/concubines don't dig it, giving no reason as to why-

-- Edited by gavinbas at 16:21, 2007-07-10

Jack · Senior Member

gavinbas wrote:
...telling them there music is crap because they/their wives/concubines don't dig it, giving no reason as to why-

Look boss, thin skin is not yer friend:) Thick skin is in! I mean how niave can you be anyway? If some ****head pokes fun at your work...what do you care?

Certainly you are not of the opinion that every piece of dribble that you play/write/sing or cook is the best that anyone has ever done and NO BODY has the right to say otherwise?

Gotta get over that. Believe it or not, there have been some folks that came thru here and the ONLY thing that they wanted to do was beat up musicians just to see them cry:) Who gives a **** about them, ya know?

Now, here is the structure as I know it, in reference to "self-proclaimed leaders."

BC - shop owner and chief bottle washer /END

Everyone else is just here digging in the dirt trying to make a case for themselves, you should give it a try. As far as fair goes, spend the next 4 months of your life listening to the songs here and placing them in order as to which you think will "win" a coveted number.

Often they are all good and it can be difficult and often as well it is easier to select losers because they can fall on ya like rain. I've been both and prolly not because I was any better, I was just better at "that time."

That's all you can hope for, to be better at the right time...and to die in your sleep because the rest of the time is an uphill climb through fire with the world either throwing stones or ignoring ya completely.

Me...I'll take the stones 80