“We think the Mac will sell zillions, but we didn’t build the Mac for anybody else. We built it for ourselves. We were the group of people who were going to judge whether it was great or not. We weren’t going to go out and do market research. We just wanted to build the best thing we could build.” – Steve Jobs, February 1985.
This is how music should be made as well. Approaching a personal truth as closely as possible, perhaps insularly so. Writing a song for yourself (though not necessarily by yourself), or with an audience of one, or for your community, that is what brings us timeless and lasting art. Focus groups, radio market research, 12 writers on a single song, a full on major record label staff weighing in? All of that might get you a hit song, but will anyone actually remember it or be touched by it? I don’t think so.
That’s why Adele’s album will still matter 10 years from now, and no one will care much for Rihanna’s songs. That’s why 13 years later people still listen to Lauryn Hill’s first album, but 3 months later no one really cares about Lady GaGa’s sophomore album. That’s why “A Change Is Gonna Come” will affect lives forevermore, and “Who Run The World (Girls)” won’t. That’s the difference between writing a song that may end up in a jukebox at most, and writing a song that might get passed on to a younger sibling when they’re going through their first break up. Don’t write for awards, don’t write for your label, don’t write for the music supervisor, and don’t write for journalists. Write songs for yourself, and write them well enough that others will recognize your truth and relate.