JPF Home Page Forums General Messages Brian Austin Whitney Blog Monday, June 5th, 2006

Hi Folks,
Today I worked on getting the Lyric Entry database set for voting. There were a bunch of people who didn't follow directions, but it was only about 5% which to me was better than expected. It seems that no matter how specifically you spell out how to do something, at least 5% (and usually 10-20% in most things) of the people will do it wrong. Though it can be annoying for the most part (because I had to waste an entire day, and probably several hours from our volunteers on top of it) to fix the mistakes (or try... it seems that most of those who did it wrong aren't going to fix their errors and will have to be deleted from the awards process) I also realized that most of the things in the world that have been discovered or created/invented have been because someone made a mistake or didn't follow instructions. The same can be said for many of the greatest musical moments. I know in my own writing/recording, often the most interesting music ideas where totally mess ups in the performance or programming (I did a lot of midi programming back when I was really active performing/writing.. that was the "sound" of the times in the late 80's and 90's) which I initially was annoyed with, but later realized were my favorite parts. I think it was Mark Twain who said something to the effect of "the mother of invention: accident."

Often when you make a "mistake" it's because you were taking a creative risk that was out of your comfort zone. As artists, this is something we need to do, but then we also should use our knowledge and experience to embrace the mistake and the new "thing" and mold it with our own viewpoint and personal touch. It's not enough to say "whoops, I did it again" and then leave it. Take it to the next level. Make the mistake as good as it can be after it's happened. That doesn't mean changing it back to the accepted norm, but it also doesn't mean that it can't be polished.

Of course none of this applies (as far as I can see) to the problem with not listing your name or the title of your lyric so people can judge it. But I guess when you're dealing with artists (or humans in general) you have to expect that people are often off in their own world. I simultaneously feel that we're lucky that 95% of the folks, more or less, got it right, while wondering if 5% of the stuff that happens every day is 100% wrong how our society holds itself together. The truth is that for the most part, it's not that critical. Annoying.. but not always life and death. Of course it IS life and death now and then.. like when it's your surgeon, or your kids bus driver or the airline pilot or in this case, the difference between us leaving your lyric in the awards this year or nuking it completely. So, the moral of the story is that you should make all the creative mistakes you want in your music and during creativity, but when it comes to entering your lyrics into an awards process, you might want to do it right or fix it if you did it wrong. In this case if your messed up "song remains the same" then your lyric will be taking the "stairway to heaven" right off the entry page.

Have a great day!

Brian


[This message has been edited by Brian Austin Whitney (edited 06-06-2006).]