Someone said to me a while back that my music "hasn't gotten the recognition it deserved." Full disclosure: this was a friend. They didn't say they were planning on helping spread the word online or anything, but they wanted to be sure I knew they thought that. They went on to say that overall, the quality of the songwriting has been good over the years, with at least one song from every album they continue listening to, and further, that my general style is one that had grown on them. Lastly, this person pointed out that they found themselves continually revisiting my songs throughout the years via streaming, and genuinely looked forward to new releases.
This made me feel good. I was sort of taken aback by it, not sure how to react at first, but quickly decided the best way to respond was to simply say "thanks." In retrospect, I should've gone beyond that and told them how much it meant and that I really appreciated them taking the time to let me know. They weren't just being nice, because they actually named several of their favorite songs of mine that they thought should have way more streams. I politely agreed. By the way, any time people do that, it always freaks me out which ones they say they like most, because they are rarely the ones I think are my best. That's got to be a good thing though, right? Right. They all deserve more recognition, dammit! 😏 Now that I've had more time to process it, it's probably the best compliment I've ever received about my music.
I understand why my music hasn't gotten the recognition it deserves. I'm not sure it deserves much more than it's received already. I know my music doesn't have many of the qualities that well-recognized music has. Perfect production, perfect vocals, etc. are not my forte, even though the songwriting may be catchy and relatable. The commercial, electronic, contemporary mainstream pop with highly-polished sound is almost the opposite of what I deliver. Let's just say I don't kick out dance songs for the masses, and I'm cool with that.
I don't get out much in general. My day job is a remote, work-from-home situation. Sometimes my car doesn't leave the driveway for a week or more. I like it that way. I read a lot. I enjoy a fairly normal life with my wife and dogs. We get together with friends and relatives occasionally. We play board games and cards. I'm into going out to dinner and movies sometimes. I listen to music. I enjoy walking the dogs. I get out and ski every winter. Once in a while, when the mood strikes, I pick up my acoustic guitar and write a song. The songs come in bunches flanked by long droughts of creativity.
I tell people when I have new music out. They know they don't have to pretend that they like it. Or pretend that they checked it out. They get around to it eventually, or they don't. My announcements are quick, and I never even read the comments, let alone reply to any of them. So, I guess I have a somewhat normal, quiet life that allows for a hobby of writing and recording songs once in a while. Other than that, I'm not out in public much, and don't do much online interaction. I like my life this way, but it doesn't allow me to get many compliments about my music. It could be that it's because my music is generally pretty bad and unworthy of praise, which I can accept 😜, but on the other hand, it could also be that if I played live, I'd hear this type of thing more often.
I dabbled with performing live shows at bars back in my early 20s with bands, duos, and as a solo artist, and the applause and compliments were addictive, but not enough for me to stick with it. The songwriting hobby was what I gravitated to most, but otherwise, I suppose I'm a little too introverted. Needless to say, as strictly a non-performing solo artist, I don't do personal appearances as a musician, so I never get any applause or compliments after a show. Since I generally shun social media and no one ever writes about my music, I don't get much feedback about my music at all. When I do, it boosts my mood for sure. In a way, telling me directly is almost better than recommending me to others.
I'm not a "hey, you guys should check out this awesome new song by this artist I'm into lately" kind of person myself, so I understand. I discover new artists from time to time that I like, and probably more often than that, I discover old artists I'd never heard of before that are not active anymore. I like a fairly wide variety of different kinds of music, and some might call my taste weird or strange. I dated a girl once when I was in my early 20s who claimed she only liked heavy metal. That's it. Didn't like any other kinds of music whatsoever. Never had, never will. I wonder if that changed over the years for her.
There are the analytics to consider. Streaming stats, metrics, - whatever you want to call those (streams, plays, adds, likes, saves, shares, downloads, subscribes, friends, recommends, follows, etc.). Some are freely available online. None of it makes much sense, and none of it seems all that accurate or reliable, but it does tell a little bit about the overall reach, engagement and amount of recognition, I guess. Here are some links to a few of those sites:
- https://songstats.com/artist/bftjeorh/scott-cooley?source=overview
- https://app.chartmetric.com/artist/991782
- https://songstats.com/artist/bftjeorh/scott-cooley
- https://www.viberate.com/artist/scott-cooley/
- https://metrics.musicstax.com/artist/7vHKrgpa0sJLI7feJTakSZ/
- https://app.artist.tools/artist/7vHKrgpa0sJLI7feJTakSZ?tab=overview&fromHome=true
It seems like a lot of effort to court people to write about your studio album releases, so I never have. You have to submit press releases and kits to publications and sometimes even pay to get them to write about your music, so I've never done that. If you don't play live anywhere, people that write about live music shows wouldn't have occasion to know about you in the first place.
Another thing one can do is to enter a contest to win an award. I did that once and felt like a fool (because I didn't win, of course) 😂. You can read all about it here:
https://www.scottcooley.com/awards
I would rather be able to say some influencer found my music and recommended it and it went from 100 streams to 1,000 streams as a result, than being able to say the same thing only after I repeatedly badgered said influencer, begging them to recommend my music. There are tastemakers and curators and bloggers you have to pitch - each with their own weird soup nazi rules. Sounds almost as dreadful as writing a cover letter when sending a resume to apply for a job. I could include a nice compliment someone I know paid me as a quote, but you sort of need a real quote from a real reviewer to include in the pitch to other reviewers to get the first review, so it's a chicken/egg scenario.
They say the cream rises to the top, but they also say things like nepotism and luck and payola also work. I just assume that if my music is good enough, it will become popular without any effort on my part. Therefore, a part of me knows it would've happened by now if it was going to. When I hear it deserves more recognition, I can't help but think about making more of an effort to get it more recognition. I suppose I have trouble mustering the courage to ask, and I'm not sure why. The resulting recognition might not feel like it was deserved.
I'm not sure I fall into any easily-definable, well-known genre or style as a solo artist. I've never known what to call it or how to describe it. Even if that was possible, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't fall into any major popular category. That might help explain why my music hasn't gotten more recognition a little bit, but I know the real reason is that I haven't done anything to get any recognition at all. I prefer it that way. We all know of music artists who seem to become popular primarily because of their marketing budget and hype tactics and not for the quality of their songs, and I'm for sure not in danger of being lumped in with them.
So, there are two obvious reasons:
- My music is not easy to classify, and isn't close to what's popular
- I haven't ever taken any action to seek any recognition for my music
Now it occurs to me there might be a third reason: My fanbase. My music doesn't attract the kinds of people with personalities to jump on the bandwagon and publicly voice their support. I'm aware of a few superfan cheerleader types, but for the most part, they are a subdued crowd. They're into the songs they're into, but don't feel the need to shout it from the rooftops. I think maybe people who have come across my music and liked it are the types of people who are likely to keep it to themselves as if it's their own private secret discovery. It's not that they are necessarily reluctant to reveal their guilty pleasures, it's just that they are not serial recommenders of their own personal tastes in music to anyone. I suspect they are the types of people who are not big social media users, and are not public supporters of any music.
That's okay. This is all just fine with me. Yes, I wish I had more recognition, but it will be alright if I don't ever get it. It's just a fun hobby for me. I like making up songs. That's all. I record them as best I can with my limited resources and skills, then release them. I don't try too hard or put much effort into it. You can probably tell. 😀 That's part of the appeal, so I've been told. However, I have to say that a kind word once in a great while goes a long way toward me continuing on with what I've been doing.
