TW #32 — Faces in the Crowd: Complaints (Master of Darkness)

A short opinion column by Master of Darkness ("Mdark", maz@io.org) in the Faces in the Crowd section of #32, between DennisC's Zinc interview (s-tw032-interview-zinc) and Atlantic's "Not So Advanced Tracking Tips" (s-tw032-not-so-advanced-tracking-tips), on whether groups are right to complain when members do not deliver songs. A correction letter from luv-kohli follows it.

Key claims#

• Groups — "myself included" — pressure members into quick, lower-quality tunes to meet deadlines: "in order for groups to survive in the scene today the ability to produce MORE has overshadowed the ability to compose WELL."
• Excuses, judged one by one: family matters/illness — valid, give the benefit of the doubt; no inspiration — "one of the biggest problems slowing down the production of music today", valid (he accepted it only after his own dry spell); broken computer/modem — valid, but lying about it means you do not belong in the group; schooling/homework — "Gimme a break": the average composer is "about 15-26", most have school and still find time, so it is not valid once you have committed to a group with deadlines — though it is valid in groups that run no deadlines, "such as epinicion & AIM Higher"; no (positive) feedback — not valid: compose for yourself, take feedback as a way to improve, one or two opinions among "10s of THOUSANDS" should not stop you.
• "Education is more important than music almost without a doubt."
• His advice to everybody: "LET PEOPLE DO WHAT THEY WANNA DO WHEN THEY WANNA DO IT" — and settle real problems privately rather than "ragging on them to compose".
• Correction (from Luv Kohli / Empyrean): his #31 interview omitted his e-mail, lkohli@ids2.idsonline.com, and that all of Empyrean's songs are on the Freedom data CD (see s-tw031-interview-luv-kohli).

Practical takeaways#

• Deadline pressure trades quality for quantity; a group without deadlines (the Epinicion / Aim Higher model) removes the excuse problem entirely (see tracking-workflow).
• Inspiration dry spells are normal — a 1995 confirmation of the advice on tracking-workflow.

Notable quotes#

• "The ability to produce MORE has overshadowed the ability to compose WELL." — Master of Darkness.

Relevance#

A view of how 1995 groups actually ran — deadlines, packs, member churn — from an Aim Higher organiser, and one more sourced "compose for yourself" statement. Background for tracker-scene-history and the FITC series on traxweekly.

Pages touched#

traxweekly, epinicion, tracking-workflow, tracker-scene-history, luv-kohli, master-of-darkness.