IT’S NOT THE WORLD’S RESPONSIBILITY TO "GET YOU" OR "GET YOUR MUSIC"

I was in Starbucks last week enjoying my morning dose of inspiration — COFFEE! — and an aspiring songwriter approached me. “Are you Flipside’s Hangi?” “Yes,” I said. He asked if he could chat about writing for a couple of minutes. He began by saying, “I’m writing some great music, but no one gets it.” He continued, “I’ve played my songs at four pitch to publisher meetings, and this world just doesn’t get my writing.” I made a few suggestions to try to steer my friend in the right direction. As he walked away, I realized he would need to accept a simple, but powerful, truth: it’s not the world’s job to “Get us.”

This was a hard lesson for me to learn in the beginning of my career. I would go to meetings with publishers or play live shows and rap battles, all with the hope of being discovered. And I often got angry when no one paid attention. They just don’t “get me,” I would say.” I’m as good as all those writers making a living with their songs.” 

Eventually, after years of working so hard and not getting noticed, it hit me. “It’s my job to show the world who I am and what my music is about.” It’s not the world’s responsibility to stop and listen to me. The world has millions of writers and artists on Spotify and YouTube, playing songwriter’s nights, doing showcases — millions of artists and writers screaming, “Notice me!”.
So, how did I finally make things happen in my career and start writing songs that eventually millions of people would sing along to? If I got an opportunity to play my songs for a publisher and he didn’t care for my writing, my first thought became, “How can I write better songs?” If I got an opportunity to play my songs live for an audience and they weren’t paying attention, my first thought was, “How can I write new songs that will move this audience the next time I play?”
 
I went from telling myself that “no one gets my sound” to “how do I write a song that moves people?”. More like researching about the market of consumers (listeners) and producing what this market needs. Every week I am listening to the new hits of the week on either radio or Spotify’s playlists and I try to analyse what elements and what characteristics on this one particular song had made it such a hit? I gave myself the power. I stopped handing it over to some external world expecting the world to change and suddenly start liking what I was doing. It’s not the world’s job! I take this approach even today, because music changes. What affects people changes. I want my music to reach into the listener’s heart and move them to cry, smile, laugh, or just have a good time! It didn’t happen overnight. It was more like over years! I was a full-time writer, writing almost daily for five years before I got my first major artist cut. My first experience at writing a song that moved a lot of people! I’ve managed to get several cuts on this song, and it’s been a featured movie song as well. And even though it’s been 11 years since I wrote it, it’s been recorded by two major artists and I think it still stands up today.

Author

Hangi Tavakoli is our in-house established and professional music producer with more than 17 years of experience in songwriting, music production, mix and mastering. He has produced more than 3,000 and written more than 4,800 published songs to-date, including some major hits in international scale.