I Enjoy Being a Filker
Feb. 16th, 2005 08:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
billroperI thought about titling this post as "The Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations", but figured that everyone would think it was another damned political post, so I gave up on being clever for the occasion.
The nice thing about being a filker and the (I hope, moderately) talented amateur that I am is that I can make music for the fun of it. I'm here to satisfy myself and my friends and -- with a bit of luck -- the rest of the folks who are listening to me play and sing. I don't have to spend a lot of time worrying about whether or not one of my songs suits the target market for my demographic, or whether I dare to do something a bit different than I've done before, or a wide number of similar things.
Joshua Kadison had a fine debut album, Painted Desert Serenade, which I enjoyed quite a bit. But for his second album, Delilah Blue, he decided to do something different with a large amount of Gospel influence. It stopped his career cold. He's still around, but his most recent album, Vanishing America, wasn't even released in the U.S., although it's pretty similar to his first album in concept and construction.
But I'm a filker. And I do this because I love it.
And I'm glad I don't have to try to make a living at it, because I'd probably love it less.
The nice thing about being a filker and the (I hope, moderately) talented amateur that I am is that I can make music for the fun of it. I'm here to satisfy myself and my friends and -- with a bit of luck -- the rest of the folks who are listening to me play and sing. I don't have to spend a lot of time worrying about whether or not one of my songs suits the target market for my demographic, or whether I dare to do something a bit different than I've done before, or a wide number of similar things.
Joshua Kadison had a fine debut album, Painted Desert Serenade, which I enjoyed quite a bit. But for his second album, Delilah Blue, he decided to do something different with a large amount of Gospel influence. It stopped his career cold. He's still around, but his most recent album, Vanishing America, wasn't even released in the U.S., although it's pretty similar to his first album in concept and construction.
But I'm a filker. And I do this because I love it.
And I'm glad I don't have to try to make a living at it, because I'd probably love it less.