Is it just me?.....

[marty bradbury]

Some people like "simplicity" , like me. Don't need a lot to sound nice,

[StringFive]

Hey OP: I get you. I've noticed that as well.

[Nymuso]

Maybe those guys have a lot of friends. Often it's about being supportive of each other. I'll do it myself. A guy is a lousy singer and a hopeless guitarist doing his version of "Feelings," but he's trying, really trying. I'll tell him it was great.

For myself, I don't worry about it. My YouTube page is not for me to garner adulation but so venue owners thinking of hiring me can see what I do. I don't count the views, or likes or whatever.

[Tahitijack]

I'm with Bob on this. Often someone posted a video of their best work, followed by praise and admiration while I sit left wondering. Then another person posts a song done at studio quality level and is told you are playing too fast, in the wrong key, should have used a 12 string. Oh well.

[Pitar]

Originally Posted by AX17609

I just know from attending open mics that some guy singing a nice three chord tune always beats out another guy playing a fancy finger-style arrangement with no vocal. I concluded that if you don't sing, you don't exist.

This, entirely, and I'm in complete agreement with it. While I do enjoy playing an energetic finger picked piece I much prefer to accompany a finger picked melody with singing. I've been singing with songs I like my entire cognizant life. Must mean I like singing. The guitar playing came waaaaayyy later and it wasn't to upstage my enjoyment for singing. It was just to create more music in my life where it could not be otherwise found. Playing guitar, to me, meant owning my own radio station and playing what I wanted to play, or my own studio and creating what I thought I'd like to hear.

Regarding FB, I have yet to create an account so I wouldn't know the exampled reaction. But, I do experience on these various forums so, yea, it seems the pros get ignored and the struggling get the applause out of camaraderie. Is what it is.

[Tony Done]

I don't do Facebook, but I see similar things on YouTube and I think I can understand it. I like music I can relate to, emotional rather than clever, and that is mostly in the three-chord class.

I had a related experience recently. I posted a very rough demo track, bad sound, bad playing, on Soundclick and it made the top 10 in its subgenre, only the second time that has happened to me. I have no idea why, I guess it must have been a slow day.

[fitness1]

The other thing I've determined (from posting my own stuff) is that probably 80% of the listening audience is on the "hifi" of their smartphone without even using headphones. So, fidelity and musicality has kind of gone out the window at that point.

[Mr. Jelly]

I work at an art museum and we have a sculpture park out side. We had a tree die and until we could afford to have it removed we had a local artist do something with it. So he painted it with two inch strips in primary colors. It was a small tree. I watched again and again as people took pictures of themselves with that tree. They didn't seem to notice the other sculptures much.

[muscmp]

as with everything on the agf, and, the internet--it is all subjective. either someone likes it or they don't. there are only two kinds of music--good and bad. you make your choice.

a couple of years ago i was at a guitar summit. they had an open mic and a lot of great players performed. no one sang, it was fingerpickers alone. the crowd chatting got louder and louder as each great fingerpicker got up and played solo. my buddy asked me to join him to play harmonica on his song that he had written and would be singing and playing guitar. as we started the song, the crowd got quiet and listened to our playing. at the end, we got a standing ovation and people came over to congratulate us.

moral: you can be great and boring or fairly simple and exciting.

play music!

[arwhite]

Stories sell. It's why Jimmy Buffett has throngs of Parrothead groupies and nobody knows who Laurence Juber is. Call us unsophisticated if you must, but we like stories.

I even cover some of Jimmy's songs and am not ashamed of it. ;-)