Identifying as a musician:

[azureglo]

Now an attempt to divert from my AI fraud thread that seems to have taken on a life of its own. So my new question now is “Am I a musician just because I say I identify as musician?”

This was triggered by an experience over the weekend when I was at a post show chill party after DJ-ing for 250 graduating students locally. A fellow DJ was asked me where I “got my tracks from” (I’ll explain this later but virtually all DJs download their tracks from a handful of sites).

I pointed out that I don’t download, I make my own from scratch using my DAW, assorted instruments from sax to guitar that I play and various singers , real and AI, easy enough as I'm a professional session musician.

Oh cool, she replied, “ I identify as a musician too”

“So what do play? Do you sing?”

“No I don’t play any instruments and can’t sing but I curate and mix and sometimes I buy rare unheard of records and turn them into mp3s for my sets (“crate digging”), and play them for people so I identify as musician” she cheerily replied.

I waited for the howls of laughter and derision but they didn’t come, just much nodding in approval from the drug and alcohol addled millennials at our booth. So now we have an interesting new idea, if I play some obscure records I bought and transcribed, or a bunch of MP3s I downloaded, on a laptop in a nightclub, I’m a musician?

This doesn’t bode well for the sales of FMIC…

Now don’t get me wrong I like DJ-ing but its hardly difficult, it’s basically some slick software (Rekordbox or Traktor- illiteracy is highly prized by millennials/Gen Z thank you @NewTimerJH ) and a dedicated MIDI controller that does all the heavy lifting. DJs use 2 or 3 sites like Beatport and download their MP3s weekly , then go to sites for matching keys etc ( they have even invented their system of key affinity called “Camelot” rather than learn basic theory) so pretty much every DJ plays the same stuff albeit with different amounts of twiddling on the FX/EQ controls. I learnt to DJ in about 30 minutes on this which cost $300 ( N.B.my own tracks with key/bpm in their names)

Now I like DJ-ing: My take is to create unique themed sets ( e.g 70s string driven Disco) based on 100% originals/self-played reworks of fave tracks and it’s a great workout for my production/writing/playing skills…Plus the money is surreal: I get 50% of the door if the capacity is over 90% full so on my date on Saturday I played a small club that holds 250 , charges £10 on the door for me and 2 support DJ/”Musicians “and it was full by 11:00.

Do the math and you’ll see it beats splitting $300 five ways for playing Sweet Home Alabama at Bubbas Botulism Grill in Downtown Poughkeepsie.. Plus you are surrounded by ecstatic 20 and 30 something who are lot easier on the eye than some of the “maturer” folk at Bubbas..

I did a sanity check and asked 15 or so download/fx button pushing DJs I know through my ferocious agent and all concurred: they are definitely “musicians” as far as they are concerned although none of them can play anything

Anyhoo, it now seems that saying a “I’m musician” makes you a musician even if your only musical skill is breaking wind in D flat… And you wasted all that time learning how to play the solo in Hotel California…

 

[elihu]

Man, I don’t see it that way.

Music is about connecting to another human.

Guitars and DJ tracks are just tools.

Use the tools you love and identify with and get better…

Your audience will find you.

 

[ClashCityTele]

Since I retired, I identify as a musician as it's the only 'job' I do now.
However, I would say a musician is some one who creates music.
It used to be hitting a rock with a stick, until some wiz-kid started hitting a stick with a rock.
Now it's sampling/mixing obscure records. Never did Fat Boy Slim any harm!

 

[sammy1974]

Interesting. I've got no bias here, just looking at the definition of "musician" :

"a composer, conductor, or performer of music"

2 out those 3 don't necessarily require the ability to play.

 

[NewTimerJH]

Side note: are we talking about millennials or gen z’s here? For reference I’m 31 and I’m a millennial, the just hitting 20ish crowd are the gen z folk. And I highly prize my literacy (and use of emoji use)

I work with the gen z crowd mostly in my job, and for the most part I love them. Enthusiastic and inventive in many ways, but I’ve noticed discussions on music definitely fall flat. But there are some very talented young musicians out there pushing the boundaries!

I do cringe at the “I identify as” ideology, which we should stay away from discussing too much for the sake of forum rules.

Calling yourself something you’re not to fit into a crowd is as old as language is itself. I believe if you play an instrument well you’re a musician, but there can never be a black and white absolute line in the sand to differentiate whether someone is a musician or not. Let people call themselves what they will, their peers will sort them out.

As much as I play, write, record, dabble, I wouldn’t be comfortable calling myself a musician. Just the same way that I have built multiple guitars and done plenty of mod and repair work, I wouldn’t call myself a luthier.

Imposter Syndrome is very real, but can go the other direction just as far too, in the case of your mixtape-musician you described.

 

[brookdalebill]

I absolutely identify as a musician.
I go to sometimes extreme lengths to prove it, if only to myself.
I'm a "working player".
I hesitate to say I'm professional, though.
To me, that implies a level of success that I haven't really attained.
That said, I support myself playing guitar/bass and singing.

So, after my blathering, if you play/create/perform music, you're a musician, IMO.

 

[sammy1974]

Also, I can play 5 instruments and I'm not a musician.

But I get your point for sure.

 

[sadfield]

I don't really agree that all dj's download songs and just play mp3. I'm old school, I like dj's that manipulate vinyl, making something new using the decks and vinyl as instruments. Making something new and connecting with people, that's being a musician.

I don't really identify as being a musician, I just attempt make tunes for myself to satisfy my own interest in the process.

It's entirely personal though. Who's to say if someone is or isn't? Like with the AI thread, you appear to have your own level of what is acceptable, that everyone else is critiqued by.

 

[elihu]

I absolutely identify as a musician.
I go to sometimes extreme lengths to prove it, if only to myself.
I'm a "working player".
I hesitate to say I'm professional, though.
To me, that implies a level of success that I haven't really attained.
That said, I support myself playing guitar/bass and singing.

So, after my blathering, if you play/create/perform music, you're a musician, IMO.

Now wait a cotton-picking minute...

I googled "Professional"...

"Engaged in a specified activity as one's main paid occupation rather than as a pastime."

You've arrived.

Tah-dah!

 

[azureglo]

I hesitate to say I'm professional, though.
To me, that implies a level of success that I haven't really attained.
That said, I support myself playing guitar/bass and singing.

If thats puts food on your table, a roof over your head and what the IRS classifes you as, you're a professional musician. The word profession doesnt indicate sucess, ability or status, just what you do for living. Here's a fun older thread about my youthful experience of being a professional musician:

So you're a musican?

 

[Peegoo]

Many years ago when music shops started selling DJ equipment I was kind of insulted that these record spinners considered themselves musicians or performers.

They're basically the auditory version of the person at a Starbuck's that makes and serves coffee. Forget the term "barista," which is just a fancy word approved by some guy named Mussolini to lend credibility to unskilled labor. It takes no specialized training to do; 30 minutes of OJT and you're as good as the best guy on the team.

Then came YouTube and a wave of content creators that considered this their "career." Hang on a sec...that's no different than setting up shop in the corner of someone's garage and all your income is coming from that, and they can kick you out if you happen to break a rule they make, even if it's a new rule they made just this morning? Ooof. Not smart at all. It's almost an imaginary "job."

However, all that was my younger brain thinking, and as I've gotten older and wiser I realize this is all nothing new. It's been going on for centuries.

These days it does not bother me.

 

[azureglo]

Side note: are we talking about millennials or gen z’s here? For reference I’m 31 and I’m a millennial, the just hitting 20ish crowd are the gen z folk. And I highly prize my literacy (and use of emoji use)

Both, have edited my original post. At my DJ gigs the Gen Z are the most fun and offer me free homemade TicTacs while the Millenials are more reserved and usually come bearing Jack Daniels

 

[Happy Enchilada]

"Curate." My new pet peeve word.
Means grouping together stuff that a more creative person has produced.
Like shopping without the credit card bill.
Refuge of the vacant mind.

 

[getbent]

funny how so many threads are 'authority is to be questioned'
then this thread 'I conform to the definition from authority'
and 'I am my generation'

no more 'I am that I am'?
or
Eminem had more influence than previously thought?
I am who you say I am?

No more of 'I will create a body of work which will be defined after my death'

because we have time to spend on the existential meanderings of 'who am I to me'? who do people (complete strangers) perceive me to be? It is kind of borderline narcissism (the old version not the new version)....

Does it help one to 'identify'? maybe when driving on the freeway, alone, on a path to daily activities? or when looking at insta, does one say (internally) 'as a person who identifies as a '|' in interpret this meme thusly?

in my experience, once a thread starts it is owned by no one... it is its own.

 

[sadfield]

Just googled Dikes teaches fingering. I may be away some time.

 

[buster poser]

Cool

 

[OldTelePlayer]

I am a guitar player.

I'm not sure I know what a "musician" really is.

 

[ndcaster]

When there are no instruments lying around and no electricity, a musician can still create music.

 

[cousinpaul]

I'm known as a musician by many, many others. Pretty much a lifetime of playing. That's got to count for something.

 

[loudboy]

I sometimes think I'm getting the hang of this, but then I watch a Tom Bukovac video on playing, or a Rick Beato analysis and realize that after playing/gigging/recording for 50+ years, I know virtually nothing about music.