The Problem with Popularity

Sooooo this is me right now. Our brand new music video kinda went viral and a LOT of people are seeing it. It's very cool to have so many people appreciate something you spent hours perfecting. We've received hundreds of genuinely sweet compliments that are beyond any reaction I had ever expected from people. These comments got me like:

But that also means more haters. Don't get me wrong, I welcome constructive criticism. If there is a part of the arrangement that you thought needed more lower register, I'm all for that input. That's what makes an artist better. But we are just a husband and wife making music out of our home as a fun hobby. We are not trying to be famous, and you did not pay us for our hours of work (unless you are one of our patrons –click here to join the fam!). I hate watching the "dislikes" go up (even if the "likes" are exponentially higher), and I hate coming across a comment like "This was dumb. Anyone could have made this mashup. So disappointing...etc etc."

We try to respond to EVERY comment, both good and bad, so Scott has completely taken over the social media on all platforms because I'm hiding. He will send me occasional screen shots of the really nice comments or the good suggestions.

Some performers can totally ignore the nay-sayers, but I cannot. Every time I watch an incredibly-composed song/music video on YouTube I'm appalled by the amount of thumbs downs.

• This Daft Punk mix by Pentatonix WON A GRAMMY, but it has 76,035 dislikes!!! Jealous much?? 
• BYU Noteworthy's astounding cover of Amazing Grace has almost 28 million views, and there were still almost 2,800 haters! That's 2,800 people that must not love good music...or at least not beautiful, talented, glowing women standing in a freezing river. 

Sure we all have opinions, but when I don't particularly care for a song/music video I don't give it a dislike, and I certainly don't make a rude comment!

The problem with making something that a lot of people like is that a lot of people will see it, and some people will just hate it. You want to shake their virtual shoulders and plead, "Why won't you like me??"

And as our following continues to grow, will we still be making music for ourselves, or will we try to pick/arrange a song that "everyone" will like? Yes and no. I'm really excited about the music videos we have planned for the rest of this year. They're all songs we love, and some will be more popular than others.

We do it for us, and for our followers. We hope that our music spreads joy, and we like to be just one more good, clean video out there in the midst of so much filth and worldliness.

We do what we do for comments like this:

So I just smile and repeat this to myself today: