I’m pretty sure many a few million or so of those billions of people who live in extreme poverty would see most of us, based on our posts, gear purchases and such, in a way similar to how some here view Rich Rubin, that is if they had the internet connectivity or time to spend a few hours on a synthesizer message board.
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Exactly, which is why I’m not trying to sell self help books about teaching yourself PCB design to sub Saharan kids. It worked for me but I had a computer and the internet.
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First: difficult topic, still respect and positivity here. Really cool I think!
Psychology for all people is difficult. It is much easier to create help for rich people.
I don’t do that, I have subsidized clients.
Not perfect, but the best I can do now.
Maybe the problem here is the legacy presentations like Ted with Rick Rubin. Lot of bullshit about living your dream. But this guy has a lot of experience in the studio. And the differences he sees in artists and in succes, I can uunderstand he wants to share.
And I think this time he has a great topic
This topic is not about ‘everyone can be a superstar’, but ‘everyone can improve’
Another great self help book for musicians
I actually kinda like Rick Rubin most of the time. Really my issue with a lot of this type of advise is that it is so nebulous. “Follow your dream” rather than “spend every waking hour trying to make music and networking with other musicians and professionals”
Like he is known for minimalism and taking things out of the mix, but give me solid examples of when and why. I feel like a lot of advice is just platitudes and not actual strategies.
Or like I can buy that a significant portion of the value he brings is just setting the right vibe for artists to be creative inside of, but I want to know the nitty gritty of what that means. Does he buy Watermelon for them? Or is Cantaloupe better for the right vibe?
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I see him improving himself
Started with ‘living your dream’ psychology to ‘influence your lifestyle to stimulate a meaningful life’
Feels like he was busy with this for a long time, before understanding it. His new book fits to the way he approached red hot chilly peppers.
He tries to explain that writing a good song is not only about your knowledge of songwriting, but also about how you live. How you see the world, how much time you take for contemplation, how fit you are.
His approach is based on psychology. More info about his mixing skills might be interesting though
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As an entrepreneur I tell you that you should test that assumption and just send him a message. And while you’re at it, send a message to another 10-15 entrepreneurs on LinkedIn and maybe start a thread here to ask people who may work entrepreneurially or have experience with company building as well.
Either of those would probably advance you more in your quest than you sitting in your room and wondering how someone wouldn’t be able to help you (not saying that’s what YOU do, just picking up on that example). Now some here could tell me that advice is generic, but as a practitioner I’ll tell you it’s effective IF you actually do it.
I think that’s the point that’s being missed here. If I feel overweight and I struggle with it, advice like “change your diet and go to the gym” might seem generic…but it’s only generic if I DON’T take it. If I take it and I use the slightest bit of effort on it, it would likely kick me off on a journey of discovery and potential improvement that something like “fuck those that give you advice, they are entitled and their privilege makes it so that they could even be in a position from where people would want advice from them in first place” could ever achieve.
That’s the psychological element of it and it’s real - despite the political dimension that seems to have been dominant on this thread, at least to my reading of it - which also obviously has relevance but is not the whole story.
Rubin’s “follow your dream” thing is not my cup of tea, but there’s a psychological invitation in that that can indeed be positive for someone who chooses to explore that advice in real terms. Not saying it’ll make our dreams happen, I’m saying it could end up being a positive direction that something like “ah fuck my life but it is what it is” possibly couldn’t.
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Specific instructions are not by any definition “self-help”!
This is a workbook that exists entirely in the realm of digestible, universally applicable and actionable components 
The second option here, not suggesting you’re espousing it, sounds deeply unhealthy if followed literally.
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Yeah, definitely. I guess just I mean that I would probably better spend my time emailing people who run modular companies since their experience is more relevant to mine. All I mean is that if you truly want to advance you need to know your limitations and not try too hard to go outside your abilities reaching for a “greatness” that is outside your reach. Like I am not going to start designing a 16 voice polysynth because I don’t have the technical capability to create that yet. I might one day, but for now I am working on a modular oscillator and filter because that is what I can build with my resources today.
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I think it’s bad advice. Firstly because it’s unlikely to work – 99% of very dedicated and talented artists won’t ‘make it’, regardless of effort and regardless of quality – but also because ‘making it’ often turns out to be a miserable affair anyway.
The advice I wish I’d been given, as a music-obsessed teenager, is to find a separate career path that is enjoyable and interesting in itself to fund my existence while still working on art. I probably would have ignored it anyway, being a teenager, but it would have been the correct advice. It’s the advice a sensible working-class parent would give, but would be considered too cruel for someone in the education system to say.
What matters is the doing of the art and the community of the art. Having a job doesn’t stop that, and it can make you value it even more.
middle class in Detroit isn’t always the same as middle class everywhere else but they might have been, my point is that the success doesn’t always stem from circumstances… look at the blues, look at most hiphop etc…
personally I can forgive any of rick Rubins corniness do to all of his contributions, it doesn’t really matter to me about all of the groups that didn’t become legendary under his direction, if he had a hand in nothing else other than LL Cool J and the Beastie Boys that would be enough for me to give him his flowers, but of course he’s had a hand in even more impactful music /art than just those two… and the fact that he doesn’t know how to use a studio is kind of irrelevant for me… he’s a producer, who knows how to use a beat machine… that has made an incalculable impact on Human art I mean Rick Rubin has had a hand in impacting an art form that has impacted every other art form so yeah, basically he can be as cheesy as he wants… He was never meant to be anything that he wasn’t. Rubin might be aloof at times and sure he’s not the poster child for empathy by any means but imho expecting him to be is like expecting puff daddy to rap like Nas, it’s just not meant to be.
In short I definitely care more about the music he’s produced than the stuff he’s spouting now, and anyone who would put his vision ahead of their own would benefit from reversing that practice…imo but that goes for anything.
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It exists in a separate space, I like some of the work that he’s done but whatever recent overlap he’s starting to have with a hustle grindset influencer/podcast guru exists entirely independent from his work.
Sure, his work gave him an origin story and capital-A authority to spout whatever nonsense and be taken seriously on high.
Very true, if this wasn’t true there would be tons of clones of Rubin already just from this ever-so-magical advice.
I just finished his book yesterday. I think it is a worthwhile read for anyone into music making/creativity. It’s certainly interesting to hear the perspective of someone who has worked with so many creative people on many great recordings.
Sometimes Rubin veers a bit into a sort of spiritual, mystical, woo type of explanation for what one might call inspiration and creativity. Generally I have a fairly low tolerance for that type of mystical thinking but I was okay with it. I think that the “magic” of creativity is something that is hard to define and put our fingers on. I’ve also heard many artists I respect speaking of sort of tapping into something or uncovering their art. I feel like I’ve experienced these moment where things click or something is happening that is nicer than I anticipated. Rolling with the happy accidents.
While I’m not so sure I believe there is necessarily a higher power at work, I think anyone can call or attribute this inspirational creativity however they want. I appreciate this in his discussions on trying to take the ego out and focus on letting the art prevail as it’s own thing. Being an antennae so to speak.