Disliking your own work.

L

Livcoen

New member
Have you ever been in a situation where you released a song, and went back to listen to it some time later only to cringe? I'm not just talking thinking "meh, it could be better", but honest dislike.

I'm just wondering if i'm the only one dealing with this. Some people say it's normal to dislike your work on some level, but I feel like if I were to hear it coming from an other artist, I would still hate it.
 
always - as we mature we all look at our juvenalia with some degree of horror or respect or nostalgia

there are things I wrote when in high school that are truly abysmal and others that are gems, time is the test of whether something is worthwhile, not minutes or hours or days but years and decades
 
Yeah, I've been there. I've taken songs off of Soundcloud and everything lol. It's healthy in a way. It shows you're getting better.
 
A million times yes! Sometimes I start disliking something I am still working on once I get to the mixdown stage. Glad its normal to feel that way.
 
Hmmm

(hopefully) We change and grow, and our tastes will phase in and out with that as well. I started off doing straight Trance in 2001 which I wouln't be cought dead near now... but that just a reflaction of my changing tastes, I still thing the songs I did were pretty good.
 
I think it's a natural part of you, as an artist, to dislike some of your previous work, because this shows you're evolving.

I have barely 9 months of experience, and I already dislike some of my first songs. And some of them I just want to remake.
 
I personally think everyone had this feeling AT LEAST one time. If i listen to the track ive made 1 or 2 years ago it just ruins my day.
But thats actually a good thing.If you hate your music it means your progressing and you wont use those mistakes in your future productions.
 
This something any good artist experiences… naturally as we age and get more adept at our crafts, things change, and the stuff we made in the past seems less and less relevant. Although, on the flip side, I sometimes listen to an old track of mine, and am like, YAH this one was the SHIT!
 
Well, I have it actually right now, but that's the moment that you're mostly improving.
 
It's completely normal, if you don't like your old work you could make a Part II (or a VIP, whatever you wanna call it)
 
after spending so much time on a project you'd have to start to hate certain parts of it, if not the whole thing. if you could kick back and say "that's the best" then you would be in Hardwell's seat right now. im the same boat
 
Livcoen said:
Have you ever been in a situation where you released a song, and went back to listen to it some time later only to cringe? I'm not just talking thinking "meh, it could be better", but honest dislike.

I'm just wondering if i'm the only one dealing with this. Some people say it's normal to dislike your work on some level, but I feel like if I were to hear it coming from an other artist, I would still hate it.
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Absolutely. I look at it as a sign of progress and it motivates me more to make music to cover up the old BS lol.
 
I am going to go out on a limb and be the first and say "no, never".
But I think it's semantics.

Have you ever been in a situation where you released a song, and went back to listen to it some time later only to cringe? I'm not just talking thinking "meh, it could be better", but honest dislike.

"...released a song..." is the key part of this as in something was FINISHED.
There are things you "like" because you're happy you made something.
Those are the earliest creations where you are just happy to be making music and LOVE EVERYTHING YOU DO.
You know, where you say to yourself "I can't believe I made that!"

Upon release, I can only see a small number of possibilities.
1) I love it and think it will help define me.
2) I don't like it, but everyone else does
3) I don't like it, but it's the kind of stuff that other people ***should like*** [the true source of empty, formulaic and usually weak music]
4) I don't like it but business dictates I submit my work.
5) I am unsure and don't know what will happen.

Letting music sit and marinate and age is the answer to most of these concerns.
When I started doing music, there wasn't a choice. I couldn't make a song on Friday and be calling it my new single on Saturday.
People (mostly rappers to be specific) like their most recent material most and mistake that feeling for meaning best.

As a future producer, you should already be able to tell WHAT draws you to a piece of music. And whatever it was, it shouldn't change over time.
That should still work on you years later.
It's when you like a track because of something about its creation that a song could easily fall off with repeat listens.

"Yo, I love this track. I finally nailed that drum roll style!"
"That's the first track I made using...."
"Yep that's my first track using 808s....hear that? I love that track"
When using 808s is no longer the novelty, what do you really have?
You get the idea.


As far as growing and evolving is concerned, there are things I did then that I wouldn't do now- sounds I wouldn't use, even things I wouldn't say, but the reflection is mostly a changing sensibility, not wack or dislike from looking back. When that occurs, it's usually one of those 5 reasons.

That's my opinion on this.
 
Well I made some early stuff ages ago, released on a free just for fun sort of album in a music group I’m in. And I was really new at making music. And I play that stuff now and it all sounds like crap. The basic ideas I still think were good ideas, but the execution is just utterly horrendous.

It’s not released yet: but the current stuff I’m working on has got problems and dosen’t sound quite right and is far from being ready to share with people to listen to. And I’m finding making it all ‘work’ and sound how it needs to at the mo a bit of a struggle. That’s depressing and frustrating.
 
Well, you gotta examine it in technical terms and pinpoint what is wrong.
The WHY and HOWS to fix it can always be worked on by someone else.

Get someone else to mix your music and learn from them what your music needs- to sound more polished.
 
I feel you on that man. I have went back and listened to some of my old work and was just thankful that I have improved and can only get better.
 
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