First blog, a blog of random pondering...

Where many people think engaging in the arts leads...

​​Recently I have been contemplating what sort of a future I will potentially have in the music industry.

I have uncertainties, and concerns in terms of employment - I have been told (and understand) that the arts often do not provide a 'dependable' career path... But what outweighs this insecurity is the satisfaction in pursuing what I really want to.

​I have formerly studied, and graduated with a degree I have no intention of using (at least in the foreseeable future). I am now at the point of that 'passion-directed’, ‘revised-attempt' study option that many people my age seem to default to.

I guess it comes from the noncompliance to simply 'get a job' - we want to have a career we care for... Why else would we be studying the arts?!

Whilst we do want money, we want the right way to get it. A way that doesn't send us half-depressed and 'feeling stuck' like our parents and their generation (I realise that is an extreme generalisation, but that’s my experience). We anticipate that this same fate will be the case for us unless we divert from their ‘normality’.

It comes from a weighing up of comfortability vs. contentment.
Those of us who have experienced it understand the confusion of having a good-paying job that we don't actually enjoy... Or to be constantly thinking about an area of work we wish we were in.

Aside from the money issue, I also question the opportunities. People have tried to persuade me of the 'dead-end' nature of the arts... Others consider it an easy 'cop-out' of the 'real world' - fluffing about with feelings and not knowing the pressure of a proper profession.

I am making art because I would prefer to live by my personal ambitions, and enjoy my life’s work, rather than have a predictable job I wish was more fulfilling. And I don’t mind being a bit poor in the process if it means I am not wondering ‘what if I tried -’...

I think there’s a generation full of folks feeling the same way.
This positivity could change if we ever end up like the man pictured above.. But at least we tried right?

I can only wish us luck, and hope that, despite the indefinite nature of our careers, we continue down the narrow road of rebellious art-making... Because it is important that we do.