Change is hard. There’s the things we want to change but can’t, work on changing but seem to take two steps backward with every step forward, and the things that change without you noticing – until one day you do.
I work on certain changes on a daily basis. I work to make this sentence better than the last. I work to put a bit more care into this action than any other action I’ve completed before. Shoot, I’ve changed jobs and locations more times in the past 7 years than some people do in their entire lives.
Change is probably the one constant in my life, as it is in yours as well. As the saying goes, “change is the only thing that ever stays the same.”
I’ve gone through all of the stages of grief with my dear friend Change. The denial, the anger, and finally the acceptance. Now, we’re buddies.
I evolve, just like you evolve. Our lives evolve, and the music we make, or care to hear, evolves.
It’s too easy to want to be pigeon-holed, to define a sound and cling to it, grasping at what brought you popularity in the first place.
What gets forgotten in that situation is the fact that just as you are changing, your audience is changing. Their tastes are evolving, and you owe it to them to show them that you are too.
You owe it to yourself to define your own sound, even if that sound is change itself.
The labels and the critics want to have a yardstick to measure you by. It’s fine to give them one – and say who you sound like. They want to know what’s behind your music, and that’s fine too – tell them your inspiration. But don’t be afraid to change, and take new inspirations – evolve your sound.
After all, if everything else is changing but you in the world – won’t you just be left behind?