The Great Artistic Compromise

As artists in the music industry, it feels as though we are in a constant deluge of information, advice and opinions. Though there may be a lot of it, information is perhaps the easiest to handle. By information I mean brochures, ads, articles, blogs, etc. . . You get the idea.

It is the last two, advice and opinions that, as well meaning and intended they may be, presents the most problems for me. It is difficult to know in advance which opinion or piece of advice to heed and direction to follow.  It is here where I felt like I hit a wall early on in my career.

Here is an example of what I mean by “hitting a wall”.  When I write music, I feel that each piece of music is co-written with God.  For me, creating music is somewhat a holy process and I feel like I am a vessel for God’s words and my job is to put those words on paper.  When I finish a song, I feel that it is whole and complete and that changing or “tweaking” it is close to sacrilegious.

While you might find that a bit absurd, it is me! It is how I create my music. It is a complete message, which is after all, what music is.  It is here however, where advice and opinion first really came into conflict with “me being me”.

To get radio play for your music or for it  to be reviewed in glossy trade magazines or asked to perform on a TV show, the industry “suggests” that your music be limited in length to around 3 ½ minutes. This “limitation” on length is somewhat self imposed because of a variety of factors.  In the beginning of recorded sound, the limitations were physical, wax cylinders to 78's to 45's and then to LP’s.  By this time, the 3 to 4 minute “length” had been firmly established.  Then came radio, jukeboxes and revenue. For music to be played on the radio or in a jukebox, in order to generate revenue, it had to fit on a “single” 45 rpm disc, which was limited to about 3 ½ minutes.  And lastly, the human factor.  We humans are not generally known for our lengthy attention spans.  Today, there is no “technical” reason for music to be limited to this conventional time frame.

So what happens when you need more than 3 minutes to convey that message?  What is an artist to do when you not only need to feed yourself but have other families to feed and folks to pay along the way?  To generate revenue today, you need to be seen and heard and outside advice and opinion dictates that your “message” be limited to around 3 ½ minutes.  But sometimes, God tells me that he needs more time to say what needs to be said.

My first single, “Nashville”, is 7:02 minutes long.  Oh dear!  There goes all that advice and opinion that I heard early on.  So why dismiss all of that “advice” with this particular song (and maybe others)?  This song tells the story of my journey from California to Nashville.  In particular, why I feel that God called me to come here.  That story takes time to develop and understand.  It was not a story that could be abbreviated any more than it already is and still convey God’s reasoning for my journey.

With well intentioned opinions and advice still lingering in my head, I grappled with the idea of making a “radio” edit of this song and concluded that that would defeat the whole point of the song.  If this song is played on the radio, it will just have to be played in its entirety or not at all.

I have accepted that some of my songs most likely won’t get commercial air time or receive critical reviews because of their length.  Where I have found my point of compromise is to create other songs that align more closely with the commercial “standard length” of popular music.  I realized that I can do both and still be true to my core values of faith, authenticity and integrity. 

So if you want to hear my seven minute song about coming to Nashville and the adventure that I'm on, tune in tomorrow when it is released (pre-save on Spotify here :) https://show.co/s70NG3U

Until then, follow your dreams the way that you want to and don't back down from your convictions, as God told me in my prayer time, your art is not for sale.

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Michelle Rhea Goddard is a techie turned singer songwriter, producer and entrepreneur based in Nashville. You can follow her adventures on Instagram and Facebook. Her first single titled Nashville will be released on June 25th :)