Authenticity, the Mysterious Force Behind the Meaning of Your Music and Your Creative Confidence

In our current information age, we have never before seen access to create and listen to music. As a music artist, how do you stand out? How do we remain memorable? How do you pierce through the veil of information fog that surrounds us?

Authenticity.

You want to be original? You want to be different? Unique? There’s one surefire way, my friend…

Be yourself, exceptionally.

Then, all you need is the confidence to consistently share YOUR own experiences!

Know Thyself

Partially pioneered by rock, punk, and metal in popular music culture, authenticity could be described as “@#$% you, I’m gonna do what I want” or“being yourself”. Familiar themes are challenging the status quo and ignoring the mainstream mass appeal.

What’s ironic is, that’s what’s appealing!

I can sense your left brain urging to comment “Alex, being authentic is a completely subjective concept. There’s no way to objectively measure or gauge it, how is this…”

*Rudely interrupts* STICK WITH ME, YO!

You touched on the answer! (aren’t I clever?).

Those subjective perceptions that you have, about yourself, in your creative abilities, the world, how you feel about X… IS your authenticity taking form. Your unique human-ness.

“Authenticity is the degree to which an individual’s actions are congruent with their beliefs and desires, despite external pressures.” — Wikipedia

For you to embody your authentic self, you really have to dig deep and uncover your true beliefs and desires. It’s okay if you don’t know yet, you can share your unique journey as you discover them.

It is the “it” factor, and that “it” is you (err.. that’s confusing, you get it though).

You are an undefinable essence, just like trying to describe what “authenticity” actually is. It can’t really be defined, yet only YOU can know the truth.

Meta-Authenticity

The truth is, many aspects of ourselves change over time. Including some of our beliefs and desires. This invites an even bigger question.

How many of our beliefs and desires are truly authentic?

It’s impossible to ignore the fact that our core beliefs and desires are greatly influenced by external sources. Some would go as far as to say we are a creation of the conditions of our environment.

Life circumstances, advertising, mental programming, cultural norms, political campaigns, religious dogmas, star systems…The list is endless.

This reveals a deeper paradox. What actually is authentic?

Let’s skip over the part that we talk ourselves in circles. Or me with myself in this case, which happens more than it should lol. I just hope this gets your mental gears turning to start to think a little deeper about yourself.

In my opinion, the best way to look at authenticity is to listen to your intuition. Your gut feeling. At a certain point, we have to accept that being shaped by our environment and culture is part of the journey.

Your authenticity will manifest as the unique way you pull from different value systems, viewpoints, and align them with your desires to make them purposeful.

The meaning you extract based on YOUR OWN experiences is what is uniquely yours.

You should treat this with care, for this is at the core essence of the human experience.

A Balancing Act

In allowing yourself to BE FREE from your self-judgments and the opinion of others, you can start to be confidently creative. As you progress you inevitably unveil your authentic voice and style. It’s time to push through your hard limitations and all other modalities of confinement.

A word of caution! Tapping into authentic expression can become a double-edged sword. Yet another paradox. Upon discovering your magnetic badass style, it can easily turn itself into a brand new set of limitations. This is sometimes called the ego.

We’ve all experienced people with a self-inflated “better than” attitude, constantly trying to defend their “status”. Or when an artist finds success with a certain style and desperately holds on to the past. Both these situations lead to stagnation for personal growth and a toxic attachment to identity.

Congratulations, they get a gold star! They’ve encaged themselves yet again.

Don’t let your ego set limitations, or define you.

You can’t get rid of the ego, it’s a part of you. You have to find balance, and constantly re-adjust the role it plays. Embrace and accept that you have a unique personality, a style. But remain honest with yourself as you change and grow.

Resonate

Authenticity is a very magnetic quality of music. It’s what remains at the core of how we share and connect with each other. Usually, you find a deep authentic connection with the music you love, people you admire and with your friends and family.

Sharing authentic experiences with others have summed up to be the most valuable moments of my life. Being either deep philosophical conversations, moments of vulnerability, shared beliefs or genuine honesty.

Those brief moments when you truly feel someone. When your core vibrations are in resonance with each other, and they start to amplify.

When it almost seems as if something is speaking through you. That’s your authentic self.

“People, remember this: no matter what your training, no matter what your skills, no matter what area you’re in, you are your most important commodity. The most valuable gift you have to offer is you.” “Sometimes you feel foolish, even look foolish, but you do the thing anyway.” — Bob Burg

Confidence Swims Upstream

We all have incredible amounts of untapped potential and the ability to be creative. It just requires confidence in your creative abilities.

The key to embodying that confidence is adopting psychologist Carol Dweck’s concept of the “growth mindset”. It is the belief that your true potential is unknowable, impossible to foresee and therefore, limitless.

Regardless of your current skill set, talents and intelligence, your capabilities can always be expanded through effort and new experiences.

To deeper understand the growth mindset, let’s compare it to its opposite, the fixed mindset. This frame of mind, consciously or unconsciously, is rooted in the belief that everyone is born with a finite amount of smarts and talent.

Faced with the invitation to discover their own creative confidence, people with this headspace would rather stay in their comfort zone, being fearful to expose their current limitations.

Metaphor time.

Picture yourself as a salmon, but instead of swimming upstream you’re just coasting with the currents of the river (status quo, mainstream). All those currents, although being easier to follow, lead to stagnancy and parasite infested waters.

You would very much like to join those other salmon in their pursuits, but you don’t believe in your inner salmon-ness (fixed mindset, human stuff), or are afraid of the trials of the journey (fear of failure).

But wait, you're a salmon! I mean.. a human! You ARE creative.

In contrast to coasting on the mainstream tides, achieving sovereign sonic success requires confidence and consistent creative effort.

Sovereign sonic success = A self-sufficient and self-directed path in life, specifically in music, for those us that are less weird with their words.

The ability to communicate your authenticity is a natural progression from developing your creative confidence. The best way to swim up that stream is to make best friends with your self-confidence and take action!

Particip-Action

Here are a few questions to ask yourself to better communicate your authenticity.

* What am I really trying to communicate in my songs? (What am I not saying and need to?)

* Why am I hesitant to share my true authentic self? My core beliefs and desires?

* Am I able to face what “my best” looks like right now? Am I afraid to see that my best, maybe disappointing?

* What would my music sound like if I only released songs that brought me to tears of joy, or sadness? Made me punch a wall? Or break into dance?

* What would my band/project look like if I only committed to decisions that would advance my career?

How would you define authenticity?

Interested in learning more? Click here to download your Mindset Map and discover your next steps in your musical journey.

My name is Alexandre Joyal. I help music creators achieve success with their music by teaching them how to produce themselves and adopt a creative mindset.