WP4: Reflections

In my experience in WRIT 340 this past summer session, I rediscovered what it was like to write about the things that I’m involved in. Though I do have papers and content that I generate with my major intensive courses, I don’t usually get to take a step back and reiterate all of the information that I take for granted. I’ve learned that writing can serve as an excellent teaching tool for the one who is writing, as it forces me to have a more complete understanding of the topic matter that I’m writing about, as well as a reminder to practice what I preach, and reinforce that which I have learned

I’ve been very thankful for the freedom in topics that I was allowed to write about. I started off with what I was focusing on at the time. With WP1, I explored the world of networking, things that I wish I had known beforehand, before my switch into my new major. This was about a very pivotal point in my life, where I was in need of more guidance and experience. I definitely feel much more mature and comfortable in these ‘social’ ‘network’ scenarios. That on top of the additional research I ended up doing, in terms of distant ties, etc, I was reinvigorated to reach back out to my contacts I hadn’t spoken to in a long time, as well as use the content I was talking about more consciously in my everyday life. For a while before writing that medium post, I was kind of stuck in my routine at my internship. For context, I’m currently interning and have been interning at an A&R / management label responsible for Artists, Music Producers, Visual Creatives, and most recently, Audio Engineers. It’s an extremely fast paced environment, that necessitates lots of high speed decision making, and a large amount of effort put in to stay relevant. Following the advice of treating my colleagues more like friends and making people more comfortable that I outlined in my WP1, I made myself more sociable and open with everyone there. My day to day operations got more enjoyable working with my friends and I even got more opportunities to shadow the heads of the companies and their responsibilities. As of now, I am helping with the Production Coordination for their artists upcoming festival tour placements, and am quite enjoying the new responsibilities I’ve been presented.. Also because of this emphasis on connections, I was able to get my current job. I was lucky enough to meet the team members responsible for the live event production, and get a job working in the warehouse that handles all of the audio equipment rentals for mainstream artists across America. I’m boots on the ground working on these orders, which has given me such a great insight into the business of equipment and what gear successful music acts gravitate towards. Also it pays so I’m much happier working there! Now with the world slowly recovering from Covid, I am happy to say I feel like I advanced my career forward and set myself up for job opportunities and connections that I can rely on post-graduation.

With my WP2, I got to reinforce the appreciation I have for my education, and for how important it is to create content that is teachable to others so they can do similar work to you. I got to explore what goes into making commercially viable music, and the time and effort it takes for any record to get produced ‘properly’. I felt like an educator to those without the same experience as me and has further motivated me to create content that highlights that for people interested in doing what I want to do. Also, since I’ve mostly been self-taught as far as my production experience and techniques, I also got the opportunity to take a step back and better understand how far I’ve come. In the little more than 3 years that I’ve had, I can fairly confidently say that I am “decent” in comparison to what I used to idolize. I have a great understanding of what goes into good records and feel comfortable critically listening to new releases and music and understanding what each element is, how it functions, and how to achieve that sound.

Of course, there are no ‘rules’ in music, and anyone can do anything and be successful and artistic in their own right, but the vast majority of all music benefits from the technical processing and sculpting of music through the mixing and mastering process, something that I’m proud to understand.

Finally, with WP3, I got to take an in-depth look at current musical acts, and serve as personal research that I can apply to my work. I looked into the effect that internet culture has on virality, success, and exposure in music, most particularly talking about current acts that I’m interested in such as Lil Nas X, Desiigner, and Isaiah Rashaad, the last of which has finally been released the full album that I was discussing in my paper. Also, techniques and things that up and coming artists could be doing to best prepare for their own success. As always it comes down to creating great art that people want to support, but also other techniques such as preparation and release schedule as to garner the best support. Reinforcing the essentiality of good timing. It’s such an important thing in recent years to understand the impact that the internet has on daily life, and I’m glad to have helped reflect upon that, and add something to the discussion that wasn’t there before.

I’m satisfied to finally be able to discuss all of the topics that I’ve engrossed myself in with the past few years, and feel as though I’ve developed a more defined voice that effectively conveys what I’ve learned. In a way, it sort of feels like a test of all the knowledge and time spent in the things that I am involved in. Moving forward, I feel better prepared to create interesting written content, and write in an engaging and relatable way, that I will use in everyday life.