Let’s hammer this out.

Roughly 40 people listened to the new song I wrote yesterday.

No one liked or commented.

To an artist, this is the equivalent of standing in front of the corner busker with a one dollar bill in your hand, listening to the whole song, carrying on a personal conversation about how your dad or uncle used to play that song when you were a kid, and then walking away without putting the dollar in the jar.

Contrary to popular belief in the year 2025, the comments section isn’t just for witty insults or damning cancellation. It’s also meant for praise and critique.

How can we grow as artists if our fellow humans don’t feed us?

I truly hope you see this as a critique on modern society and not a personal attack, but a nice slap in the face never truly hurt anyone after the sting goes away. It’s how the simplest of creatures on the face of this planet learn to survive from the day we’re born. Humans had to villainize that, too. Silly rednecks, belts are for bell-bottoms!

Anyway, consider this an early Christmas gift from my heart. Indie artists have always struggled, but now, in America, we are dying. It’s not because of the economy; it’s because we’ve gotten complacent. Comfortable.

The most idiotic among us have discovered ways to manipulate and weaponize social media, creating hate-cults of simple ones and zeroes. They treat it like The Sims: MAGA Edition.

Everyone is so scared to step on toes in the days of social media and cancel culture. My philosophy is as follows:

“Be as rude as your nose can handle.”

There’s critique, and then there’s downright keyboard commando insulting. It’s a small world, we live in the age of information, and no one blurs addresses or license plates in their photos. People also narrate their every bowel movement on social media. No one is truly safe from we, the spectrumed super sleuths.

I hunted ghosts once. Successfully. The living are simple compared to that, but I digress…

That said, honestly review that book, that blog, that video, that song, that whatever. Encourage the artist when you liked it, encourage them more if you didn’t.

Logically, if you take the time to ingest the art, and you didn’t ‘like’ it, then you clearly ‘disliked’ it. How depressing is that?

I’m through preaching for now. Do as you will with this information.

I’m going to try my best to practice what I’m preaching as well. It’s the least I could do as a fan. Perhaps this will be my New Year’s Resolution…

Now, I need to teach artists, myself included, how not to be overly critical of their reviewers…

Which task is more difficult, and where did it begin?

Chicken?

Egg?

Preach truths, toke jokes, and shoplift Amazon.

Don’t watch the news today; it’s what they want.

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