brightly_lit

That's such an intense essay; thank you for linking it! I don't know anything about Fall Out Boy or anyone in it (except that I like their music, and so does my sister), but I do think about what it would take to be a public figure like that. And I feel like it would be especially rough to be a public musician, because musical tastes shift so, so rapidly and the kinds of music out there vary so much (e.g. singers who get pitched songs, singers/bands who write their own songs, etc.), and 99% of the world doesn't know a thing about music beyond what sounds they (think) they like and what they think they don't--and I count myself among them, though if pressed I could probably spot memorize the circle of fifths again, lol. I definitely don't have what it takes to live that life, for sure. Because you'd have to be able to take so much shit from so many places and somehow 1) keep loving the thing you do, 2) stay classy, and 3) keep doing the thing you do. Even if so many people will feel justified in telling you that you will never make anything as good as what you made before (and then proceed to make even broader value judgments about you based on this assertion). That's horrible.