Do you want to be famous?

deltdrum

Senior Member
Something that was brought up in my philosophy class today... Is there anything wrong with wanting to be famous? I understand that many of you play music for the PUREST reason (just to play), and I literally have WORLDS of respect for you, but I've been in front of large crowds, and I'm honestly addicted to the chills you get of having one of those great spontaneous moments that happen through the combination of musical energy and crowd energy.

I'm not going to be hypocritical, a portion of it is just getting to show off on stage. I spent years in small rooms running through drumming rudiments to a metronome, and the idea of being famous to the point where people come running just to see the product of hard work IS one of the reasons why I play.

I'm young (20s), but have been playing most of my life. I've found that once I finally became honest with myself and realized my own selfish intentions, I actually started to enjoy the music in itself more.
 
There is nothing wrong with wanting to be famous. Same as wanting to go to college and be successful. There is also nothing wrong with wanting a good crowd to show up at your local gig. And there is nothing wrong with wanting to play at home to cds.
 
Depends what fame brings: if a large audience brings enough money to live on so that one doesn't have to do anything else other than play music (and all the recording/touring/promoting etc that may go with that), then I'd say it's as useful an ambition as anything else.

If chasing fame means people recognise you in the supermarket and there are photographers constantly trying to take pictures of you in the shower and you end up hidden away in one of those high-walled compounds in Beverley Hills with security patrols, then that ain't for me.
 
I would like to be popular enough to be a successful musician but the real crux of the question is why you want to be famous. I want some fame for independence and recognition of my talent and practice. However Paris Hilton wanted fame for the sake of itself which is something wrong and a sign of a culture in decline.
 
Nup. At least I never wanted fame for fame's sake.......but I did want to be in a band that was successful enough for me to earn a living and make music on our own terms. Nearly got there a couple of times, but at the end of the day "close" was all it ever came to.

These days I could think of nothing worse....the fame part that is, not the making music part. I have no desire for the trappings, obligations and general bullshit that usually goes hand in hand with being famous. Wouldn't mind the cash that usually accompanies it though.
 
There's a difference between wanting to be famous (ie: recognized by the public) and being successful.

I strive to be successful, not famous.... although fame would likely be a result of success, in a musical context anyway.
 
There's a difference between wanting to be famous (ie: recognized by the public) and being successful.

And also a difference between being famous and being successful.

Someone can be very successful, yet obscure to public recognition, and someone else may be very well-known or famous, and not financially successful as people would tend to infer,

Others have both, and others have neither. :(

Above all, I believe I'm successful, in that I'm doing what I set out to do in life. I also feel I'm just well-known enough to get a taste of fame, and that's fine with me. If anyone suggested I was actually famous, I'd have to question exactly what that means.

Bermuda
 
My prof. actually created a thread on the school message board and just sent me one of the responses. I'm kind of suprised how into this I'm getting, especially for being an Information Systems (business) Major.

This is an interesting take. I'm not religious AT ALL, but I am interested in how others think...

Yes, the desire to be famous is self worship, ego, and pride.

These are great sins that separate man from God and make man generally difficult to be around and deal with.

It is the one over arching sin. The sin from which all other sin is born from.

I will steal from you because I come first.
I will sleep with her because my pleasure comes before honoring women.
I will lie to you to protect myself because I come first.
I will disrespect my parents because I feel like it and my desire comes first.
I am angry with you because you dare to upset me and my wants.
I reject God because He really comes first and that doesn't jive with me coming first.

Point out any problem in the world or any sin and I will show you selfish pride at the root of it.
 
I have no desire to be famous. It usually brings much hassle. I do however like to entertain and to be entertained. As for spending time doing rudiments in a small room and needing someone to see the results of that work, God forbid they don't mention it even if they observe or enjoy it because you and your ego are in for a big fall.
 
I don't want anything to do with fame.
Successful sure...famous no.
Seems fame in today's world tends to bring a lot more bad along with it...constant contact, media, and ridicule. I couldn't handle it.
 
I am a successful man and a lowly drummer...It's good enough for me! :*)
 
Something that was brought up in my philosophy class today... Is there anything wrong with wanting to be famous?

I have wondered about that myself. No, I don't. I don't want people hounding me, invading my privacy, being required to do certain things in certain ways that isn't good for me or is against my principles.

I don't have anything to prove to myself anymore as a drummer, as far as whether I am worthy. I can improve on my drumming and such, but I don't need to showboat... I've reached a point in my life where I've learned that I want to SIMPLY BE, kind of like a cave person. To simply be. I don't need to "be this" or "be that." Just simply be.

And here, I start down a slippery slope off-topic. It's one reason why I went into learning the didgeridoo very recently. There's nothing like it in western music, though it is classified as a brass aerophone. The story is, I apparently lost my hearing as a baby (and started talking very early, too, until I started losing it after the first year). I was not discovered to be deaf until I was seven and a half. I had already been pulled from first grade and placed in a school for kids with developmental disabilities by the time I was found to be deaf. By then, I had spent a long time not knowing what was going on around me, including what friends were saying to me or what this place I later found out was a church was for. By that time at eight and a half, it was too late. My worldview of my connection to this world had already formed. If I was to be told how to think, it was too late. My stepmother would tell you that I was a wild child, more in the sense of a feral child rather than the troublemaker type.

I have been asked in a joking way if I'm on drugs when I come up with off-the-wall stuff, "Have you been smoking something?" I tell them, "No, as I don't need to because I'm there already!" I don't NEED drugs to reach that place because I'm always there. I think people lose access to that place early as children, and I believe explains why the world is the way it is today. We're too civilized.

The didge provides for me a better medium to remember to stay in the time when I didn't know what time was or what a calendar or clock was for (I think I was 10 before I learned to tell time - I was way behind in those days). I just knew that the sun rose, and I could go play, and the sun set, meaning it was bed time and would be frightened at night of the darkness. I think this explains the lull in my drumming, and I've fallen out with the destructive tendencies of rock musicians (I'm low-fat-cooked-vegan trying to go raw and STAY there). I love the music, but I just can't stand what people I play with do to themselves. That goes for the audience, too. It's like, "Why play for these people? I'm saddened by their apparent willingness to destroy themselves and die." I may find similar circumstances with people in a drum circle or didge circle, BUT the didge is a lot better for solo playing and relaxation than a drumset on my own time because it can take over an hour to settle back down after playing drums.

I guess I'm trying to say that my tendencies as a deaf person leads me to want to simply be, do what I want. It's hard to do that when you have a lot of expectations placed on you by a lot of people; they want you to dress a certain way, act a certain way, do certain things, and you keep having to push back that line while staying in the loop of opportunity. I'm willing to give up being famous for the feeling of being happy to simply be... And maybe simply being myself will lead me to people who appreciate that and want to play with me. Right now, I'm exploring.
 
My prof. actually created a thread on the school message board and just sent me one of the responses. I'm kind of suprised how into this I'm getting, especially for being an Information Systems (business) Major.

This is an interesting take. I'm not religious AT ALL, but I am interested in how others think...

Yes, the desire to be famous is self worship, ego, and pride.

These are great sins that separate man from God and make man generally difficult to be around and deal with.

It is the one over arching sin. The sin from which all other sin is born from.

I will steal from you because I come first.
I will sleep with her because my pleasure comes before honoring women.
I will lie to you to protect myself because I come first.
I will disrespect my parents because I feel like it and my desire comes first.
I am angry with you because you dare to upset me and my wants.
I reject God because He really comes first and that doesn't jive with me coming first.

Point out any problem in the world or any sin and I will show you selfish pride at the root of it.

That's cool! I would have to concur.

I don't want anything to do with fame.
Successful sure...famous no.
Seems fame in today's world tends to bring a lot more bad along with it...constant contact, media, and ridicule. I couldn't handle it.

Shambo, I'm with you man. I need my privacy.
Shambo, your avatar both fascinates and disturbs me. Who IS that guy?

I have wondered about that myself. No, I don't. I don't want people hounding me, invading my privacy, being required to do certain things in certain ways that isn't good for me or is against my principles.

I don't have anything to prove to myself anymore as a drummer, as far as whether I am worthy. I can improve on my drumming and such, but I don't need to showboat... I've reached a point in my life where I've learned that I want to SIMPLY BE, kind of like a cave person. To simply be. I don't need to "be this" or "be that." Just simply be.

And here, I start down a slippery slope off-topic. It's one reason why I went into learning the didgeridoo very recently. There's nothing like it in western music, though it is classified as a brass aerophone. The story is, I apparently lost my hearing as a baby (and started talking very early, too, until I started losing it after the first year). I was not discovered to be deaf until I was seven and a half. I had already been pulled from first grade and placed in a school for kids with developmental disabilities by the time I was found to be deaf. By then, I had spent a long time not knowing what was going on around me, including what friends were saying to me or what this place I later found out was a church was for. By that time at eight and a half, it was too late. My worldview of my connection to this world had already formed. If I was to be told how to think, it was too late. My stepmother would tell you that I was a wild child, more in the sense of a feral child rather than the troublemaker type.

I have been asked in a joking way if I'm on drugs when I come up with off-the-wall stuff, "Have you been smoking something?" I tell them, "No, as I don't need to because I'm there already!" I don't NEED drugs to reach that place because I'm always there. I think people lose access to that place early as children, and I believe explains why the world is the way it is today. We're too civilized.

The didge provides for me a better medium to remember to stay in the time when I didn't know what time was or what a calendar or clock was for (I think I was 10 before I learned to tell time - I was way behind in those days). I just knew that the sun rose, and I could go play, and the sun set, meaning it was bed time and would be frightened at night of the darkness. I think this explains the lull in my drumming, and I've fallen out with the destructive tendencies of rock musicians (I'm low-fat-cooked-vegan trying to go raw and STAY there). I love the music, but I just can't stand what people I play with do to themselves. That goes for the audience, too. It's like, "Why play for these people? I'm saddened by their apparent willingness to destroy themselves and die." I may find similar circumstances with people in a drum circle or didge circle, BUT the didge is a lot better for solo playing and relaxation than a drumset on my own time because it can take over an hour to settle back down after playing drums.

I guess I'm trying to say that my tendencies as a deaf person leads me to want to simply be, do what I want. It's hard to do that when you have a lot of expectations placed on you by a lot of people; they want you to dress a certain way, act a certain way, do certain things, and you keep having to push back that line while staying in the loop of opportunity. I'm willing to give up being famous for the feeling of being happy to simply be... And maybe simply being myself will lead me to people who appreciate that and want to play with me. Right now, I'm exploring.

Holy crap man...I have to ask, at the end of the day, do you feel your early experience was an advantage for you or disadvantage? One would think disadvantage by default but you never know.
 
I have wondered about that myself. No, I don't. I don't want people hounding me, invading my privacy, being required to do certain things in certain ways that isn't good for me or is against my principles.

I don't have anything to prove to myself anymore as a drummer, as far as whether I am worthy. I can improve on my drumming and such, but I don't need to showboat... I've reached a point in my life where I've learned that I want to SIMPLY BE, kind of like a cave person. To simply be. I don't need to "be this" or "be that." Just simply be.

And here, I start down a slippery slope off-topic. It's one reason why I went into learning the didgeridoo very recently. There's nothing like it in western music, though it is classified as a brass aerophone. The story is, I apparently lost my hearing as a baby (and started talking very early, too, until I started losing it after the first year). I was not discovered to be deaf until I was seven and a half. I had already been pulled from first grade and placed in a school for kids with developmental disabilities by the time I was found to be deaf. By then, I had spent a long time not knowing what was going on around me, including what friends were saying to me or what this place I later found out was a church was for. By that time at eight and a half, it was too late. My worldview of my connection to this world had already formed. If I was to be told how to think, it was too late. My stepmother would tell you that I was a wild child, more in the sense of a feral child rather than the troublemaker type.

I have been asked in a joking way if I'm on drugs when I come up with off-the-wall stuff, "Have you been smoking something?" I tell them, "No, as I don't need to because I'm there already!" I don't NEED drugs to reach that place because I'm always there. I think people lose access to that place early as children, and I believe explains why the world is the way it is today. We're too civilized.

The didge provides for me a better medium to remember to stay in the time when I didn't know what time was or what a calendar or clock was for (I think I was 10 before I learned to tell time - I was way behind in those days). I just knew that the sun rose, and I could go play, and the sun set, meaning it was bed time and would be frightened at night of the darkness. I think this explains the lull in my drumming, and I've fallen out with the destructive tendencies of rock musicians (I'm low-fat-cooked-vegan trying to go raw and STAY there). I love the music, but I just can't stand what people I play with do to themselves. That goes for the audience, too. It's like, "Why play for these people? I'm saddened by their apparent willingness to destroy themselves and die." I may find similar circumstances with people in a drum circle or didge circle, BUT the didge is a lot better for solo playing and relaxation than a drumset on my own time because it can take over an hour to settle back down after playing drums.

I guess I'm trying to say that my tendencies as a deaf person leads me to want to simply be, do what I want. It's hard to do that when you have a lot of expectations placed on you by a lot of people; they want you to dress a certain way, act a certain way, do certain things, and you keep having to push back that line while staying in the loop of opportunity. I'm willing to give up being famous for the feeling of being happy to simply be... And maybe simply being myself will lead me to people who appreciate that and want to play with me. Right now, I'm exploring.

Love your work, Delt.

This is weird. I just finished putting down some thoughts in the rawness thread which touch on exactly the same thing - what gets lost with innocence, how we become a little more disconnected. I guess that little idea was floating around and hit us at roughly the same time.

Good on you for learning the didge. A bass player in my main 80s band taught me to play - I got the sounds but not the circular breathing. A couple of tones of drone, the kookaburra, the kangaroo hop, the passing truck, the dog bark and a rhythmic lick I picked up from listening to a busker. Sadly, I can't play any more because the very second I pick the didge up the dog goes crazy, trying to attack the end that makes the sound :(

People often say "But women aren't supposed to play didge" and I say it doesn't count because I'm a whitey and also I'm not going to give in to some old archaic sexist rule :) Tradition is often worthy of respect, but not when it's exclusionary.

I take it you play by vibration like Evelyn Glennie does ?). What's fascinating is how absorbing music through senses other than hearing is obviously deeply satisfying too. To feel those vibrations as pleasing patterns ... it seems pretty amazing to me.

Oops, just realised this is a thread about the validity of wanting to be famous. Sure, Whatever floats your boat ... if a person has some deep seated sense of insecurity requiring the adoration of millions and impressive social standing, well, I won't judge. We all just try to do what makes us feel good.
 
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