Do music artists listen to their own music?

I would see it as those film actors who say they rarely if ever watch any of their own stuff. Logically they know it backwards and forwards. It would be even more so with recording artist who have more control over the finished product than film artist. I think their work is in their head rolling around, so there is not need to hear it live.

I think this is going to be different with every artist. I cringe when one of my songs comes on, but I heard that, at least at one time, Prince listened to nothing but his own music, ever.

I’d imagine it’s pretty exciting to hear a song that you’ve created blast out on the airwaves. It’s a huge acknowledgement of ones work.
After that, I’d imagine those passionate about their art are busy creating new material.

If you don’t believe in your own stuff, who else will? I remember my friend listening to his music in the car on a mixtape just for the heck of it.

Maybe so. Just to make sure it turned out sounding the way they want it to…. Or to bring back memories. But they probably don’t listen as much as the fans do, that’s for sure.

I love listening to my songs! Especially the ones of me and the boys jamming our asses off! It is the most exciting music I own!

Creating music for me is pure pleasure and relaxation. Listening to my music is a great reminder of this, and it often gets me back into that state.

John Lennon once said that he never listened to his old music. He said it would make him remember the problems mixing the music, or the arguing in the studio. John said when he was home, he listened to Muzak.

I listen to my own stuff all the time. I feel lime it takes on a life of its own as it is being written and recorded so it might as well not even be my own work by the time I’m done.

I can understand all those of you that listern to your own stuff under a critical eye, but to just listern ‘cos your good… wtf?

An artist listening to his or her own music is like, an athlete watching his or her body on recording. It’s always about enjoying what you do, and mixing it with progression. People who don’t create, produce out of creativity, or aren’t athletes, it’s much easier for them to file paper work in an office all day because it doesn’t require excitement or proudness of their work and they are content with that. It’s not to say they are stale, it’s just how they are particularly wired. :D

I could understand they listen to it while in the process of recording and revising, if they just need a refresher on the lyrics and music, or if they need an idea of “well, what next..?”.

If they did they probably have a bunch of criticism about it.

most of them don’t for the very reason that they would criticize their choice and would continually seek perfection.. That why they leave it up to the producers.. Once the product is honed and slicked up, even the performer would have to acknowledge a winner.

When I’ve just finished a piece I will listen to it quite a few times just to see if it ended up close enough to what I wanted before I’ll put it out to be listened to by others. I then tend to not listen for a while. Occasionally I’ll go back and listen to a bunch of old stuff mainly just to see what I did wrong so I don’t repeat my mistakes in my next piece.