 You often hear that authenticity in music is what helps connect a song to a listener, but what does that mean? And why can no one explain that in a way that doesn't sound like the opening speech to a yoga class? In this video, I'm going to explain how authenticity works in making people love the songs you make yourself. Hi, I'm Jesse Canada. This is Museformation. Authenticity has always been what draws listeners into songs, but today it's even more important. As I make this video, we see reality TV stars, YouTube stars all on the rise, plus musicians who show their authentic vulnerable emotions were less scripted and polished than the musicians we used to see major labels promoting of yesteryear. The badly acted and plausible scenarios of TV have gone by the wayside to more realistic things. The public has responded to politicians who are perceived as authentic while those who are scripted are regularly derided for it. Since we've grown disdain for people who think we can't see past their bullshit acts, Brett Easton Ellis calls this a post empire world where when we fake our emotions to the public, everyone can see it since we now know what real genuine emotion looks like thanks to the internet. The veil of covering how we feel with contrived polite PG rated versions of ourselves has been lifted back and there's no going back. Those in the public eye can no longer hide behind press releases or sanctioned interviews if they want to connect with an audience instead they need to go to social media and be honest and make real connections through relatability each day. The audience has grown callous to the fake facades of the past through the mass democratization of celebrity that's occurred throughout the world where gatekeepers have been thwarted by avenues such as YouTube that elevate authentic expression. Today authenticity is currency and you're able to spend it when you know how to communicate and the more you expose the more you're often rewarded. Music is pulling back that veil each year and the evidence is seen as lyrics get more and more honest. Instead of obscuring depression and drug use and lyrical code the nuance has been stripped away leaving no cover for songwriters to deny what everyone can see in plain sight. When Billie Eilish sings about underage sex or everybody's talking about drugs and cheating this was never able to be done ten years ago. Talk of drug use and depression graced the red carpet of the MTV VMAs instead of the everything's fine poses of yesteryear which would then be proved to be untrue just as our instincts told us when TMZ would show us what was really happening in the artist's life. What used to leak out in Rare Behind the Scenes expose is now front and center as the basis of what artists share to the world. We've all experienced a friend wearing clothes that don't fit who they are and they're trying to be something they're not. We sense that lack of authenticity as we stare with a questioning eye. Just the same when a song lacks authenticity in some ways pretending to be something they're not our bullshit meters have been honed to react poorly to the frauds that litter our world. When we hear an imitation of the elements of another song and we were like hey that rips that off it confirms a lack of authenticity in the artist we sensed innately. It clues us as listeners into that that act isn't expressing their own emotions by trying to gain fame through imitating something else that worked for someone else which was an authentic expression of their own emotions and now this person's trying to gain that for their own advantage. Since we're making the music we want to hear ourselves it's important to understand that when you hold back from your authentic expression it's less resonant inside of you as well. We have to remember you're your own first audience member which is why finding new ways to make music resonant within you is the only way it'll connect with others. A lack of authenticity is heard when a singer delivers a stale performance lacking resonance. One of the reasons we need to write from a place of vulnerability is because without it the singer won't have an emotion to express when they sing they'll just be hitting notes kind of wiflessly. By imitating someone else or trying to be like someone else that inauthenticity isn't focusing on translating what you feel in an emotion in music you're focused on copying someone else which has no emotional resonance except for the stale cringe that we all do when we see that. Callous artists I've heard including like jake bug talk about having to revisit the emotions they felt when they perform a song to give it resonance. This practice gets confusing though since singers can be singing in others writers lyrics and you're like hey is that authentic? We have to remember the only way a song is delivered with resonance is when the singer can find a way to connect with those lyrics and oftentimes the biggest singers in pop talk about how they felt a connection when they read the lyrics and all of a sudden they saw how they could express that song which is why oftentimes cover songs can work so much better when somebody else delivers in a different way than the artist initially thought of it. Vulnerability is what allows us to connect with others. There's a great Leo Christopher quote that I like to cite. Vulnerability is the essence of connection and connection is the essence of existence. An important part of this equation is the importance of vulnerability. When we inaccurately portray our emotions we hinder our abilities to connect with others. Being able to say what you truly feel its full uncensored feeling allows that connection. Just as listeners can perceive when you're inauthentic, when you lack the ability to be vulnerable and say your actual truth it can be sense that you're not saying what you're really feeling in its entirety. You know when we talk about Prince it's often said that he was never able to be close with other people but he expressed what he was actually feeling in those songs and that's why they've affected the world so much. Writing about an emotion that's safe to express or not telling the whole truth of your feeling out of fear of others reactions hinders the ability to connect with others we're feeling the same as you. When we become vulnerable by sharing our truth without fear there's more to connect with by expressing the very real emotions that we're scared to communicate. For those who don't understand the power of vulnerability it's how we form deep connections with one another. When you talk with someone and hold back the truth it usually leads to small talk and a bullshit conversation that you forget in days but when you allow yourself to be vulnerable by saying the deeper truth with someone else that understands it that leads to great conversations that we remember our entire life and connections with people that really form and the same thing happens when you do that in a song. You may even remember that conversation for years to come just as you remember a song that deeply affects you for a lot of your life since it gives you a new understanding of your own life. To connect with listeners they must be able to empathize with the emotion you are expressing. The only way to make a listener feel emotional resonance and feel the song you've made is connecting with them and this connection is only made deeper when you bring vulnerability into your music. We can only connect with emotions we've had ourselves and the joy of connection is this understanding of each other. With vulnerability we allow ourselves to say an emotion that's relatable. How often have we heard a song and found the way someone expresses a really familiar emotion? With a new genius twist that emotionally just hits us so powerfully because the way they said it is so amazing and bulls us over. If you sing a song where you're hiding what you feel how is that going to resonate with anyone? This connection is why some songs don't resonate with some people yet resonate highly with others. The connection to a song is only formed if the listener understands the emotion that's conveyed. Friends can be puzzled when they love a song at their best friend who they connect with on so many levels doesn't understand that song. Most of the time that answer lies and that the person who doesn't feel it doesn't experience the emotion the way the song is conveying it. The tools the musician uses to express that emotion may not be the way a friend feels that emotion and that's what makes music. Since we don't all have the same experiences of feeling different colors of emotions as our friends our connections to the emotions expressed in songs won't always be the same. This is why being authentic and showing vulnerability by talking about your great deep truths is what has always been the greatest currency in music. When you really think about the artists you love and who have affected you and whose songs stay with you I guarantee you will find that they were being themselves and expressing the scariest truths and the biggest truths they had. They were finding the most deep emotions that they have and putting them into a song that feels the way those emotions do inside them. They were listening for sounds that made them feel the way they felt in that moment and that's what you need to do too. That's it. I hope if you enjoyed this video you click on my channel subscribe like this video and look at the playlist this is in since there's tons more videos like this. I also need to know your questions about what no one else is telling you. Since in future videos I'm going to answer it so please leave your questions in the comments. I hope you stay tuned to future videos and subscribe since I'm going to be breaking down concepts like this and how to promote your music and make music that you're happy with in future videos. As well I have a Facebook group that's linked below that is only helpful information. No one trying to sell you anything no playlist or con artists only artists having helpful discussions allowed. 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