When the Music Never Dies
- JP de la Rama
- Aug 17, 2025
- 3 min read
Finding Creative Freedom Beyond Validation
"Art isn’t about applause—it’s about being alive. The music never dies; it just waits for you to pick it up again.”
Setting the Stage
When I was young, I wasn’t just into drawing—I was into music.
Me and my childhood friends formed a band.
We jammed, recorded our own songs, and lived through every distorted riff like it was our anthem.
Back then, it wasn’t about trends or popularity—it was about emotion. We played alternative rock, nu-metal, even emo. Yeah—emo.
Before My Chemical Romance (MCR) turned it into a youth anthem, we were already screaming our lungs out in garages, chasing that chaotic mix of punk, melody, and raw energy that somehow felt like home.
Fast forward to today: MCR announces a Manila concert, and suddenly, the “elder emos” are alive again. Something stirred in me, too.
This week, my old bandmates and I got together to play. No big stage, no crowd—just us, guitars, drums, noise, and heart.
And in that moment, it was like unearthing a relic buried deep inside—a forgotten version of ourselves. The sound wasn’t polished. It wasn’t perfect.
But it was real.
Even my five-year-old daughter watched us through a small phone screen and awarded me a star—her school’s way of saying, You did good, Dad.
That star meant more than any like, comment, or algorithm ever could.
The Problem
We live in a time where everything we create feels like it needs validation.
A song, a drawing, a post—if it doesn’t get engagement, does it even matter?
This obsession with outside validation isn’t normal.
It’s draining.
We chase numbers from people who don’t even know us, while forgetting what true creativity feels like—making art for the sake of it.
As artists, we fall into the trap of polishing, perfecting, and posting—waiting for approval instead of enjoying the raw, messy, joyful act of creating.
That’s when burnout creeps in.
Anxiety, self-doubt, depression.
And suddenly, the thing we loved becomes another stressor.
I’ve been there. You probably have too.
Resolution to the Problem
Picking up that guitar again with my bandmates reminded me of something crucial:
Creativity is not about perfection.
It’s about expression.
It’s not about likes or comments.
It’s about connection—with yourself, with your friends, with your soul.
It’s not about chasing validation. It’s about reclaiming the joy of making something just because it feels good.
And you don’t need a stage, a platform, or an audience for that.
Sometimes, you just need to go back to your roots—whether that’s drawing, singing, dancing, or even screaming into the void with a beat-up guitar.
The star my daughter gave me was a reminder: validation doesn’t have to come from strangers.
It can come from the people who matter most—or even just from yourself.
So here’s my advice to you, from one artist to another:
Reconnect with your roots. Go back to the first thing that made you fall in love with your craft.
Make something for yourself. No posting, no sharing, no polishing. Just create and enjoy.
Redefine validation. Let it come from the joy of creation—not the metrics.
At the end of the day, art isn’t about applause. It’s about being alive.
The music never dies—it just waits for you to pick it back up again.
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