Rejection: A Necessary Evil
"Rejection”. The absolute bane of all players in the game of love, and the fear of which is the reason for so much love unrequited. How many times have love-struck boys, girls, men and women decide against laying all their emotional cards on the table before the objects of their desire, just because they couldn’t handle the possibility of the “R” word?
Let’s face it, no one wants to be rejected. Perhaps it is because the idea of rejection wreaks total havoc on our ego and self-esteem, dropping us into a psychological chasm out of which no one can climb, or more simply, it just plain sucks.
The problem is, the fear of rejection has also been the cause of many a missed opportunity, but sad as this may seem, it still is the chosen path for many of us.
I think it is important for us all to at least accept that rejection is part of life, and is there as the Yin to acceptance’s Yang. Almost joined at the hip, there is good and there is evil; failure and success; darkness and brightness. One concept is there to help define and to help us appreciate the other, and vice-versa.
As travellers in this epic journey called life, we need to be aware that all these dualities serve to give us a better perspective on our journey.
In my previous life, I worked full time at a post-production studio.
Ten to fifteen years ago, commercial post-production studios would employ several full time composers. A client would come to your studio with the specific goal of producing the music for the commercial with you as sole composer for the commercial project. Sometimes, not very often, the client would ask for two options but it would still be from the same composer and on the rare occasion that the client changes their creative direction completely and not use any of your music, the studio would receive a “rejection” fee which amounts to 50% of the song production fee.
Commercial production has become much more competitive, where every job is a mini-competition between you and other composers.
Nowadays, it is becoming more commonplace for studios to engage a handful of freelance composers to come up with their own versions of music for a particular commercial, and then have the client choose among the versions. Sometimes, as many as or 5 options are presented to the clients. Music pieces that don’t get chosen get rejection fees, but they are nowhere close to the old rejection fee rate and very much pale in comparison to the fees they get if their music is used for the commercial. Generally the fees have also gone down for music that is actually chosen for commercials.
So where does that leave us freelance composers in a world of mini-pitches, rife with the possibility of rejection for almost every job that we do... from minor web commercials, all the way to full-blown movie scoring projects? While I am personally thankful that I have had many more chosen music than rejections, I still face rejection from time to time. Some composers may lament their disappointment at working so hard in producing the music, only to get rejected at the whim of the client, while others may curse the system the way it has developed.
Artists and creative types are usually quite sensitive and resistant (and that’s putting it mildly!) to any sort of criticism of their “precious” work, let alone outright rejections. For some people who are not used to getting their work rejected, this could lead to a vicious downward spiral mix of denial and self-doubt. Suffice it to say, composers do have some reason to be weary of rejection, because producing music takes effort, and the inspiration for the music comes from their musical imagination, mixed in with their musical experiences with a dash of their personality. In a way, it is akin to bearing their soul, before a stranger, only to be judged summarily.
How to turn rejection into a learning opportunity.
I try to look at all this from a different perspective. Although I prefer my music to be chosen, I look at rejection as an opportunity to learn. Whenever I do music mini-pitches I tell myself that I am already guaranteed a rejection fee, and it is an opportunity for me to hone my music production skills so that I become a better composer, and in a way, I am being paid to learn. Another thing that I do, is wait for the commercial to be released, and then listen to the music that was selected. I then loosely analyse that music in the context of the commercial and compare it with my rejected music to see if the chosen music addressed the client’s brief better than mine, whether the tune was catchy enough, and if the arrangement of the music played a part in the client’s choice.
It also helps to understand that the preference of people towards music is very subjective, and oftentimes it is hard to pinpoint any technical or even musical aspect that gave the chosen song any advantage over a rejected one. For example, if the client has a penchant for U2 music, and if one musical option sonic signature is similar to that of U2, that client may subconsciously choose that option as being more pleasurable to listen to. All too often, some clients find it hard to decide on one piece of music, since there may be a group of people with different tastes of music, weighing in on the song decision, making the process unnecessarily longer.
In any case, rejection is not a bad thing, or at least, it shouldn’t be looked at with as much disdain as it receives. Us composers can re-use the tunes for other potential jobs for different studios or clients so there are still opportunities abound. And for the most part, as long as your technical skills are sound, the game of clients choosing your music among others is almost identical to that of the lottery, where your odds are one to however many other musical options there are, so you win some, you lose some. The most important thing is for us to not let the “loss” keep us from getting better at producing and participating in more pitches.
As time goes by, you will find that the rejections will still be there, but they will be fewer and farther between. Remember that rejections will never go away, and neither should your desire to keep going for more musical opportunities. Remember to keep striving to be better, because you’re only as good as your last job.