Music Artist Quotes

#1. I was raised on a farm in East Tennessee, and my first concert was Britney Spears. It's my job as a country music artist to be honest about that.

Kelsea Ballerini

#2. When I started, I was 23 years old directing my own music videos; I'm co-producing on my album; I'm hands-on with everything. I'm more than just a pretty boy: I'm an artist. I'm not saying I'm a hip-hop music artist, I'm an artiste.

ASAP Rocky

#3. There was never really a Plan B for me - I always wanted to be a music artist.

Tinashe

#4. I feel confident that the work I've put in will make people see me as a music artist before anything else.

FKA Twigs

#5. My ultimate goal is to really be a huge music artist to the point where one day people forget that I was on a reality show.

Chanel West Coast

#6. So when a music artist puts an album out that can only be streamed, not downloaded, what happens? In Kanye West's case, apparently it gets pirated a lot.

Audie Cornish

#7. I don't think music can be held. I don't think artists can be put into boxes or places. It's all about creating and making the best music you can.

Trey Songz

#8. I think my music is born out of the music that I personally like to listen to. I love amazing singer-songwriters and diverse artists but it's important to know your strengths.

Hoodie Allen

#9. I don't mind being classified as a jazz artist, but I do mind being restricted to being a jazz artist. My foundation has been in jazz, though I didn't really start out that way. I started in classical music, but my formative years were in jazz, and it makes a great foundation.

Herbie Hancock

#10. I grew up thinking art was pictures until I got into music and found I was an artist and didn't paint.

Chuck Berry

#11. The Germans were much more graphical. The expressionism is much more than cinema. It was a movement with artists, painters, music and architecture, so it's really graphic and visual. And the French were something else.

Michel Hazanavicius

#12. But it's not just "Do you want a hit?" More importantly, it has to be something we - the artist and I - like. If you go in just wanting a hit song, it's not going to happen that way. You have to first be committed to making music you like.

Lukasz Gottwald

#13. An artist should write for himself & not for an audience. If the audience likes it, great. If not, they can keep away.

Artie Shaw

#14. My process in making a music video is pretty much a formula of talking to the artist. I've never made a video where I didn't talk to the artist before I wrote the treatment. Basically, I enter into it knowing we are collaborators.

Adria Petty

#15. An artist is somebody that puts themselves in a room, they're a wee bit self-indulgent and you know, sink into their music and it [will] be a very personal experience. An entertainer was somebody that took their God-given talent and shared it with people. And I've always wanted to be an entertainer.

Johnny Reid

#16. It is hard to describe the thrill of creative joy which the artist feels when the conviction seizes her that at last she has caught the very soul of the character she wishes to portray, in the music and action which reveal it.

Maria Jeritza

#17. Without music I wouldn't have the ability to be in business. The opportunity to be in business came with the finances from music and the notoriety that comes with being successful as an artist. So I see myself as an artist first, but I'm absolutely conscious of business.

Curtis Jackson

#18. I'd say we [Apple Inc.] are the most creative of the technology companies and definitely the most artist-friendly. Almost everyone in the music business uses a Mac and everyone has an iPod.

Steve Jobs

#19. I think the Internet has hurt music more than it has helped it. The idea of giving music away for free just bothers me. And, when one band or artist gives it away, it devalues the rest of the product from those who would like to make some money or a living from it.

Steve Mahoney

#20. You don't see a lot of black rock stars. The music industry tends to be segregated stylistically. It's hard for a black artist to cross over to rock music.

Lance Reddick

#21. I don't mind putting my heart out there for the audience, and for the country music fans ... to be vulnerable with them ... that's my job as an artist.

Tyler Farr

#22. Most true artists care about music as a pure, passionate art form, but can get caught in the trap of the business. Which, sadly, has now become more important than the artist or even the music itself.

Rosanna Arquette

#23. Don't listen to what anyone tells you about the kind of music you make. Just make it! Be yourself, make your own music, and be totally true to your art. Because it's kind of a selfish thing to be an artist.

Billy Sherwood

#24. I'm an artist. And I'm happy that I was there at the commencement of this music, this Jamaican music, to put my contribution and help to establish it.

Jimmy Cliff

#25. Whether it's just the career path of doing independent music, being an artist, however you want to pigeon-hole it, it creates a certain type of character.

Doseone

#26. For some reason I can't explain, artist and musicians tend to look younger than our age. Being in music, you need this youthful sense of discovery and wonder for what you're doing and keep your imagination open. That's a youthful way of looking at life and I think that reflects in how you age.

Joshua Bell

#27. In many times, after creating a piece of work I want to stand up and applaud.

Shawn Lukas

#28. This isn't about fans, greed or money. It's about being morally right or wrong. Nobody is governing the way music gets from artists to fans. It's all running amok.

Lars Ulrich

#29. People don't understand what music really is. I've been a musician since I was 6 years old. I got my first piano, was playing recitals at 8, 10 I picked up a guitar, 12 I picked up my first Pearl Master drum set. I was an artist before I was an 'artist.'

Mitchel Musso

#30. I'm not trying to say I'm this artist who is all artsy and that I only write music for myself, because I don't. I write music for other people to enjoy, so I think about if it'd be an idea someone else would like.

Conrad Sewell

#31. I had no idea that I could sustain a career as an artist. But, I loved music and wanted to be in the music business.

Ray Stevens

#32. I simply remix an artist accommodating the way I wish to see this track. Remixing is entirely personal for me, music is entirely personal for me, and it has to be a natural process.

Justin Broadrick

#33. A quiet mind allows the artist to tap into the wellspring of Divine Music within.

Kenny Werner

#34. I grew up listening to Tupac, Biggie and other hip hop artists in the 90s. To this day, their music is still some of my favorite.

Michael Isabella

#35. It's not that you don't make any money doing conscious rap music. You make a lot of money doing this, but if you're greedy and you're not satisfied with $500,000 a year, and you want $2 million a year, then you will suffer as a conscious rap artist.

KRS-One

#36. Creatively, I'd like to achieve not only being an artist, but being a businessman and having my own music home.

Anthony Hamilton

#37. I see artists as a great battalion moving through paint, words, music towards cosmological interpretation.

Lawrence Durrell

#38. Music is art, and once you become an artist, you need to learn how to accept criticism.

Yanni

#39. This game is lame, the music comes second
So you can save that stupidness for all them artists you checkin.
Popularity don't last long, I'm in it for classics,
Cause the other side of the biz is fake and it's plastic.

Craig G

#40. I don't really feel like a rock artist, but I guess in the small category of the world of music genres, that's where I fall in because I've got a guitar.

Courtney Barnett

#41. I don't tweet very much. I still believe in the mystery of an artist. I believe in going out when I'm ready to sell my product. A lot of artists are out there every day. But I remember the Julio Iglesiases, the Jose Joses - and it was about the music.

Romeo Santos

#42. I get inspired by a lot, not jut one type of music or so. I listen to a lot of different music, and love a lot of artists. So, I can get inspired by anything.

Martin Garrix

#43. I think of myself as a serious artist. Sometimes you can get in your head too much about that and forget that you have to have fun. I've been guilty in my career about that at times. But the more I thought about it, the more I thought I didn't want anybody else to have a hit with it!

Tim McGraw

#44. I'm a really visual artist, and I love writing treatments for music videos, photo shoots, fashion, and all the visual parts that go along with making an album.

Bonnie McKee

#45. TLC was so real and authentic. And that's music as a whole. When it's an artist, and it comes from the heart, and that's really who you are, the fans attach to that.

Drew Sidora

#46. To most white people, jazz means black and jazz means dirt, and that's not what I play. I play black classical music.

Nina Simone

#47. I was in Nashville and I was having just the most amazing time there, discovering who I was as an artist because that is such a music city. Everyone there is so friendly and inspiring and down to jam.

Lisa Origliasso

#48. He revolutionized music videos. Before Michael Jackson, MTV refused to play African-American artists.

Spike Lee

#49. Being a pop artist or making music like a jingle or something - I don't do that.

Chris Robinson

#50. I don't look at myself as a celebrity. People recognize me, but it's all about my music, my songs. It's not like I'm a greater being. I take my kids to school, pick them up, go to the grocery store. I'm a mother, and my kids mean more to me than even being an artist.

Faith Evans

#51. When I hear the same formula being used over and over, I get bored. Just as huge pop artists have taken inspiration from things that are happening at the moment, I do the same with my music.

Katy B

#52. The one thing I'm really the most confident in as an artist is my songwriting ability and ear for pop music. I'm really excited to show that off. It was a side that I wasn't able to show on 'American Idol.'

Nick Fradiani

#53. Develop your talent, man, and leave the world something. Records are really gifts from people. To think that an artist would love you enough to share his music with anyone is a beautiful thing

Duane Allman

#54. My sister is an artist and an interior designer. She went to high school for art. I went to high school for music.

Maira Kalman

#55. We had a missionary zeal about blues music, and I felt, particularly, that Mickie Most was attempting to homogenize, sweeten, and make it accessible for the mass market. Which is understandable if you're the producer, but aggravating if you're the artist.

Alan Price

#56. Man, I would demand that artist come to the table with better variety. I would demand that musicians know music history, not just Hip-Hop, so that we could understand. The better your 'listening ear' is, the better your music will be.

Pharoahe Monch

#57. A musician, an artist, an architect: the man or woman who is not one of these is not a Christian.

William Blake

#58. I don't want to be an artist, go on tour and make a video and wear sexy clothes. I would just love to make music.

Rashida Jones

#59. To be honest, I didn't really get into making music to be an album artist.

DJ Shadow

#60. An artist's job is to inspire, from the Latin inspirare: to breathe into. The primary function of art is to inspire new thought shaped by emotions using the creative mediums we master - be it painting, music, design, craft, or photography.

Anonymous

#61. I hadn't known anything else, other than being an artist, and I needed to be a person for a while, really get to know myself without that whole thing [of selling music] surrounding me.

Tove Styrke

#62. Letter from Van Gogh to Gauguin: Ah! my dear friend, to make of painting what the music of Berlioz and Wagner has been before us ... a consolatory art for distressed hearts! There are as yet only a few who feel it as you and I do!!! [Letter 739, Arles, 21 January 1889]

Liesbeth Heenk

#63. I think the music business is changing. Artists that don't want to tour and just want to collect royalty checks and stay home are not going to be able to do that.

Steve Earle

#64. If it weren't for Criminal Records, Wax-n-facts and other indie record stores I could have only sold my CD's at my shows and by mail order as an independent artist. The greatest stores that have character and include a much wider range of music of music are all independent, mom and pop stores.

Shawn Mullins

#65. Just because you're a star on television doesn't mean that you can be a music phenomenon or an artist. You have to have the material to back it, and it's all about hit songs. I can name you every 'Idol' winner and why they didn't go on to have success - their songs. The ones who have - their songs.

Kara DioGuardi

#66. To be an artist, you don't have to compose music or paint or be in the movies or write books. It's just a way of living. It has to do with paying attention, remembering, filtering what you see and answering back, participating in life.

Viggo Mortensen

#67. Regular people don't even realize how much artists mean to them. Artists represent a lot to the average person. People listen to music all day on their iPods, so as artists, we become a real fixture in people's lives. As an artist, you can't take it personal. It's like your big brother teasing you.

Nicki Minaj

#68. People ask who I am as an artist, who I am as a person. I don't ever want to tell them who I am; you can find that out in the music.

Kip Moore

#69. I love music that has good catchy choruses and fits into many different genres ... I like real artists, that write their own material and are great performers.

Perez Hilton

#70. I didn't do music to live; I lived so that I could do music.

Charlotte Eriksson

#71. I am a very simple man. I am a man first, an artist second. My first obligation is to the welfare of my fellow man. I will endeavour to meet this obligation through music, since it transcends language, politics and national boundaries.

Pablo Casals

#72. One of the things that sells music is when the artist is looked at as someone who's come up from the streets. Not just any streets, but the toughest, meanest streets of the urban ghetto. And that's called 'street credibility.'

Geoffrey Canada

#73. I love Frank Ocean. I think he's so talented and his music is so great. So, I would love to do one of his songs like 'Bad Religion' or 'Pink Matter.'

Jacob Artist

#74. Music definitely gave me a focus. I was an artist without an outlet. Let's just say if I was not famous, I could have been infamous. I could've had my own episode of 'American Gangster.'

CeeLo Green

#75. I've always thought elephants walk as if they have music being piped into their heads that no one else can hear. And from the roll of their hips and their swagger, I'm going to guess that the artist is Barry White.

Jodi Picoult

#76. Artistry has to define the Artist so there is no other way but to create the kind of music that speaks about who you are and what's important to you, therefore individualizing the Artist.

Truth Hurts

#77. I feel like artists that are always quite sad in real life always make really happy music, and artists who are really bouncy and bubbly always make really sad music.

Marina And The Diamonds

#78. In changing times, we should all lend our support to the independent retailers. Without independent retailers, many of the biggest names in music would still be undiscovered. They break new artists and movements. We all know the industry is changing, but we can't forget where we came from.

Gorilla Zoe

#79. I love playing instruments that I don't know how to play or am not familiar with. I like the idea of danger and innocence that comes from it. As an artist, I feel I should be able to do something with anything I get my hands on. The music becomes minimalist because of my limited knowledge.

Gustavo Santaolalla

#80. When you listen to the music, you can also see the film or read the article, and it's all part of the same journey that you get to take with the artist you're interested in. It's a balancing act.

Cameron Crowe

#81. Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the harmonies, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul.

Wassilly Kandinsky

#82. I think there is a song out there to describe just about any situation.

Criss Jami

#83. It's rare when an artist's talent can touch an entire generation of people. It's even rarer when that same influence affects several generations. Elvis made an imprint on the world of pop music unequaled by any other single performer.

Dick Clark

#84. As for today's music, Nicki Minaj is killing it. She's an amazing artist.

Neon Hitch

#85. When I write stuff that's provocative, I want people to think about that, too. I'm in between a pop musician and an artist in that way. I want people to be part of the music as they listen, but I also want them to think: What was that?

Jenny Hval

#86. I think it's important, if you are an artist, to use your music to stand up for what you believe in.

Tracy Chapman

#87. They consistently hobble artists' in the name of selling more units then are surprised when the fans don't buy the lukewarm music this produces. So they then drop the artist.

Malcolm Wilson

#88. Though I know consciousness kind of boxes you in, it still encompasses the artists that I knew were conscious throughout history of music - they're the ones that you look at as the legends.

Will Ferrell

#89. Music was my life ... It was everything to me, even though I was in school majoring in English. I was still very focused on music and always finding ways to perform, so that was what set me up to want to become a recording artist.

John Legend

#90. I'd like to do music in the same way - in a witty way. People think of YG artists as rarely appearing on TV but I'd like to make Big Bang fans happy through various mediums.

Seungri

#91. I'd like to make music for a long time, and all different types of music. Maybe I'll start my own label to get other artists off the ground.

Jamie Cullum

#92. I believe in spiritualism. It's like, when you listen to music or something and then you're sort of primed. If you're an artist, you're sort of primed and inspired, and you start drawing, you sort of have the spirit of what you're listening to, still in you. You just have sort of an inspiration.

Daniel Johnston

#93. For me, if the music is good, whether the artist is famous or unknown, I love being part of the music and contributing what I can to the bass end.

Tony Levin

#94. I'm an indie artist with major distribution, so one foot in the extreme major music business and one foot in the abyss of indie artists.

John Oates

#95. Anytime I get to be around the fans it's always a good time, especially during Music Fest. CMA puts together an event that allows artists to make that personal connection with the fans and it's wonderful. I look at it as our chance to give back to them and let them know we appreciate their support.

Billy Currington

#96. The music does a lot for me. I'm one of those types of artists who the music really inspires my delivery, my cadence, and what I hear.

LeCrae

#97. I'm not into screamo music, but I respect it. It's hard to do, to keep your voice and stuff like that. It's hard to do, so I respect the music. It's just not my favorite to listen to. That's all I want. I just want people to respect me as an artist.

Justin Bieber

#98. If an artist tells you "this is an oak tree," then it better be an oak tree. It's how you proclaim things; if you say "the silence is the music," then it's the music.

Igor Levit

#99. For me the top music though has to be Rock or Hip Hop and artists like Kanye West.

Steve Purdy

#100. You don't necessarily pick the singles that you want when you're making a record, but for the most part it's the same process. You're the artist - you make the music that you want to make.

Wale