Feel free to delete this post if it doesn't fit the sub's standards. I understand a majority of posts on this sub have gone down in quality and I'd hate to contribute to it.

I'm a 22m, and have been introduced to trp for a little over a year now. I have made significant improvements in most parts of my life since then, but there has been one significant problem that's been a bit intimidating to me.

I'm a musician. I love writing music, and am fortunate enough to call it my work. The type of music I write, however, is very calm, meditative, reflective, and also a bit mellow (I'm going to have a couple examples similar to my writing style at the end of this post that I urge you to listen to. They're very beautiful pieces of music). A friend of mine described it as "pretty music that feels like a nice hug".

The problem is that through all these years I've used music as a tool for expressing my pain and anger- I was always emotionally volatile until very recently when I started exploring stoicism and becoming more in control of my emotions. I am now very capable of controlling my reaction to things, but because of this my approach to writing music has changed and I don't know how I can overcome it. I don't feel emotions to the same intensity that used to drive me to pick up a guitar or touch a piano and find a way to express them anymore.

As an artist, I feel it is my duty to reflect how I view the world as accurately as I can- and if everything isn't as emotionally strong to induce a similar reaction in the listener when experiencing it, my work will not only get boring but my aim to provoke any kind of response to it would have failed.

I haven't released any music for the last 7 months because primarily I was focusing on finishing university, but I was also just lost because of this. I couldn't even go to my professors for help, because they're all grown children. Every week or so I get a dm from someone new asking when I'd be releasing something new, and my desire to continue making music is stronger than ever. My purpose is to keep creating "pretty music" that offers whoever is experiencing it a place of comfort and the ability to reflect on stuff, but that has been challenging for me because the requirement for this is to experience emotions very strongly for a long period of time- long enough to finish writing something.

And I can't do that anymore. I usually just meditate or go workout, sometimes I journal, and I move on. I am also an actor, so maybe if this shit doesn't work at the end of the day I can just pretend to be a different person and try writing- but then it wouldn't be genuine. I have no urgency to make this change- all my work is "creative" work but it's going okay. I have the luxury of time. This is just another obstacle I have to get through as I keep growing, and in time, I will.

My aim for this post is to create a discussion around current artists/creators who are "masculine" (or at least fit your description of it), because at least in my little bubble I feel there's a lack of those. It would also be cool hearing other people on this sub who are more experienced in the arts than me to give their two cents. Or maybe I just need one of you to kick me in the ass and call me stupid for even thinking this and get on with writing, because at the end of the day this is a writer's block.

Thank you for reading this post.

Here's a few songs I've been listening to a lot lately that I feel are similar to my writing style, and the type of music I'm drawn towards writing and exploring:

Ólafur Arnalds - þÚ Ert Jörðin

This will destroy you- weeping window

We lost the sea- a gallant gentleman

A winged victory for the sullen- steep hills of vicodin tears