Art & Creativity Quote by Greg Ginn

There is something quietly radical in how Greg Ginn frames success: not as lightning-strike validation, but as a slow manufacturing of ears. Selling the first 10 records isn’t romanticized into destiny; it’s treated like a proof of concept. The thrill is real, but the strategy underneath is cooler than the excitement: distribution first, taste later. That’s a very Ginn way to talk about punk and hardcore, scenes that often get mythologized as pure spontaneity when they were also logistics, repetition, and stubborn exposure.

The key phrase is “became accustomed to it.” He’s admitting that the music wasn’t designed to be instantly lovable; it needed time to recalibrate listeners’ expectations. That’s an argument against the idea that audiences are fixed and artists must chase them. Instead, he’s describing taste as something you can build through contact. It’s a theory of culture as habit: play it enough, circulate it enough, and what sounded like noise starts to sound like a new normal.

Context matters: Ginn didn’t just make music; he helped engineer the channels that carried it, from DIY releases to touring networks. The quote reads like an entrepreneur’s memo disguised as a musician’s reflection. The subtext is confidence bordering on defiance: we don’t need to soften the sound to “convert” you; we just need to get it in front of you long enough that your brain catches up. That’s not selling out. It’s playing the long game against mainstream gatekeepers.