It often takes time for Sonic Youth to find where they're going in their songs, but once they do, they hit a sweet spot that most punk bands can't. I remember the first time I heard the Daydream Nation album and being instantly moved most by the way they're able to hit a certain BPM (beats per minute) that's a perfect balance of drive and groove. They'll find a captivating sweet spot, and they'll sit in it long enough to put you in a trance and then pull you out of it with beautiful noise. Here's a great example:

What I learned from listening to Sonic Youth is that it takes time to find your sweet spot when creating great media, and that you don't need to be discouraged if there's a bit of noise and disorganization before you get where you need to go.

Sure, there are going to be times when you need to switch it up and you're not getting the engagement you're hoping for as you try to find your sweet spot. But the trick is to keep working at your ideas until you find that perfect balance between drive and groove—compelling content and revealing context—and keep running with it until it's time to go back to the drawing board.

As creatives, we're often afraid to make the noise we have to make before we find our sweet spot, but it's bands like Sonic Youth that give us permission to let go of those fears, find that point of sweet media, and run with it until we need to try something new. Because approaching media in this way results in great art: