Was at a holiday brunch at a friend’s house the other day. In addition to the grownups, there were two high school students and another kid who’s in sixth grade. We were all talking about music, when the eldest high schooler let loose this gem:
“All new stuff is HORRIBLE.”
He then went on a rant about bands that started out obscure and good and pure, and then betrayed him by going commercial and finding success. He then cataloged a half dozen bands (none of which I had heard of, all of which sounded like zones in World of Warcraft) and how their first two albums were great, but then all the kids at school liked the third album so now they are horrible . . . HORRIBLE.
“Do you think it’s possible,” I said, “that the band’s popularity affects how you hear their music?”
“Yeah,” he said. “So?”
It’s not like I was expecting him to roll over, but still . . . when you’re on the artist side of the relationship this kind of talk is heartbreaking. Maybe that third album was terrible. Or maybe after years of building an audience, Eversong Woods is rightfully enjoying some success. And yet they are losing a fan.
If popularity can lose you fans, it can also be a barrier to new ones. Later, the sixth grader said she wouldn’t read Diary of a Wimpy Kid (which, by the way, is f*cking delightful) because “everybody says you have to read it and that it’s so great and I bet that it’s good but I doubt it’s that great and I’m not going to read it and everybody says you have to read it.” This time I didn’t argue.
One lesson you could learn from this story is to be true to yourself. You might as well make exactly the kind of art you want to make, because you have no control over the irrational beliefs of strangers. (The obscurity/popularity continuum is one of many.) You could learn that lesson, but I would prefer that you not.
Instead, please consider this:
Part of your success may hinge on changing people’s beliefs. Sometimes the work does the changing for you (cartoons are for kids until The Simpsons comes along) but in other instances you may have to campaign. You may have to fight for your form, your genre, your aesthetic. Depending on the scope of your project (and the size of your ambition) this may mean something as simple as publishing a few articles that help pave the way for your point of view, or as grand as building an army of followers willing to level cultural villages on your behalf.
Happy New Year!
