From Seth Godin’s blog [ he got it from Bob Lefsetz’ blog ].
A rock star is not someone who takes the temperature, who gauges the marketplace before he creates his “art”. A rock star is someone who needs to create and is willing to tolerate the haters along with the fans. He’s someone who incites controversy just by existing. That’s what we lost in the dash for cash. Unique voices. I’m not saying we haven’t ended up with some pleasant music, but it just hasn’t hit you in the gut, it’s the aural equivalent of Splenda, it might do the trick, but it’s not the real thing. The real thing grabs your attention, drives down deep into your heart and lodges itself there. A rock star doesn’t follow conventions, doesn’t go disco or add drum machines just because everybody else does. A rock star exists in his own unique space, and if you met him you probably wouldn’t like him. Because he tends to be self-focused to the point of being narcissistic. Because he cares. He needs to get his message out.
That’s what I’m aiming for. “Incites controversy just by existing.” Oh yeah!
PS : Splenda is a sugar-free sweetner.
1 comment
True. Each Word.
You can’t go to American Idol and say you would like to sing a Rock Song! Ideally you shouldn’t be able to go to a music store to buy Rock Music.
I think every Artist – Painter/Writer/Photographer/Journalist – starts as a Rock Star, and then some get ‘recognized’; and I wonder if after they have ‘arrived’, do they sometimes sit and wonder if they are a Rock Star anymore? Do they feel like a fake? Or at least caged?
Milan Kundera in one of his novels introduces a character who is a published writer, but you shouldn’t go to him and tell him that you like his work, since he considers his own work inferior to the greats he admires and thinks poorly of people who like his work.
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