Originally Posted by Far-L

Most of those bands fail due to follow through, not any measure of talent.

Pearl Jam literally came and studied the Dead to figure it out. They succeeded because they created a community, which is what the Dead did, and that had nothing to do with being a 60s hippie act. The Dead were small fries in the 60s compared to their peers from SF. Sure Pearl Jam started at a place with chart success the Dead didn't hit for 30 years on the same charts, but they finished in the same space almost 30 years later - playing their hearts out to their live audience and cultivating their community.

NOFX/Fat Mike took his inspiration of label and ownership from the Dead and created community too; albeit in an entirely different niche of music.

Louis CK, while I can't say he was inspired by the Dead's model, he sure has cultivated a similar approach.

Most bands want a big label to come in and pay the bill for looking cool. They don't really care about their fan base. They make music hoping someone will come along but they don't work to build a live, real connection with their audience, which is at the center of what all those I listed above have done.

Think Insane Clown Posse. Most people HATE their music, their style, everything about them, yet they continue to have one of the most devoted followings out there.

This whole thing is comparable to the adult web biz. Everyone bemoans that things are not as good as it was in the halcyon days gone by but forget how much those days sucked too. They want to blame everything but their own lack of foresight into building, maintaining, and sustaining an ever greater fan base.

As I learned playing hockey, the old adage "Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard" plays true here too.


"Once in a while you can get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right" - Robert Hunter