Merit, Branding, Perception, and Experimentation

Cafe Society
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I’m getting the impression that one is validated before you even see them. First off, if someone is introduced to millions of people, they’ll probably acquire an instant fan base, and that opportunity might have nothing to do with merit. They could be relatives of someone with power, or many other scenarios (please list any you can think of), or attractive to the one doing the scouting. I use “branding” because if you’re name is linked with a certain brand, record company, or artist, you’re gonna have success you wouldn’t have had.

I’m thinking of perception, branding, all of that stuff. Are people subconsciously programmed to like or dislike someone (or a band) because of what is said… Before many successful artists are introduced, it’s always “Grammy-nominated singer” or “You probably know her from Comedy Central”, etc.

I was thinking of all those videos of buskers who are world-famous, but can’t get any attention on the street or playing inside a place with a piano in it, like a hotel with a bunch of people coming in and out. One artistic CEO was saying how if you took a great piece of art, in this case a painting, and put it in a flea market, it loses almost all of its financial value. I also think the same might be vice-versa - if you took a flea market painting and put it in the NY Museum of Modern Art or any places with inherent prestige… Maybe someone wrote a song with the title “Corona” right before the outbreak and got popular because of certain keywords, which is quite important in the internet-age.

I think Paul McCartney wrote a bunch of songs for someone (I saw it mentioned here somewhere) else to record as an experiment. Paul also used the pseudonym “Clint Harrigan” and released the album, “Thrillington”, and on wikipedia it says John Lennon was the first person to say it was Paul publicly… I wish he had done an experiment with instrumental music, since his voice is so recognizable.

Does anyone know of any other experiments? I’ve done a few as a musician. For example, I told a girl I used to know (a huge music fan) I had a Pink Floyd demo (it was actually my song) and e-mailed it to her. She replied and said it was great, which surprised me because I sent her the same song months earlier with a different title saying it was me, and she gave me some cliched response with no real praise. I’ve also done the opposite, when I sent her an actual Pink Floyd instrumental demo, and saying it was mine and she said it was alright.

I’d recommend checking out the documentary “Find Your Way: A Busker’s Documentary” which is on Amazon Prime… If you know of any documentaries about what I’m talking about, please list them below. Thanks.

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Not an experiment exactly, but the first thing I thought of was the Stephen King works published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman because he was such a prolific writer his publisher was concerned he was glutting the market and diluting his brand. I don’t think the Bachman books sold very well before it was revealed they were written by King.

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I didn’t know that. Not surprising. I think people go into some things with an expectation, and when just one example is validated, they think to themselves, “See?!”

Thanks for mentioning that example. I’d love to search and read the reviews for Richard Bachman, hoping there’s something like “This man needs to find a day job” and to see that same reviewer praise Stephen King.

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I was curious myself how well King did as Bachman, so I did a bit of googling and found this Reddit thread with some good info. If it’s to be believed, ‘Bachman’ wasn’t doing King sales numbers but was doing pretty well for a ‘new’ writer. The cat was out of the bag right after Thinner was released, otherwise Thinner (or Misery, which was also being written as a Bachman book before The secret came out) might have been Bachman’s big break into King-like status. So, it sounds like King’s success was not lighting in a bottle.

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I saw a report from the BBC that Banksy sold original art at a stall on the street in New York City for $60 each, and went most of the day without a sale. I think the first sale was negotiated down to around half price. He eventually sold $420 worth of art that in the normal venues would have been valued at up to $20,000 each.