Becoming A Pop Star With Zero Experience
hackthesystem.com
hackthesystem.com
http://freshonthenet.co.uk/the-manual-by-the-klf/
It's a bit dated, given that they wrote it in the 80s, but it contains some absolute gems:
Stock, Aitkin and Waterman, however, are kings of writing chorus lyrics that go straight to the emotional heart of the 7" single buying girls in this country. Their most successful records will kick into the chorus with a line which encapsulates the entire emotional meaning of the song. This will obviously be used as the title. As soon as Rick Astley hit the first line of the chorus on his debut single it was all over - the Number One position was guaranteed:
"I'm never going to give you up"
It says it all. It's what every girl in the land whatever her age wants to hear her dream man tell her. Then to follow that line with:
"I'm never gonna let you down I'm never going to fool around or upset you"
GENIUS.
As soon as they had those lyrics written they must have known they could have taken out a block booking on the Number One slot. Then within the next twelve months to have written the chorus:
"I should be so lucky Luck, lucky, lucky I should be so lucky in love"
If you like that, you might want to check out "How to Get Rich" by Felix Dennis, another entertaining half-howto, half-confession by a british "hungry young hustler on the make".
If you like listening to music, it's well worth the read. You'll start noticing quite how many popular songs stick to the rules they outline in the Manual.
It's also a really interesting historical document of how the industry operated at the time, with a few nice tape-reels-and-fun-old-tech thrown in.
In fact I used to deliberately play off contrasting formulas just to challenge peoples perceptions of what music they like or should expect from a specific genre. I'll be honest, sometimes with little success. But enough times I'd create something unique and engaging enough to make the failed attempts worthwhile.
I wish I still had the time for all this, but it's really an all or nothing passion; you really need to dedicate your life to it otherwise you're never going to be happy with your output (particularly if you're hypercritical of your own work, like I am). Sadly my wife doesn't share the same passion, so it's hard to justify spending weeks locked in my modest home studio. So these days I just produce the odd novelty record for NYE house parties, friends weddings and such like.
Heh, I think there are few people out there who think differently :)
For me, I'd love to have a couple of hours every day that I could dedicate to getting my piano playing back to the level I was 15 years ago. C'mon passive income!
This guy, through a combination of youthful good looks, utter lack of shame, and sheer hustle has managed to get himself onto the british top 10. But he can't sustain it and the song itself is utter crap; he never set out to make good music, after all.
So what's the point?
The author mentions Tim Ferriss and I see the parallels. Ferriss also "hacked" his way into the Chinese Kung Fu champion's position, by unconventional use of the rules, in a paper achievement lacking any real accomplishment or respect. To his credit, Tim followed up by writing several books of actual value, and never confused hacking a competition with actually being a kung-fu master.
Like Ferriss's win, this is a stunt, a conversation starter, a prelude. It's AirBNB's Cheeri-O's, or whatever they were called. A cool anecdote to talk about - and kudos to him, genuinely, and AirBNB, and Ferriss. But it's not a real achievement in and of itself, not one that I particularly care about, anyway. At the end of the day, you still have to make AirBNB.
So now what?
Notoriety and because he can? Same reasons many hackers do what they do.
I'll concede that I wish he was doing it for the love of the music, but I don't think anyone who seriously loves music takes the charts seriously these days anyway (it's largely just recycled, generic and heavily watered down crap).
Yeah, I'm not trying to downplay what he did. More effort than he implies but still, mission accomplished.
It's just that he says his aim was:
to be a successful musician in the UK with a Top Five single in the charts
And he's talking like he achieved that, the easy way, with a "hack" no less. And it just doesn't seem to me like he's actually a successful musician yet.
If it were easy, everyone would have hundreds of thousands of Youtube subscribers and more video views than One Direction.
edit: OK, so his one direction stat is nonsense. It's still not easy.
The difference is: if you are building a company you must sustain it in the medium/long term. Zynga/Groupon were hits but see where they are now.
I see this as a way to act if you are a company like Color, only thinking on an acquisition.
The music industry is a popularity contest. Believe it or not, there are hundreds of thousands of artists who produce high quality songs but don't have a huge fan base preexisting on a social network.
Getting a big hit is the same as getting a big hit in the startup world. Unless you have a prexisting connection/PR marketing presence, the success is mostly driven by luck and brutal hard work.
What grinds my gears in the music world (and startup world) is when people who have success think it has something to do with their product/song being more unique or better than the next guys. 9 out of 10 times it is due to some competitive advantage the artist/founder had over others.
Skip, you are not missing anything in this "let's drop the word 'hack'" fluff piece.
I'm not really sure what you expected though, as if it was that easy to get into the charts as an independent artist then everyone would be doing it.
This is why I like The Manual by the KLF so much (I've mentioned it elsewhere in this thread).
They really spell out the effort involved:
So how do you go about achieving a U.K. Number One? Follow this simple step by step guide:
Firstly, you must be skint [having no money] and on the dole [state benefits]. Anybody with a proper job or tied up with full time education will not have the time to devote to see it through
Having no money sharpens the wits. Forces you never to make the wrong decision. There is no safety net to catch you when you fall.
And a word from one of the authors:
If you wanna have a number one, if that's... it's a pathetic thing to wanna have, but if you want to, you can have it. It won't make you rich, it won't make you happy, but you can have it.
I'm putting this word in the list of vomit-inducing words and phrases like "synergize", "leverage", "circle back", "win-win", etc.
Then, we need a new box for "at the end of the day" and "drill down" etc...
I hadn't.
The horror, the horror... if this is "the future of music", then we're in for a rough ride.
Still, if even half–decent musicians can take something away from the publicity stunt and hustle a bit, then we might make some progress... maybe.
Next time the playlist was issued by our Head of Music, it had disappeared. Usually, we kept a current song on the playlist for 3-4 weeks at least. It was highly unusual for a track to disappear after a week! The only other songs I can remember with such a short shelf life were novelty / charity / Christmas type records which lasted a fortnight or so before dropping off as public attention drifted elsewhere.
Sure, these kind of things may be considered unethical and if a new guy came into my industry and rose to the top very quickly by exploiting a loophole after i've devoted years of my life to do it the right way, i'd be properly pissed off. But this option can act as a springboard into turning your ambition into real success.
I once heard a story, no idea if its true or not, of a guy that bought a chain of retail sports stores. He didnt have any real money, but managed to structure the deal to pay a small deposit and pay the remainder over time. What he did to raise the initial deposit was get a series of personal loans, house, friends and family, etc. He then bought the business by paying the deposit, then immediately sold off all existing stock as quickly as he could in sales and wholesale lots, giving the business a massive cash injection and revenue spike. That allowed him to pay off all his personal loans and pay the remainder of the money to the seller. He then got long term lines of credit from suppliers based on the long term good history the business already had, restocked and resumed normal operation, over time paying down the lines of credit and keeping the business on the good track it was already on.
My point being, is that you should always look for your competitive advantage.
It's also worth pointing out that the guy's plan of action was pretty stupid. If the suppliers had paid the slightest bit of attention, maybe even talked to each other a bit, they would have found out what he was doing, and refused his request. The long term good history of the business wouldn't count for anything if it became known that the owner was up to his eyeballs in high interest debt and had just sold off all his stock. I mean seriously, his plan hinged on the suppliers not noticing that all his stores were empty.
The story probably isn't true, but if it is, then it isn't something to aspire to. It's a story about a guy doing something very unethical (if not fraudulent). It's a story about a guy taking massive risks with other people's money in order to benefit only himself.
If your idea of competitive advantage is doing something that only helps you and harms others, then you shouldn't evangelise about it. For one thing, it can only hurt you in the long run if other people pick up your ideas and act this way.
I don't disagree with your reasoning, but I think your result is completely off the bat. The thing is sometimes you have to take big risks to get big rewards, and if you play it with enough of an edge you can win. Whether or not you think it is unethical or not right, in reality I think this is how a lot of businesses are actually run.
It really is a shame that time invested into areas having nothing to do with the music is rewarded over the music itself. This seems to select out the good artists who are actually doing something interesting.
I guess even I'm still too much of a perfectionist. Inspiring.
Not a hack, but just a different way to go about it.
Doubled? How? Vague. I think he's attributing his success to the wrong things.
Am I wrong?