Find The Story

There’s not much worse than a bad movie. My optimism usually makes me watch bad movies way too long. I keep thinking; great cast, great idea, great camera work, it’s gotta get better. Not always. I watched a movie about 45 minutes too long the other night. I kept thinking the next day; what was lacking in that movie? Why did it not feel right? Then it hit me. The story wasn’t clear. I was never really sure what the writer wanted me to understand or take-away from the movie. I couldn’t relate to the story or interact with it. 

I think we all need to take a moment and ask, how can fans interact with our music? Not so much just the writing of the songs (although, for the love of all that’s good, please think about the story in your lyrics) but the narrative of the whole thing. The brand. How can our fans interact with our story?

Go here with me for a second, Lady Gaga. Besides the fact that she’s insanely talented, she’s also created and nurtured this community around her and her music. She’s become the focal point for a subset of people, her tribe, to use a term from writer Seth Godin. Here’s the basic narrative for her tribe: “Lady Gaga is courageously OK with being different. I can be different. I’ll look to her for courage.” It’s a narrative that she’s created and her fans love it and love her for it!

Or throw back a bit further to Twisted Sister and their song We’re Not Gonna Take It,that incapsulated the narrative that authority is the supervising enemy in our life. The story was easy to relate to, whether your struggle be with parents, government, or your boss. Again, they were successful because they invited fans into the narrative. 

Sturgill Simpson is a more recent example. Over the last 5 years he’s seen tremendous growth. A big part of his success is his ability to stay on narrative. To Sturgill (and his followers) modern country music is a sham and he feel’s he’s doing something authentic and real, and sometimes in adownright sarcastic manner to illustrate how ridiculous this genre is in his opinion (see: title of his first record Metamodern Sounds In Country Music). It’s worked. 

The narrative does’t have to be overly complicated though. Look at the earlier examples. There’s nothing inherently complex about the message. It’s actually quite the opposite. The more complex the message, the harder it is to understand, much less remember and tell others. I don’t think it even has to be extremely compelling to everyone, just your niche fans. However, it does have to be compelling to you. If it’s not authentic, then it’ll feel forced and people will see right through it. 

Along with figuring out the story, sticking to it is equally important. That takes discipline. There’s an old marketing term called The Rule of Seven. It says that people need to hear your message seven times before they’ll understand your message. Even though I don’t think this number is scientific (and I’m pretty sure it’s far more than seven times, considering how crowded the market place is), it proves the point that it takes time to spread the narrative about your music. Years.

I feel strongly that everyone can figure out a narrative to complement their music. A story that interacts with their fans. I encourage you to take a little time today to think about that narrative.