EventsSeth Godin: Social Influence
With the power of influence beyond the scope of Billboard’s Top 40, where does it go from here? To us?
B-Side Players
Let’s come right out and say it: that whole fad for sloppily mashing together several musical genres—heavy-metal-meets-hip-hop-cum-jazz funk, aboriginal-throat-gurgling-with-a-dash-of-sweet-swiss-mountain-yodeling indie pop, or, in sum, Limp Bizkit—looked a lot better (with all its hyphens) than it ever sounded. Assuming you can attract more listeners by repackaging every thinkable genre into some audio-Frankenstein is just as effective as McCain was in trying to gain votes by adding a nubile hillbilly to his Presidential ticket. Which is to say, not very.
What Do We Know?
Seven days ago, I was in New Delhi, crammed in a car three generations deep, belting Slumdog Millionaire’s Jai Ho and shrugging my shoulders to the dhol in way a not so different from how I might bob my head to an old Gang Starr beat. Grandfather, son, grandsons set in synchronous motion.
When Life Gives You Lemons | Atmosphere
The key difference of course is if all you can write about is yourself, you’re bound to run out of material faster than you can create it. So, that was the question for grungy hip-hop artist Atmosphere: was there more to their rhymes than just sardonic stories of love lost and self-flagellation?
