Whether
you’re aware of it or not (and you probably are), there were one of more
specific elements of your favorite music growing up that inspired you to pick
up an instrument and start playing. Although they are less likely to be aware
of it, music fans are also inspired by specific elements in the songs they hear
with the ideal outcome being a trip to the record store. The problem for you as
a musician is that potential fans might be looking for something in music that
you’re not focusing on. You have to think about what speaks to them and
incorporate it into your natural sound if you want to be successful.
A fan devotes
themselves to the genre(s) that they do because of these specific elements.
Hard rock and metal fans generally look for musicianship, volume and a
particular attitude. Mainstream pop fans look for an infectious voice and even
more infectious melody, country fans look for melody, familiarity, a certain
disposition, and so on. What they all have in common is that they all look for
lyrics that speak them and a melody that draws them in in the first place. When
rock and roll was still going through almost constant transformation, it was a
bit of a different story because every transformation with sound almost
directly coincided with a social transformation of some kind. One might argue
that it was the excitement of something new along with the rebellious spirit of
the fans (also, drugs) that made twelve-minute guitar solos possible for Zeppelin
and Grateful Dead devotees alike.
Today’s relative stagnancy combined with the
‘death of the album’ has drained virtuosity of nearly all its commercial value and while Jimmy Paige may have been a great guitar player, Zeppelin's (and other bands of their ilk) lyrics are pretty much nonsense.
What this means to you is even if you feel that you should be playing football
stadiums because you can wail like Hendrix, a well written song that speaks people
is much more likely to accumulate fans than the nastiest of guitar solos.
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