"YouTube Gave Me Everything, Then I Grew Up": nyti.ms/3ltLmED
I follow this influencer stuff. Because I know despite the positive press, it's a lonely life that burns you out and ultimately leaves you unsatisfied.
I had lunch with a majordomo who had a meeting at TikTok. The company told him you have to post EACH AND EVERY DAY!
And they're right.
I don't know if you follow anybody on TikTok, but if you do, you look for new content every day and when you don't find it, you eventually fall off. That's another dirty little secret of internet addiction (and I'm not talking about the one referencing the time you spend online), what infatuates you now...you ultimately burn out on.
Never mind that despite all the hype, it's very hard to make good, consistent money being an influencer.
So I thought the above article would be another one about burnout. However that was not the case. The writer was complaining that she was a prisoner of her image. She was afraid to change it for fear of losing followers. She had to be who she once was, so her audience would be satisfied. Eventually she left the service and allowed herself to grow up and change. Which was a relief. She could finally be herself.
But being locked into a past identity not only haunts social media influencers, but everyone involved in the arts.
One of the amazing features of the Beatles was that every track sounded different. I was compiling car songs for my SXM show and I thought of "Always Crashing in the Same Car" from David Bowie's "Low," which could not have been more different from its mega-successful predecessor "Station to Station." And Neil Young scored with "Harvest" and then went on the road playing arenas to his newfound fans and performed all new electric music.
Giving the people what they want is a fool's errand. That's being a corporation. But for an artist...it's death.
So I wrote about Joe Rogan and antisemitism and... I lost about 200 subscribers. Did I know I was going to lose subscribers when I tackled this subject? Sure. But then I was confronted with printing responses. Once. Twice? That was too much for people, even Kid Rock, he signed off.
Now 200 subscribers is a drop in the bucket for me. But I'll admit I don't like losing subscribers.
And everybody gets a choice, the people who signed off are entitled to do so, for whatever reason, it's their life.
But it's my life too.
Do I do what feels right? Do I do what I believe must be done? Or do I cower in fear and play to the masses, unafraid to sacrifice.
The dearly departed David Crosby took a stand on Trump, engaged his attackers and pushed back. And isn't it funny that we're talking about Crosby instead of Stills or Nash. And this was long before his death. Crosby was not set in amber. He was smarter than the average bear, and rather than dumb himself down for the masses, he refused to compromise. And continued to make music and experiment. Did he have rough edges? Of course! But that's the essence of being an artist. And if you're not willing to take chances, find yourself on the wrong road, hit a dead end, you're never going to reach the nougat, get the gold.
Antisemitism is a real subject. And, as someone wrote to me, only a Jew knows where the line is.
But that is not what this is about.
I could tell you to march forward uncompromised, but...
It's hard to do that if you work for the corporation, it's all groupthink, especially if you're not the CEO.
Which is why we look up to artists, because they're not beholden to the usual suspects. But when they desire to become brands/corporations themselves, we end up watching streaming television. We want people we can believe in. That's what music delivered and no longer does.
I'm not asking for sympathy. I've got a huge audience, I can lose a few.
But don't think I'm happy about it, don't think it doesn't haunt me, don't think that I don't think about it.
I could give you what I think you want...
But the dirty little secret is you don't even want that. What you say you want doesn't satisfy, because we're all looking for something new and different, that elates us. And it's so hard to find it, and when we do we're so happy.
The key to being an artist is to listen to your inner turning fork and follow it. The greats had no roadmap. And some weren't even recognized until after they died. But they needed to go down their path, for themselves primarily.
Sign off all you want. Tell me you're going to sign off, which a lot of these people do...as if that's going to make me feel bad and make me change my ways? I'm going to do my best not to listen to you, not to be influenced by you. It's not easy. But this is the dilemma facing all of us. As my father constantly said, "Just because someone jumps off a bridge does that mean you should to?" It's your choice.
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