GOING “POP” AS A BUSINESS DECISION

Very few true artists can think as clearly about business as they do art. Many believe they can, but very few do. It’s a delusion of this era that any and everybody excels at both.

I use “true artist” to separate them from those who do art, have a facility with music, words, or images, but whose chief focus is to stack chips and get famous.

These people tend to make “product.” That is work that is deeply formulaic and easy to categorize. It may have some superficial biographical elements, but ultimately it is constructed to please as many consumers as possible. These people are artistic and can be tremendous at their craft.

To me, these folks are business people who only differ from executives and fans because they can create commercial work. Not everyone can do this at a high level.

A music marketing guy I knew in the ’80s used to say, “Some people naturally make pop. Their personal experience is expressed best in a pop way that appeals to millions of people. That doesn’t make their work any less valid.”
I do think he had a point. There are artists whose sensibility speaks effortlessly in a mass audience way. I think of Stephen Spielberg’s films in the ’70s and ’80s and the ballads of Lionel Richie, who defined a generation of mall-friendly background music.

Both those men did quite well artistically and financially. But those kinds of pure pop artists are rare. Most are very consciously self-made. The Weeknd built his…