Music is tough to use in analogy because people’s tastes are so varied…but here goes anyway. Take your pick: Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bon Jovi, Jethro Tull, Journey, or you can create your own better option in a moment. All four of those bands have a rich history of music and if you listened to their “greatest hits” you’d recognize most songs on there. But, whether radio station DJ’s or Sports Arenas are to blame, they’re typically known for one iconic song, which I (and very likely, they) would fully argue is not their best. Respectively, Sweet Home Alabama gets sooo much attention (beyond that guy at every show that still yells “Free Bird”) when Tuesday’s Gone, Simple Man, and Gimme Three Steps are just as high quality. You Give Love A Bad Name is easily only the third best song on the Slippery When Wet album, but when you say Bon Jovi, people say “shot through the heart”. Similarly, Aqualung is the only song on the album (of that name) that I ever skip and in my opinion, Wheel In The Sky is far superior to Don’t Stop Believin’ despite the 1.5 billion listens it has on Spotify.
WHO’S YOUR CURATOR?
If you were going to create a museum or a Hall of Fame based on your talents, achievements, values, and priorities, what would it look like? What would be included and where would you want your audience to focus? What are you most proud of and how do you center that in your life? Musicians and other artists sacrifice this freedom to the public in exchange for fame and fortune. But we don’t. Others will pull and tug and try to influence what side of us is most visible but ultimately we are in charge of who we choose to be and what we choose to do. What choices do you need to make now to avoid becoming Radiohead and refusing to play “Creep” to live audiences because you’re just plain sick of it?
Ultimately, we don’t decide what goes in our own museum, but we do have more control over what other people will remember us for. Are you working to curate that legacy, or are you stuck playing that one song over and over?
Notes:
https://www.buzzfeed.com/hannahmarder/19-artists-who-have-admitted-they-hate-playing-their-hit
"I've had choices
Since the day that I was born
There were voices
That told me right from wrong
If I had listened
No I wouldn't be here today
Living and dying
With the choices I made"
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