Sweet, Sweet Smell of Success
That's the big question in the digital world. In epublishing, in the new music world, in painting or photography or whatever: how do you know when you've "made it"? When you can retire on the residuals? Maybe, if that's your goal. But, if you don't have a definition for success, you don't know when you've achieved it.
For some it's recognition. Getting the most hits on a blog post, a YouTube video, retweet, whatever - that's success. Being at the top. There's no gain other than having achieved the top spot. It's beating the video game. It's a public recognition of who you are and what you've done. But for art, it's deeper. It's a validation that whatever the artist feels/experiences when creating the art connects with another person. Appreciation might be a better word. Enough appreciation leads to sales. Always. 'Cause that's how we show our appreciation. We want to own a piece of it for ourselves. And, if we think it's valuable enough, we want to own a unique piece of it, a limited piece of it, somehow. In music, I'd put almost any new artist in the top 40 here.
So for some, it's sales. Making a living from their art. Being able to express themselves in what they do, and receive payment for it. I can't think of a better position to be in as an artist - if you can sustain it. You are, however, at the mercy of a fickle public who will love you today and hate you (or, maybe worse, simply be so indifferent toward you as to ignore you) tomorrow. And then it's either sell out the art, the vision or give up, right? IF the only benchmark for success is sales. In music I'd put somebody like Madonna here - she keeps "reinventing" herself, chasing the next big hit song, the next sale, I think somewhere along the line she lost any sense of art (if she had any - I think she was a category #1 artist who got lucky to fall into category 2 and stay there). Hootie and Blowfish started, I think, as category #3 artists, dropped here by their third album, trying to recapture sales, rather than really pursuing the passion for music, though I could be wrong...
For some it's satisfaction. Doing what they love because they love it. Period. Recognition or sales or whatever may come or go but they do what they do because it's what they're driven to do. They can't imagine doing anything else. I'd put a band like Rush in this category.
There's probably a million ways to define success. The point is, however, that if you DON'T define it, you don't know if you've achieved it, right? So...what's the goal, what's the point? Is is just to make great music together? Cool, do that and love it and live it. I did that for fifteen years with some of the most awesome people I've ever met. We never made any money, we'll never have a rockumentary done about us. But we were a wild success - because all we wanted to do was make great music that honored God and enjoy playing it together with friends. And we did it.
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