Recently I watched PJ Harvey’s Tiny Desk Concert (highly recommended if you’re a fan or have ever been one). Ten albums and countless ancillary releases and side projects into a 30+ year career...
Oh man this resonated. I think about this all the time! And love thinking about the ways that musical artists in particular grow and change and evolve, and you're right -- we often are secretly kind of like, "Can you just play the old stuff, please? That's the album I'm into . . ." but then sometimes there are also artists who are clearly just trying to put out the same thing over and over and then we get bored! It's impossible to "win" which is why you almost have to stop trying.
"It's impossible to 'win' which is why you almost have to stop trying" - ugh so true. I think people can definitely tell when a creator is getting joy out of their art and it's like a positive feedback loop. Man I enjoy it so much when a musician takes a risk and it pays off and they enter a whole new level of their career.
oh wow- i should check back in with you. my second book is a slightly different genre, and that's likely to be the case for my third. This was a serious convo about my "brand"
Yeah, I can see that! I do think it's interesting how granular our understanding of genre seems to have gotten, where it seems like a significant shift to write something even slightly different. And I'm not sure how much of that is even coming from readers vs. book/publishing people.
i don't think its readers.. i was a huge Key & Peele fan and when i found out Peele was doing a horror movie I was SO excited. I think readers will follow authors they really like. Not all, but the good ones will
Oh man this resonated. I think about this all the time! And love thinking about the ways that musical artists in particular grow and change and evolve, and you're right -- we often are secretly kind of like, "Can you just play the old stuff, please? That's the album I'm into . . ." but then sometimes there are also artists who are clearly just trying to put out the same thing over and over and then we get bored! It's impossible to "win" which is why you almost have to stop trying.
"It's impossible to 'win' which is why you almost have to stop trying" - ugh so true. I think people can definitely tell when a creator is getting joy out of their art and it's like a positive feedback loop. Man I enjoy it so much when a musician takes a risk and it pays off and they enter a whole new level of their career.
oh wow- i should check back in with you. my second book is a slightly different genre, and that's likely to be the case for my third. This was a serious convo about my "brand"
Yeah, I can see that! I do think it's interesting how granular our understanding of genre seems to have gotten, where it seems like a significant shift to write something even slightly different. And I'm not sure how much of that is even coming from readers vs. book/publishing people.
i don't think its readers.. i was a huge Key & Peele fan and when i found out Peele was doing a horror movie I was SO excited. I think readers will follow authors they really like. Not all, but the good ones will