25 Things About Having a Career in Music: 1. Do not be an asshole
At the moment, I am not in the mood to post on NFCS. When a friend goes anon and starts a flame war with you, it sucks the fun out of things. Nor am I impressed with the Facebook group, where people go to diss a poster after acting supportive out where people can see them. Not cute. Meanwhile, there are all these new handles popping up on the forum posting all manner of leading questions in a remarkably similar style. Someone comes up with the idea to use an anon handle to spice things up and suddenly all these new handles start spicing things up. Yes, it could be coincidence, but I've been on the internet long enough to know that when a poster turns up who only appears to care about one thread and has nothing to say on any other topic, there's something hinky going on. New posters tend to be a lot more chatty than that on a variety of threads rather than sticking to the one they started.
And, I should also note that the forum owner has been peeking around the boards of late. Our sockpuppet friends are more than likely dumb enough to post on their own threads with their real handles as well as their socks, so at least one person out there knows what they're up to. Since so many of them have helpfully joined the Facebook group under their real names, connecting the dots could not be easier.
This brings us to our new series of posts. Everyone wants to know how to have a career. Well, I'll tell you 25 things that you need to know about having a career. It's way too much information to share on NFCS in posts and I don't see why I should hand out cookies to a bunch of asshats over there. You want answers?
I have answers.
25 Things you need to know about having a career in music
1. Do not be an asshole.
This was not going to be number one. This should be much further down the list but since everyone seems to have taken moron pills, I think we need to bump this up a few notches.
Do not be an asshole. I don't care if you think you're anonymous. I don't care if you think you're among friends. I don't care if you think no one important is going to see it. I don't care if you think you are 100% justified and everyone else is a much bigger jerk than you. DO NOT BE AN ASSHOLE.
I'm going to assume that if you're reading this, you have some hopes of working in music. Whether you're a performer or behind the scenes, your reputation is the most valuable asset you have. It is also far more easily damaged than your voice and far more difficult to repair. No matter how small the venue is, there's someone there who is going to have the ear of someone you want to impress and the last thing you want them to say is "That guy? Oh he's an asshole."
If you're on the internet, you're in even more trouble. All you need is one blogger to connect your name with your bad behavior and guess what is going to come popping up every time a potential employer or fan searches on you. Yep, "Have you heard of rising star singer? OMG she's an asshole!"
A singer with a reputation for being a decent person isn't all that interesting. Hearing about an asshole is fascinating. Once people start talking about what a jerk you are, those words are not going away. Take a look at Hollywood. There are some amazing actors who rarely work because they have reputations for being assholes. Some of them aren't nearly as big of an asshole as you are, but it's still all over the messageboards and all over the industry and although we might adore their work, no one wants to put up with an asshole no matter how talented they are.
Once you reach a certain level of a career, the majority of your income will come to your through your reputation. You'll still be busting your butt to keep busy the rest of the time, but the really good prizes will usually come out of the blue from someone who heard from someone they trusted that you are the shiz. The majority of your fans will be the result of someone who loves your work sharing it out with people who have never heard of you. You owe your career to the support of total strangers. Those strangers don't know that you usually don't troll the internet or that you don't actually think rape jokes are funny or that you're going through a bad patch. All they are going to you see is a person they don't know who is an asshole and when that good friends tells them to check out your work, they're going to assume that friend is batshit crazy.
Assholes are a hard sell.
Do not be an asshole.
I know it sucks. I know that other people get to be an asshole. If you're planning on never working at all, then you can be as much of an asshole as you want. Have at it.
If you're planning on being a professional in the entertainment industry, you need to act like one. There is no magical pass for being young or being stupid. This is a field where you can go pro at age 4 and despite being 4, people will still expect you to be a good colleague. All the time? Yes. All the goddamned time.
If you get in the habit of being an asshole, you will get caught being an asshole. It has happened to every asshole I've ever run into. No matter how clever you think you are, you will fuck up eventually and now people you want to work with know that they don't ever want to work with you.
Do not be an asshole.
And, I should also note that the forum owner has been peeking around the boards of late. Our sockpuppet friends are more than likely dumb enough to post on their own threads with their real handles as well as their socks, so at least one person out there knows what they're up to. Since so many of them have helpfully joined the Facebook group under their real names, connecting the dots could not be easier.
This brings us to our new series of posts. Everyone wants to know how to have a career. Well, I'll tell you 25 things that you need to know about having a career. It's way too much information to share on NFCS in posts and I don't see why I should hand out cookies to a bunch of asshats over there. You want answers?
I have answers.
25 Things you need to know about having a career in music
1. Do not be an asshole.
This was not going to be number one. This should be much further down the list but since everyone seems to have taken moron pills, I think we need to bump this up a few notches.
Do not be an asshole. I don't care if you think you're anonymous. I don't care if you think you're among friends. I don't care if you think no one important is going to see it. I don't care if you think you are 100% justified and everyone else is a much bigger jerk than you. DO NOT BE AN ASSHOLE.
I'm going to assume that if you're reading this, you have some hopes of working in music. Whether you're a performer or behind the scenes, your reputation is the most valuable asset you have. It is also far more easily damaged than your voice and far more difficult to repair. No matter how small the venue is, there's someone there who is going to have the ear of someone you want to impress and the last thing you want them to say is "That guy? Oh he's an asshole."
If you're on the internet, you're in even more trouble. All you need is one blogger to connect your name with your bad behavior and guess what is going to come popping up every time a potential employer or fan searches on you. Yep, "Have you heard of rising star singer? OMG she's an asshole!"
A singer with a reputation for being a decent person isn't all that interesting. Hearing about an asshole is fascinating. Once people start talking about what a jerk you are, those words are not going away. Take a look at Hollywood. There are some amazing actors who rarely work because they have reputations for being assholes. Some of them aren't nearly as big of an asshole as you are, but it's still all over the messageboards and all over the industry and although we might adore their work, no one wants to put up with an asshole no matter how talented they are.
Once you reach a certain level of a career, the majority of your income will come to your through your reputation. You'll still be busting your butt to keep busy the rest of the time, but the really good prizes will usually come out of the blue from someone who heard from someone they trusted that you are the shiz. The majority of your fans will be the result of someone who loves your work sharing it out with people who have never heard of you. You owe your career to the support of total strangers. Those strangers don't know that you usually don't troll the internet or that you don't actually think rape jokes are funny or that you're going through a bad patch. All they are going to you see is a person they don't know who is an asshole and when that good friends tells them to check out your work, they're going to assume that friend is batshit crazy.
Assholes are a hard sell.
Do not be an asshole.
I know it sucks. I know that other people get to be an asshole. If you're planning on never working at all, then you can be as much of an asshole as you want. Have at it.
If you're planning on being a professional in the entertainment industry, you need to act like one. There is no magical pass for being young or being stupid. This is a field where you can go pro at age 4 and despite being 4, people will still expect you to be a good colleague. All the time? Yes. All the goddamned time.
If you get in the habit of being an asshole, you will get caught being an asshole. It has happened to every asshole I've ever run into. No matter how clever you think you are, you will fuck up eventually and now people you want to work with know that they don't ever want to work with you.
Do not be an asshole.