“10 From 11” Song by Song - “Big Wide World”

As an artist, it's pretty much standard practice today to do everything you can to appeal to as many different audiences as possible. Fewer and fewer people spend money buy music, so unless your stream numbers have five or six zeros on them, artists have a tough time making money off the music itself. A lot comes from merch and ticket sales for shows, endorsements, ect ect.

Targeting certain segments of the populace is also a popular strategy. Each artist is supposed to know who our ideal target audience is, and do our best to get our music into ears one way or another. All the sites give us stats that can help show who and where a fan base is. Then the idea is to lean into that market and hope you can come up with the classic "1000 fans who support you", which is what I’ve heard it takes to make a living off of music. They say if you have 1000 people actively supporting you financially one way or another you can make a career of this.

I've never been any where near any of those numbers. It'd be cool if I was, but ultimately I'm just making music I enjoy making and listening to, and I post it in hopes that maybe someone else will enjoy it as well. I started to do #ATSIC (my radio show/podcast) because I realized that there are too many talented artists struggling to be heard, and that I could do more for the kulture helping others with promotion than by trying to push my own music. Making money off the music is beyond the point for me right now. It'd be nice to cash out, of course, but I'm definitely not rhyming thinking that I'm going to be the next to blow up. I rap to get my thoughts out into the public. The internet is a game changer in enabling us all that ability to have that voice, I figure I might as well use it.

On "Big Wide World" I elaborate on a pondering that relates to the "target your audience" strategy. It's sort of the "any publicity is good publicity" thing, but maybe evolved a bit. The world’s already seen people with big careers realize that not all publicity goes in their favour, as they've been outed as sexual predators or bigots, but even those guys likely still find a following when they go launch podcasts after they get fired. (As I wrote this, Cosby got released). One thing that does seem to ring true is that the populace is so divided right now, at what looks to be an even 50/50 split, that some people are making careers off of pissing of their opposition. The people outside their target audience seem to be becoming their targets.

I'll use some of the anti-masker types as an example, cuz the pandemic didn't give us much else to look at for a while there. There was a BBQ place in Ontario, and a little cafe in backwater Alberta that both pulled the same stunt. Some preachers scattered around pulled this same scam as well. They rally folks around them, crying out against masking and distancing rules. That generates more support than they ever had prior to the charade. After that, they eventually goad the police into arresting them. From there, they get to reap the benefits as their supporters rush to their defense, filling coffers for legal fees to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars. They end up with some fine or slap on the wrist charge, maybe a day or few in prison for breaking some law that's only really a suggestion, and then they're back on the streets spending the hundreds of thousands of dollars donated to them. By loudly provoking the progressives and eventually the powers that be, these guys find more support from their community than they ever would if they just sat back and sold coffee and hotdogs in silence.

This strategy applies to rappers and their marketing as well. I'm not here to throw shade, mostly because I'd rather not have their supports descend upon my social media, but I can clearly see select rappers appealing to the political right and their sensibilities. Whether it's writing raps complaining about being a white guy being censored by "cancel culture" or actually showing up to headline at anti masker rallies where people are marching with racist symbolism proudly displayed, some rappers have really doubled down on the populist approach. Hip Hop has always had a purist capitalist lean, but some guys have gone all in on the warped Libertarian stance.

Artists need fans to be loud about our work. The only way we get to a wider audience is either by paid promo, insane amounts of handshaking and grinding, luck, word of mouth, or a combination of all of those things. Look around and notice who you see yelling loudest. In real life at the work site or office, online in comment sections, wherever. I know the progressive "woke" have a rep for being loud mouthed in the face of oppression (huzzah), but at least in Alberta and on the comment sections, the people spewing right wing rhetoric seem to be winning the battle. My Twitter is an echo chamber of lefties, but in comment sections on news articles and posts, the conservatives sure do love to whine as the world marches past them into the future.

Jordan Peterson is rich because he pissed off a progressive person and now he's gathered a mob of macho men behind him singing his praises and amplifying his "pull yourself up by the bootstraps, start by making your bed" mantras. Trump has had plenty written about him and this phenomenon. It seems easier to get the angry people to engage, sentimentally, emotionally, and financially. It doesn't bode well for people trying to make art that appeals to people who are thinking about things on a deeper level.

At least it didn't seem to. Now it might be a new era. The progressives are pissed off now too. The youth see the world in a downward spiral, and the power structures doing nothing to stop it. We all see the social injustices that are taking far too long to change. BLM, Every Child Matters, the Water Protectors movement, the Land Back movement, and a growing lack of nationalism and religious adherence (finally) are all signifiers of this swelling urge to be heard above the ignorance that seeks to perpetuate the norms of old.

I wrote "Big Wide World" thinking about all this. Thinking about trying to find support, hopefully somewhere before getting thrown in jail. I've certainly decided that at this point there's no risk in pissing off the hillbillies who populate this province in great numbers. No risks to my search for an audience anyways. I've tried to educate all my life, I can spew harm reduction stats, climate change stats, stats on wealth distribution, happiness stats in capitalist vs socialist economies, ect ect, It's not getting anyone anywhere. They tune it out and go find someone to listen to who endorses what they wish were true. No one is convincing anyone, we're all in trenches and the battle lines are drawn.

Here's hoping that by making music that could piss some people off, I also find some people who want to be a part of a movement towards progress. Maybe it can bolster them to speak out, maybe even push them to support the artists and organizations who spread that message.

Thanks for reading, listening, sharing.

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