Performing For TV

I like watching the Super Bowl halftime show. It’s the biggest television viewing audience for a music performance and all parties involved in the planning and execution of the show know it. Musical performance by committee…and more committees and more committees.

But this year I missed it. I was upstairs.

When I came back down it had ended a few minutes ago. The only thing that was being discussed was Rihanna being pregnant or not or how far along she might be. I thought that was telling.

Then I watched it earlier today. Those floating platforms were amazing and the camera work was detailed and spot on. It was truly a performance made for TV, so might as well book the biggest show on TV.

Music performances that are made for TV are tough. As the performer you have to believe that you did the necessary work to ensure that the show is connecting with the people watching on TV…because, since the show wasn’t designed for the physical audience they aren’t gonna feel as connected…so the artist isn’t getting the real time affirmation and reciprocated energy that usually comes with a live performance.

 

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

Effort Into Quitting

When things are going well do you quit and move on while you’re ahead?

Or do you ride it out till it’s declining or until things start going badly?

In either case, if you’re going quit, do it in a way that you’ll be proud of later. Quitting something, especially a career or passion, is emotional and disorienting. Reality gets hazy. Lots of feelings. And those feelings can easily rob you of quitting in a way that your previous work probably deserves.

It’s easy to not feel like writing a good ending…after all, you’re quitting, what do you care…But your future self will have that good ol’ 20/20 hindsight and no emotional haze. Your future self will be glad you dug deep one more time, at the very end, when you didn’t need to or want to, to wrap things up in a way you’re glad you did.

 

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

Running In Nashville

It would be impossible to get ten thousand people together on a Saturday morning in Nashville to go for a run.

But when you call it the Music City Marathon, the people just show up.

When you call it a marathon people know there’s a finish line. And they know where it is. It’s not just a finish line for the run that day but a finish line for the five or six months of training leading up to the marathon.

A clear goal, easily measured and a specific completion date. And you’ll be with other like minded people on the journey.

 

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

Childish Attention

Toddlers want their moms’ attention, desperately saying ‘mommy, mommy, mommy’ a million times. And when they finally get the attention they were calling for, it’s only then that they start thinking of why they wanted it and what to do with it.

And this sequence is perfectly ok and wonderful from a toddler.

But as artists and businesses and companies and brands, this sequence is just plain childish.

Attention can be so difficult to come by, so be ready with why you’re working for it in the first place.

 

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

We Came Here To...

New Hum Love playlist on Spotify and Apple

‘We came here to meet girls and dance and we can’t meet girls until we dance!’- the heckler from That Thing You Do

The Wonders had the benefit of their audience telling them exactly why they showed up to the venue.

Most artists aren’t quite so lucky.

But if you want them to dance and they’re not, you’re playing the wrong music.

If they came do dance and they’re not, you’re playing the wrong music…or you booked the wrong gig.

Why does your audience show up?

 

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple