Selling Story In Music
A friend once told me that Jack White started dressing in red, white and black to distract from the fact that he was a young white kid playing the blues in Detroit. Whether or not this is true, it’s a fitting example of the myth surrounding a genius musician.
In a recent post, Seth Godin reminds us of the importance of product story. No place is this more evident than the cluttered world of new music. Take the story of Bon Iver; one of my favourite artists of the last year:
Following the break-up of his previous band, Justin Vernon secluded himself to a cabin in northwestern Wisconsin for three months planning to “hibernate.” Three months of solitude resulted in the creation of For Emma, Forever Ago. “All of his personal trouble, lack of perspective, heartache, longing, love, loss and guilt that had been stock piled over the course of the past six years, was suddenly purged into the form of song.”
In today’s music age, when online reviews and forums are a go to filter, the pre-experience story set Bon Iver apart. The hauntingly gorgeous product fulfilled the legend.
As for the White Stripes, they sold their ‘official story’ as a two-piece brother-sister outfit clad in the peppermint colors of “innocence and anger”; a bizarre tale of the Zag as told in Neumeier’s most recent book. Again, the pudding was proof enough.
HER NATURE HIS NURTURE 
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