#7 ONE PLAYLIST IS ALL I NEED
The #7 reason you just lost a decade in Hollywood is related to a lack of critical thinking skills, skills we all hope to acquire one day if we are to succeed in an ultra-competitive industry, like showbiz.
In this case the critical thinking skills are "analogous reasoning."
"It's always easier to see what the other guy is doing wrong."
I can explain it in one Spotify playlist with a number of songs which I really like but I don’t expect you to ever listen to, like, or follow. Because like casting offices, you have a strong predilection to artistic performances from artists who are already super-famous.
HERE’S THE ONE PLAYLIST THAT YOU WON’T BOTHER TO LISTEN TO
It would be my thesis that, for most citizens of free countries in the English-speaking world, music “tastes” are in fact the byproduct of the massive pop culture marketing machine known as “Big Media”; in stark contrast to the more idealistic worldview that the best music will organically find its way to the top of the charts, or pure meritocracy. Or that you are a somehow a tastemaker of your own aesthetic.
EVERY SINGLE DAY, 22,000 NEW SONGS ARE UPLOADED TO SPOTIFY.
HERE THAT LINK TO SONGS YOU WILL NEVER PERSONALLY LISTEN TO
Now we should get back to critical thinking. Like many of you, I have a college degree where I was supposed to develop critical thinking skills. I can’t say that I really did, looking back on it. What ultimately gave me critical thinking skills was buddhism (meditation) - which is the practice of observing one’s own mind. But I digress.
Assuming we have critical thinking skills, it becomes readily apparent that the phenomenon of “acting career failure”, which I currently am witnessing on almost a daily basis, can be easily generalized to include music career ambitions or "music career failure."
I’m sure that every musician uploading a song to Spotify (that’s 22,000 a day) is holding a belief that this democratic medium is somehow going to deliver to them, worldwide fame and success.
And just like the chump economies in Hollywood, you can find thousands of hucksters promising easy success on Spotify “if you would only pay a small consulting or promotion fee.”
But we don’t need any of that to apply critical thinking skills here.
All you have to understand is you are no more interested in the songs on my one playlist than the producers who hire major casting offices are interested in your audition tape. They don’t want to see your unsolicited tape, they want to know if a famous A-list actress who looks a lot like you is willing to be in their movie for whatever budget/schedule they have. The only reason they would ever hire an unknown newcomer is out of sheer desperation.
PLAYLIST OF RECORDING ARTISTS WITH ASPIRATIONS ANALOGOUS TO YOURS
As I have documented elsewhere, the only time that casting directors are really allowed to draw from the raw talent pool of unknown actors is for “small opportunities.”
So while you’re busy ignoring my one playlist (I chose the first song as the theme of your career prospects if you don’t have a LOOK) ask yourself, “How many hours a day do you devote to listening to unknown artists on Spotify, and carefully adding your favorite songs to your music library?” My guess is none.
That’s exactly how many hours that casting directors and major film directors are spending watching your unsolicited tapes hurled at them from desperate talent reps.
And as to where do international recording stars come from? Justin Timberlake, Christina Aquilera, Miley Cyrus - I think you’ll find that the genesis of their stardom is some kind of international success between the ages of 10-20 from the Disney child superstar umbrella corporation. They are NAMES. And that's the reason you listen to them. Not because they are inherently more talented than other singers.
FYI JENNIFER LOPEZ IS NOT SINGING
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O56IWgQWGxg
When I was most active as a musician, I lived in San Diego and was familiar with a number of female songwriters who were all part of a songwriters' circle in the local music scene. One day, as legend goes, an Atlantic records A&R person happened to walk into a coffee shop where Jewel was playing and within a few years she had skyrocketed to stardom.
Personally, my favorite songwriter from that scene/era is Joy Eden Harrison. I haven’t spoken with her in awhile but the last I heard she was in the Chicago area working as a school teacher.
If you only have time to listen to one song today, it oughta be “Where have you gone Jimmy Dean?” - a favorite of mine from that era now available for streaming on Spotify.
https://open.spotify.com/track/47tltW2SqvdtYwbxjbaVXi?si=c35380bfe4464e6e
I got to know Joy in 2004 when she enlisted me to videotape her one woman show - a wonderful musical about her time spent in Hollywood. During that job I learned that, as a young singer-songwriter, she moved to L.A. and was able to secure Tom Waits' then-manager as her representation. As far as I could tell, she did everything right. Although, in retrospect, she did not have a look.
Names, survivorship bias, market saturation: everyone who thinks they are going to be famous because they are talented is not reasoning based on the facts in evidence.
Learn how the industry works, find a way to break in at the ground floor as soon as possible so that 30 years from now, you, too, can be an "overnight success."
For an unknown actor, it starts with having a LOOK.
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