The Artist's Secret

A few weeks ago Scott Adams the creator of Dilbert posted this follow-up to one of his less-well-received Dilbert strips. It included this:

The Artist's Secret is that all art comes from abnormal brains. So if you create art that satisfies your own tastes, you have created for a market of exactly one abnormal person. If you're lucky, a handful of other freaks get some joy from your creations too. But it won't be enough to pay your bills. It's not a career until you learn to create products that normal people like.

This is an excellent observation that is absolutely spot on! It is simple genius.

The Artist's Secret can obviously be applied to writing music. It is easy to write a song but it is much harder to write a song that other people consider good and want to hear. You need to make a song accessible yet still different enough to everything else out there so that people will want to listen to your song in preference to others. It's a delicate balance...