MADE

I read an incredible story online about a guy named William Kamkwamba who built a windmill out of junkyard parts  in a country ravaged by famine and poverty. I thought to myself, what would society do without innovative minds like this?

All great tasks are accomplished through hard work, steely will and ingenuity. We’re often bombarded with stories about hard work and perseverence, but rarely do we have a chance to witness true ingenuity. Think about it. What exactly is ingenuity…especially in the music industry? Let’s look at a few game-changing, career altering, innovative ideas shall we? The iPod. The MP3. Those two, along with maybe a few others have made up the bulk of innovation in the music industry since the development of Moog’s synthesizer. The most significant developments affecting music and the music industry today are innovations intended and developed for other industries. The Web was a DOD experiment. MySpace and Facebook were developed to bring people closer together. Twitter was a micro-blogging Website arguably developed as a community soap-box. None of these things were developed within the music industry itself…neither by Major Labels or independents.

What’s my point? My point is that we can go on and on for days about the importance of focus, determination and hard work, but in reality, that doesn’t separate you from anybody else. Everybody works hard, everybody is determined, everybody has will, but almost nobody has real society impacting ideas. Ingenuity is a rare commodity in this world and almost non-existent in modern music. Want to succeed in the current musical landscape? Stop thinking in terms of working for someone by getting a recording contract. Start coming up with innovative ideas that enable you to stand on your own two feet. Ingenuity is what will give you independence in life, not just in the music industry.