Become A Rockstar!

What are your goals? Why do you want to be a rockstar?

If your goal is international fame and a never-ending line of buxom babes, be prepared to be singly focused on your music. It often takes years of work to get any kind of national recognition, and sometimes the babes are nonexistent.

Figure out what you want from your music career. Maybe you want to be a hometown rockstar - playing only stuff that's close to home. Maybe regional (playing, for example, the east coast), maybe even national.

Know that even as a hometown hero, being a musician is a ton of work. How much do you like music?

A teacher once told me that you should love something so much, you would do it for free.

And obviously, you don't want to be stuck doing it for free forever. But you should love music SO MUCH that you never want to stop playing, even if every club in the world went out of business.

There is great debate in the music world about having 'The Look'. Record execs look for it. Punks try not to have it. American Idol tries to embody it. Well, what is it?

Take a look at MySpace's Top Bands and you'll see many versions of The Look.

The Look isn't one specific thing. The Look is many things, and different for each band's personality. Think of Elvis, The Beatles, Nirvana, and KISS. They all have wildly different looks, but their look sums up who they are.

Take a look at some modern artists and guess what genre they are. Answers below.

A)


B)


C)


D)


A) Tila Tequila, hip hop
B) Rihanna, pop
C) Evanesence, rock/pop
D) Carrie Underwood, country

Now, for the guys:

A)


B)


C)


D)


A) Lit, rock/pop
B)The Scene Aesthetic, pop
C) Granger Smith, country
D) Stevie Hoang, R&B

As you can see, each artist shows what genre they are simply by the clothes they wear, the look on their face, and (at times) the location of the photograph.

If you haven't already, determine what your look is. Figure out what listeners of your genre expect to see. You don't go to a punk show to see a guy in a cowboy hat twangin' it up, and you'd be unhappy if you went to see a country show but the chick sang hiphop.

Also determine who you sound like. A lot of musicians balk at this, but it gives bookers an idea of how to schedule you. Saying, "You've never heard anything like us!", "We're completely unique", or "No one successful has ever sounded like us" are all marks of an amatuer. Even if you have to pick and choose artists is better!
"We're a blues-influenced rock band, with the guitar riffs of Stevie Ray Vaughn combined with the gritty vocals of Kurt Cobain (Nirvana)."
At least that gives bookers and listeners a starting point.

Next, get some good promo shots done of you/your band. Study the promo shots of famous artists to get ideas of what you want. I knew a guitarist once who claimed to do angsty rock but was grinning like Bob Marley in all his promo shots. Make sure your image is consistent between what you say and how you look.

Would you believe that Avril Lavigne thinks she is a "motherf***in princess" if she didn't rock out with a pink guitar and bleachy blonde hair?


When you're on the stage, you should be larger than life. As much as some people deny it, if you are performing music, you are putting on a show. So be larger than life, embody your character (which is not necessarily different from your regular personality - just larger), and be consistent in your look!

There is a temptation to jump on the latest trend, if you already sound similar. Obviously it would be hard to jump from country to rap, but if you already do pop and powerpop is big, it can very tempting to trend-jump. Don't do it.
By the time something is big, it's over. When Fall Out Boy and Panic at the Disco made it big, no one was looking for more powerpop bands to make famous.

It may be all the rage for even a few months - but you won't become famous for that trend. The key is to try to see trends a few years off. Keep being innovative and creative, and keep your ear to the underground.

For example, there were a lot of over-produced metal songs in the 80's. So a few bands went the opposite way and paved the grunge movement of the early 90's.

Be original, okay?

Now that you have your look (and hopefully, songs!) it's time to get the word out about your band.

Social network marketing is using MySpace, Facebook, and other social network and media sites to promote your music. The powerpop movement got started on MySpace, and is now a multi-million dollar genre.

When I do consulting services for social network marketing (check out my MySpace profile), I always start with MySpace. Since MySpace started as a networking site for musicians, it's set up to be utilized by musicians. For example, you can friend potential fans, which is not possible on Facebook.

So, start on MySpace. If you don't know the programing language CSS, then check out the free profile sites like Taming The Beast or MySpace Layout Generator. These are both sites where you choose your own colors and/or supply your own images. I do not recommend going out and getting a canned layout - you'll look like a teenager and people will catch on to how unoriginal your layout is. It's simply not professional.

After your layout is beautiful (or edgy or whatever) it's time to make some friends! The easiest way to start making friends is to friend local venues, media outlets, your favorite guitar company, your influences, and all your real-life friends. This should build your friends list to 50, though more commonly it's around 100. This is a great starting point, because then when potential fans come to your page, they won't even realize you don't have any fans yet.

A word to the wise: MySpace flags users as spammers if they have too many friend requests in one day. The commonly cited number is around 50. So be aware so you don't get banned!

For more information about social network marketing, check out the lens Marketing on MySpace.

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Once you have band-to-fan marketing down (MySpace, etc), consider band-to-media marketing. Send press releases and kits to local and national media.

What you're looking for here is publicity. There is a phrase in the marketing/publicity/advertising industry that says, "Advertising is what you pay for, publicity is what you pray for." In other words, publicity is (technically) free (except for the costs of sending the press your materials). Publicity is an article about you in the free weekly. Publicity is your band in the calendar listings. Publicity is your song played on the radio.

I highly recommend The Indie Bible (spotlighted above) for any musician or band who wants publicity. It's hundreds of pages of radio stations (internet, college and conventional), music reviewers, podcasters, etc etc. It's usually around $25 on Amazon.com (and about $40 in Borders and Barnes and Noble). There are articles in the back of the book about how to utilize the information, too.

So learn how to write engaging press releases. In modern media, the Who-What-When-Where-How is simply not enough anymore. The media needs to feel that you have an actual story that people will be interested in. Not just, "For immediate release: Hometown Heroes will be playing at the Country Club this Saturday from 8-11pm." (There is a time and a place for this, and the place is calendar listings!)
Take the time to really learn how to publicize your band.

If you don't have time but have the money, hire someone. There are plenty of independent marketing professionals who depend on work like that to pay the bills. (Like me! Visit my MySpace profile and message me if you want publicity rates)

A really good resource for learning to do publicity is Publicity Hound. Check out her 89 Free Press Release Tips email list. It's simply incredible, if you take the time to learn and apply the tips.

Becoming famous is possible. Start one step at a time, and it will grow! Also, don't give up. I have a yoga-teacher client who gives weekly workshops. I tried for months and months to get the press to come out to one of the classes - sending out calendar listings, press releases, pitches -- every couple weeks for three months. I had just about given up on it when - 45 minutes before the starting time that week - the local paper messaged our MySpace! (Even though my email address was on all contact!) A photographer came down and was so impressed that the photo for the around-the-area section became an article and online video extra. Whoohoo!
The moral of the story is, Don't Give Up!