Musical artists and bands can often be recognized by a distinctive “sound” they have specific to their style and substance of music.
This “sound” can serve fans and listeners alike as a sort of identity by which they determine the value of anything the band or artist then makes in the future.
So when this “sound” changes it can often bring rather unwelcome responses from fans that have become attached to what they see as the very identity of the group they cherish.
Some may even go so far as to say that without that sound the artists are no longer the same.
Linkin Park, Kanye West, the Black Keys, Radiohead and Green Day are just contemporary examples of artists who have fundamentally gone in a different direction with their music at some point or gone outside the boundaries of what they initially built their careers around with varying degrees of success.
Instead of chastising artists for attempting to break out of such boundaries, fans should be actively encouraging such attempts at innovation.
I use the word innovation here purposely, knowing full well that even in the examples I have provided there is little in what each artist did that created something brand new in music.
Yet that desire to experiment and to expand is precisely where innovation comes from in music, and one need look no further for such a vivid example of this than The Beatles, whose impact “on western culture . . . is simply incalculable,” according to Rolling Stone Magazine.
While the group certainly made a huge mark in pop culture with the “Beatlemania” that initially greeted them upon touring in the United States, it is the transition from this popularity to a nearly unprecedented impact upon the future of music that illustrates where experimentation can lead.
The Beatles did not allow themselves to remain musically stagnant with songs that only appealed to their die-hard fans. Their drive and desire to experiment, to break outside the boundaries of where their music had lead them just so happened to usher in a new age of music.
When an artist attempts to push forward and experiment they are following in these footsteps, even if they don’t necessarily replicate similar results. Yet without that drive and desire to experiment being pushed forward, how will any musical artist push the medium forward?
Fans play an important role in this process, as their support for an artist upon such experimentation can often determine how much of an impact is made. Innovation without attention doesn’t spread and what could hold a huge impact culturally simply withers away.
If The Beatles had been abandoned whole-heartedly by the fan base which first lifted them to popularity it could have taken decades for the innovations they made to have an impact, if at all. Entire genres, musical movements and many of the artists cherished today by millions may have never found that “sound” by which they are identified.
Music that has already been made doesn’t magically disappear, it is always there for a fan to cherish and appreciate, even as an artist pushes forward.
Fans need to be willing to support their favorite artists in pushing forward because when we call for creativity and experimentation in music to be subdued in favor of familiarity we are doing more than just robbing ourselves of untapped musical possibilities.
We kill the very soul of music.