In anything there is a fine line between confidence and ignorance. Any emerging artist can expect to be insulted, disregarded, passed over and deemed talentless and because of this, resilience and confidence are absolute necessities when trying to make it in the business.
However, success is relative and a small amount of it mixed with some confidence can lead to an inflated expectation of more success. The most important quality of an up and coming artist is the desire to get better, and overconfidence can quell this desire and result in the artist being passed by.
Don’t Be Musically Content
Remember the story of the tortoise and the hare? The hare ultimately lost the race because he was overconfident and he stopped trying as hard as he could. In music the same is true. Anything that makes an emerging artist content is the enemy, because contentment breeds complacency and ultimately makes the artist stagnant. Practice, practice, practice.
“The road to success is littered with talent.” If talent were the only determining factor of success in the music industry, many unknown artists would be in the limelight and many artists that are there right now wouldn’t be. However talent is merely one of many contributing factors for success. Hence, no artist should develop an ego as a result of superior talent or any other quality.
Be Confident, Don’t Be Ignorant
One might point out the Beatles likening themselves to Jesus or any number of rappers’ flows detailing their superiority as examples of ego that doesn’t breed complacency. But remember that unlike the emerging artist, these artists have already accomplished the feat of getting noticed.
Also these icons are to a degree characters, and behind the scenes you’ll find that these artists, while already successful, understand the need to constantly progress and avoid complacency. They understand that by creating this overconfident, boisterous character they are forcing themselves to then live up to it.
Be the Musical Underdog
In his book Blink, Malcolm Gladwell discusses the process of split-second decision making. This reliance on instinct is something that people do daily, some better and some more effectively than others. Up and coming artists must expect any new listener to give up only a split second to decide if they like certain sound. If their instinct tells them they do, only then do they actively listen further. So in that only chance to make a first impression, the band or artist had better be prepared to but their best effort forward.
An underdog has a chip on his shoulder, an incessant need to always prove himself. This keeps him thirsty for challenges and progress. In music things are no different. A realistic band will sweat and bleed to prove themselves and make their dream a reality while a wishful thinking band will stay stagnant and hope that it happens to happen.
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