EPISODE THREE: THE LONGEVITY OF SUCCESS
By Logan Jacobs

Official Transcript:

Hailey Boehme: Welcome back, everyone. From Mustang Post News, West Fargo, this is Sheyenne Perspectives. I’m Hailey Boehme. 

In our last episode of Sheyenne Perspectives, Dairell Alvarico delved into change and how we react to change, whether we like that change or not.  This week Logan Jacobs continues our series by reflecting on success. Specifically, what success and failure means in the music industry. Here’s Logan. 

[THEME SONG – KOLBY THOMPSON.]

Logan Jacobs: How does success stand against the test of time? Will those that are successful now find success in 20, 30, even 40 years? How can we know?

Will we yearn for music like this in the future? What makes an artist successful and how long that success last. 

But what is success? 

Anthony Peterson: the easy answer is sales, in the short term.

Logan Jacobs: That’s Mr. Peterson, choir and History of Rock-n-roll teacher at Sheyenne High School.

Anthony Peterson: Are they selling records, digital downloads? Are they streaming on YouTube? All of this is now playing a factor into the top ten records or song in a country or in the world

Logan Jacobs: Although that may not be all there is to it, maybe success is something much more complicated. 

Anthony Peterson: Sustained success is really more about can you evolve with the time and be a trendsetter instead of just repeating yourself over and over.

Logan Jacobs: Take for example rapper Redveil. For three years now he’s been producing successful albums. Three, in fact. He’s certainly popular enough where people are taking inspiration from him at this point. But will his success last? Will he be able to evolve and maintain his trendsetting creativity?  

But who are some others that could be successful? 

Anthony Peterson: Well, historically if you look at the bands or the artists that were able to recreate themselves year after year and record to record and do new things, while doing it at a certain level and keeping their level of success and sales, you have to initially look at someone like the Beatles or the rolling stones in the 60s and the 70s as a group that not only was massively successful but they were pioneering new styles and genres every year, and doing it in a way no one else had before, so not only were they successful but they were trailblazers into new areas of music

Logan Jacobs: Chance, another rapper, was once trailblazer, yet in recent years he has seen a significant decline. He hasn’t adapted. He hasn’t maintained a level of creativity and work ethic that promotes continued success.

Will, however, he reach a turning point? An epiphany? A moment where he’ll regain his creativity that will lead to a level of success as he achieved before. Lead to record sales.  

Although, there are some who are still successful 

Anthony Peterson: More recently I think you have to look at someone like a Taylor Swift who started in a more traditional country world and every record she’s had in the last decade plus seems to change and evolve artistically and lyrically which allows her to not repeat herself and she’s finding new success with new audiences; and she’s in her mid 30s now, for 20 years of success is not easy. In the music world it’s very easy to be a one hit wonder and then disappear because you have nothing else in that bag.

Logan Jacobs: The key to finding sustainable success is not only to grow and change, but to be untouchable by others in your genre. An unrealistic level of ability is needed at all times for you to keep your success. Chance had built up this reputation that came crashing down through the release of one record. 

Anthony Peterson: The neat thing about older artists success is that it doesn’t seem to go away, there is still a market for something that is now dubbed classic rock, and if you look at, locally at arenas near here there’s going to be a plethora of artists that are selling massive amounts of tickets, that have had their biggest amount of success in the 80s, 70s, and maybe even the 60s. That are still touring and selling out all over the world.

So having that impact that they had in their time is still very relevant because there is still a market for it. I want to assume that modern artists are still going to be musically interesting and sophisticated 30 years from now and people are still going to be seeing their concerts. 

Logan Jacobs: Now fans are stuck romanticizing about what they can not have, an older version of Chance. One that has not stained his ethereal presence on the music world. Reminiscing about the past, until another “Chance” comes around.  

Anthony Peterson: The one unique thing I could spin in for some artists is some of them never had a reunion, like the Beatles were never able to reunite because John Lennon was killed and now another member of the band has since passed away, there is only two of the four left, they can’t be the Beatles anymore because after the band broke up they were never able to reunite so like with the Rolling Stones who started at around the same time, they’ve been a somewhat stable group for the past 50 years, some people think that tarnished their legacy and its like there not as good as they used to be, or they’re old or dad rockers but obviously people still want to see them,  

where you have a different group like the Beatles who only existed in that one decade and they never were able to do anything else, so there are different ways to look at it because I think some people like what they can’t have more than something that’s like still around, I think that’s benefited the Beatles success because they know they can’t see them in concerts so they yearn for that old music cause it only existed back then and there’s no way to ruin it.

Logan Jacobs: Can an entire music career die, only because of one poor release? Can an artist redeem themselves after failure? Or are they forever stuck, known as the person they formerly were?

This podcast was recorded and edited by Logan Jacobs and hosted by Hailey Boehme. Sheyenne Perspectives theme music was composed and performed by Kolby Thompson under the direction of Mark Berntson. Special thanks goes out to Anthony Peterson. 

Hailey Boehme:

Next week on Sheyenne Perspectives, Carter Phillips will dig deep into what fuels people’s desire to create.  

So long, everyone. See you soon.  

This has been a production of Mustang Post News.