From Your Garage To The Grammys Unlikely Paths To Musical Fame
Everyone wants to be recognized for their talent: that’s why YouTube and TikTok are packed with aspiring musicians desperate to be noticed by music-industry bigwigs. It’s not a guaranteed path to fame — nothing is — but sometimes it works and a dream comes true. Let’s look at the unconventional ways certain world-famous musicians rose to fame. Perhaps you, too, should give it a go!
Changing times
Once upon a time, aspiring musicians would busk on street corners hoping to be noticed. But these days, social media is definitely the greatest tool a would-be superstar could have.
If you have music talent — obviously this is the most important aspect — a knack for algorithms, and are good at managing social media, you have a better shot than most.
Persistence
If you’re going down that avenue, your most important tool is persistence. Even when you have a devastatingly low number of hits on your video, you have to pick yourself up and make a new one anyway.
If you followed the traditional route of busking and no-one paid attention to you, you’d still have to go out again the next day. Can it be soul-crushing when you release what you think is a masterpiece to a mere 100 likes, if that? Oh, absolutely! But plenty of today’s megastars have been through the same thing.
Starting at the bottom: Taylor Swift
Modern-day superstar Taylor Swift, for example, started out by selling her demo CDs on Music Row in Nashville. It was truly thankless work, as she related to Entertainment Weekly in 2008.
“My mom waited in the car with my little brother while I knocked on doors up and down Music Row,” she said. “I would say, ‘Hi, I’m Taylor. I’m 11; I want a record deal. Call me.’ They didn’t.”
Seventeen
It all paid off in the end, but like most people, Swift needed luck and encounters with generous people before she made it to the top. She told a story of a setback when she sat down with Time after being named Person of the Year in 2023.
When she was 17, she said, she’d almost got to open for country star Kenny Chesney on tour. But then he got sponsored by a beer company so, being still a child, she couldn’t go. But later, Chesney offered a check to make up for it. That was enough money for Taylor to “fuel [her] dreams” for a while.