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It Should Be Obvious

Artist in red spotlightLet’s pretend for a minute… instead of being the artist onstage, let’s say you’re the lighting director for a show.

I understand you may not have a lot of experience with lighting – or maybe you have! But either way, would you put the same lights on for every song? Same lights, same lighting scheme, no change?

Suppose it’s a really quiet song, would you put bright red, yellow, blue, and green lights on? And then if you had a really rockin’ song with lots of energy, would you use the same lighting scheme? Then if the singer performed a song where they sat on a stool and sang a sweet love song, would you have those same lights on him?

Well, no! Obviously you wouldn’t do that. You’d be saying, “Oh my gosh, this is a tender song, let’s make the stage really moody.” Or, “This song is energetic, so let’s do the lights like a big circus.”

Isn’t all of that obvious?

So, if it’s obvious visually with how we use lights, why isn’t it obvious visually with what we as artists do onstage? It should be obvious. So, how do we get to that place? How do we become more interesting visually onstage?

Oftentimes I judge competitions, and the artists usually get to do two songs. They’ll pick a ballad or something slower, and a song that rocks. And it totally amazes me that, other than a movement or two, they look exactly the same during both songs. If it’s a band, they stay in the same place; if it’s a singer/songwriter or a soloist singing with a track – it’s the same thing! They look exactly the same for both songs, and it doesn’t make any sense to the audience’s eye.

Now understand, the audience doesn’t sit there thinking “Wow, this looks the same, so that’s why it sounds the same to me.” They aren’t thinking any of that. But what they are doing is slowly losing interest. Why? It’s partly because they aren’t married to you – they don’t know your songs. So after a few songs of “sounding the same,” they start checking out, and you effectively lose a huge percentage of your audience.

If we can’t stand onstage and make it interesting and creative, then we’re fooling ourselves. What we’re doing is we’re hoping we are going to “win the lottery.” We’ll follow all the other rules. Rules like “it all begins with the song.” (What record companies are really saying with that one is “I hope you give us a song we can play on the radio that becomes a big hit, and somehow everyone will win!”)

And every artist is looking for that same thing so they can just – well, win the lottery! Because it’s a one in a million shot. I don’t usually talk to the one in a million artists (although I’ve worked with three or four of them). I do regularly talk to the people who are out there every day doing it because they’re called to do music. And I can tell you that playing the lottery for a living isn’t a great idea.

The visual is a huge part of connecting with an audience. If your songs don’t sound the same, they shouldn’t look the same. You’ve heard me say it time and time again: communication from stage is 15% content (words or lyrics), 30% tone or emotion (how passionate you are in the delivery of your song), and 55% what the audience sees with their eyes.

I just saw a huge act when I was on the road. After about two songs, everything looked the same. Big name artists get fooled sometimes because they play a song and the crowd reacts, and they play another song and the crowd reacts, and on and on. The reason they get that response is because a huge act is “married” to their audience. The audience knows these artists, they know the songs, they’ve heard them on the radio. So when they play the song live, the crowd already knows and loves them.

These artists are a little bit deceived in the sense that if they’re trying to catch more people as fans, they need to change it up. Making fans means keeping the people who aren’t married to them (yet) captured and engaged.

15% content – 30% tone or emotion – 55% what the audience SEES!

If you keep doing the same thing over and over again, the audience is going to see and hear the same thing over and over. And that’s not very creative.

 

Tom Jackson

Tom is uniquely talented and skilled at transforming an artist's live show into a magical experience for the audience; helping artists at every level create a live show that is engaging and memorable, teaching them to exceed their audiences' expectations and to create fans for life. Tom has taught indie and major artists of every genre. He has worked with Taylor Swift, Le Crae, Home Free, The Tenors, Shawn Mendes, The Band Perry, Francesca Battistelli, Jars of Clay, & many more. Tom also teaches at colleges, conferences and events worldwide.

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Greenroom Comments

  1. Billy Napp says:

    Genius once again…I love reading these blogs and they are realllllly helpful. By the way, if Tom reads these…I was at Camp Electric week one!!! I loved your seminars.

  2. You are so right on! We did an anniversary show last week to celebrate playing for one year at a local restaurant. People knew our songs for the most part although there were new audience members as well. For this occasion, we did a costume change in the middle of the show to highlight a song. It was fabulous. People loved it and really connected. Tony had sung this song many times but this time people heard and saw it.
    Thanks for the great advice and suggestions. Tony and Tina

  3. I find a lot of Tom’s ideas great conversation starters for my band’s rehearsals. For us though – we are only a 3 piece act totally slaved to the machine (i.e. sequences) for our live show – so a lot of the spontaneous dynamics and visuals are not always possible for our sets. That being said, we still do all we can to make it exciting for our audiences and will someday get Tom to one of our shows (for better or worse). 3UL8R!

  4. Tom,
    I’m laughing as I read this. I recently saw a show by a guy who is an American icon, has a huge following. I like his music, he’s got some great songs, but I am not “married” to him. I was so bored during the concert. I spent maybe 1/3 of my time trying to connect with something the band was doing (it was ALL THE SAME) and the rest goofing off with the happy people in the lawn seats. He did not gain me as a new fan, and I told my friends next time I’ll take my car so I can sneak out early and beat the traffic.

    Throughout the whole thing, I just kept thinking of our workshop ideas and how the show could be better. I am ruined. But for me, it’s in a good way. 🙂

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