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The CLIMB Show by Brent Baxter, Team SWPro on June 16, 2023
Does the good ole boy network REALLY keep you out of the music business? Here's the truth, in just about 3 minutes or so. Listen up!
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TRANSCRIPT:
Today, I want to talk about the good ol boy network. That's where you have to know somebody, you have to be best buddies, you have to be drinking buddies with somebody, you gotta be golfing buddies with somebody, or Nashville just won't let you in the music business. They won't let you "in the club." Well, ultimately, that's a lie. And it's often an excuse that people use to keep THEMSELVES out of the game. To keep themselves from trying. Here's the truth about it.
If the music biz really were a closed system, and just a good old boy network, and they aren't letting anybody else into the crew that's having hits on the radio... all the hit songwriters would be, like 95 years old, right? But they're not. So what does that mean?
For the most part, the same writers that had hits in the 90s or early 2000s or even 2010s are NOT having hits now. There's a whole lot of turnover a whole lot of new faces. So what does that mean?
It means that new people are able to get into the business, new people are able to get hits. Because it's not just the old guys and their grandkids having hits. There are a few kids of songwriters that grew up in the business and have had success too, for sure. But that's not JUST them. This is not the good old boy network.
Yes, relationships matter. But this is not a closed system. You CAN make friends, you CAN build relationships, and you CAN work your way in.
If you're likable enough, and your songs are good enough.
That's really what people want. They want to work with people who are talented, write songs that can help solve their problems and with people that they like. So using the excuse that it's a good old boy network just lets you off the hook for not succeeding. It makes YOUR problem OTHER PEOPLE. When the problem us usually just that you need to make more friends and write better songs.
Often what it is, is that it's just an excuse to keep you scared to keep you from from trying your hardest because well, it's not my fault. It's just a good ol boy system. It's all political. And so therefore, they don't you know, they, they don't know me, so they're not going to help me and I don't have to try and it kind of lets me off the hook. Or it's an excuse to keep you from taking a hard look at your own songs and go, are my songs good enough? Do they fit in with what's on the radio? Are they better than what's on the radio? Is really would they pick my song out of a stack of all those other songs if they didn't know it was who's who wrote what song? So offense, it's an excuse to keep you from doing the hard. Look at yourself and from doing the hard work of actually improving your craft. Also, it's an excuse to keep you from going out and meeting people and doing the networking thing because you feel like they don't want you their thing is they don't want you there. They didn't ask for you. They didn't send for you. But this because they don't know you. It is not personal. Get to know them. It will become personal as you build personal relationships. And if you do great work, you write great songs and you build strong relationships, which people are open to. Then you can start to get some traction. So it's not a good ol boy network. It's not keeping you out. That's just an excuse.
This has been 3 Minutes & The Truth.
God bless,
Brent
PS- Thanks for stopping by Songwriting Pro! I appreciate it. As a matter of fact, I want to give you a gift just for your visit. It's my FREE PDF e-book, "6 Ways To Make Your Songs More Commercial." It'll help you write songs that artists want to sing and fans want to hear. You can get this awesome gift at 6simpleways.SongwritingPro.com.
Who is Brent Baxter?
Brent is an award-winning songwriter with songs recorded by Alan Jackson (the top 5 Country hit "Monday Morning Church"), Randy Travis, Lady A, Joe Nichols, Ray Stevens, Steve Cropper, Andy Griggs, Buddy Jewell, Lonestar, Gord Bamford (the #1 hit and CCMA Single Of The Year "When Your Lips Are So Close"), The Sound (the #1 hit and Dove-nominated Southern Gospel Song Of The Year "Can I Get A Witness"), Wilburn & Wilburn (#1 hit "Hallelujah Homecoming"), The LeFevre Quartet and more!
