Happy Tuesday! Thanks for opening the seventh edition of the Stan newsletter. A newsletter exploring fans and their bidirectional relationships with the artists that they love. As always suggestions and feedback are always appreciated. You can shoot me an email at dkuhlor@gmail.com.
The Rise of Cancel Culture
Cancel culture. The phenomenon that occurs when users on the internet band together to declare an individual cancelled. After declaring their cancellation, users proceed to wield their collective influence to apply pressure to outlets, individuals, and corporations who still choose to associate themselves with said individual. The repercussions of “cancel culture” vary but are always impactful - loss of employment, cancellation of shows, loss of followers, etc. A tactic once reserved only for a major societal faux pas, the bar for a person to be cancelled seems to have reached the floor. While the ramifications of cancel culture can appear to be temporary, dependent on the offense, some fans (or people who had the potential to be) are lost permanently. In a world where a thousand songs are uploaded to streaming services every hour (Hypebot), how do artists set and manage expectations to prevent the increased variability that comes with being frequently cancelled?
Artists have employed various approaches to dealing with cancel culture. Some vehemently oppose the concept and believe they can’t be cancelled (*ahem,Kanye West). In a recent interview with Big Boy, Kanye states:
“You think I’m suppose to listen to someone online tell me what I am suppose to apologize for?”.
Others are quick to issue apologies or attempt to provide more context behind their actions. Something that seems to be less embraced however is the vulnerability that comes with admitting that we are all (artist or not), a work in progress. In this article I seek to explore how Chicago rapper Noname uses transparency, accountability, and participation to manage fan expectations and build a community that while passionate about supporting her, does not solely exist to serve her, as such it can not be cancelled as a result of her.
Noname: An Independent Artist that Iterates in Real Time
As an independent artist Noname has not been shy about centering her artist narrative in her ability to learn out loud from the beginning. In fact after feedback from her fans she changed her name from “Noname Gypsy” to Noname after learning about the negative connotations associated with the latter part of her name. It is her willingness to share, learn, and at times reform her thinking that gives rise to a fan community that also embraces these ideals. Noname leverages being the teacher and the student while empowering her fans to do the same.
The problem with artists that take a more rigid approach to their actions is that it forces their fans to approach their decision of being a fan with the same framework. “X” artist has made their stance clear that they are unlikely to be receptive to feedback or new information; If they present or do something that a fan does not agree with, a fan has two options - either they are okay with it or they are not, and their decision to be a fan has to correlate accordingly.
While the term “independent artist” has become a broad one, Noname has continued to test and explore new blueprints for financing and growing a career as an independent artist. Artists have the ability to record and distribute music quicker and cheaper than ever before but there are still pieces of the puzzle that an artist needs to solve to go from zero to one. Most imperative is building and growing their fan-base. Some artists (i.e Chance the Rapper, Cardi B) have taken an approach that leans heavily on lucrative brand partnerships, using the revenue that they make as an influencer to finance their career (I dive deep into this topic in my article - Music is the Loss Leader) while others (i.e Nipsey Hussle, J. Cole, Noname) have prioritized growth initiatives by utilizing the “Do Things That Don’t Scale” approach. Conveniently, social media has helped artists that “do things that don’t scale” scale their reach thanks to increased visibility. Acts such as buying a fan a car, or paying for their tuition, or visiting them in the hospital are innately viral content and most times see a lot of traction. With fans knowing that an artist can’t do these acts for everyone they feel compelled to share the chance encounter or unique experience spreading that artist to a much broader audience.
Artist in Residence
Nonames transparency as she navigates the music industry guides her fans about how they can be intentional about supporting her. When Noname released her album Room 25 in 2018, while excited to share new music with the world she was super honest that a large reason for releasing the album was that she needed new music so she could tour and make money. The tour that accompanied the album went on to sell out in multiple cities. She tells Fader:
“It came to a point where it was, like, I needed to make an album because I need to pay my rent. I could’ve done another Telefone tour, but I can’t play those songs anymore. Like, I could, but I physically hate it because I’ve just been playing them for so long,”.
When Spotify announced the beta of its now shuttered direct upload program the announcement of the release shared that they worked with a handful of artists, including Noname, to keep the needs of independent artists top of mind. The release also shared how artists in the program would see a larger portion of revenue since there was no cut from a DSP or record label and the money would be sent directly to their bank account via Stripe. Transparency about partnerships and the motives behind content releases guide fans who went to be intentional about significantly contributing to an artists career.
The Stan Community Hierarchy
While being fan of an artist is a great qualifier to bring people together, the creation and growth of these communities often give rise to a very strict hierarchy. This hierarchy thrives off a few factors:
- Overall knowledge of the musician (facts or artist trivia)
- Visible adoration for the musician
- Amount of time dedicated to supporting the musician
- Willingness to defend the musician (mostly on social)
- Amount of money spent on the musicians music and related venture.
- The downfall of artist focused communities occurs once a member of that community loses admiration or begins to develop skepticism for the artist resulting in them becoming ostracized by the community that originally passionately embraced them (very similar to religion in many ways).
Noname Books
The creation of Noname books is an artist masterclass for growing a community that can extend beyond artist likeness and combat cancel culture.
A fan reached out in July about being pen pals with Noname she decided to take things one step further by polling her Twitter followers and then launching a full fledged book club. The club which is now in its third month features a robust social media presence, meetups at independent bookstores, guest hosts (known as let the homies pick) and is getting ready to launch a podcast to continue the conversation for readers who can't attend in major cities. The magic behind the book club is its disciplined focus on books, not music. It allows Noname to have an authentic and consistent communication cadence with her fan base regardless of whether she releases new music or not.
Additionally, it reinforces a theme core to her identity as an artist - constant learning. By encouraging her fans to do the same it builds a dynamic that cancel culture has yet to embrace, the desire to understand. As a participant in the book club, you are not just participating with fellow fans but with Noname herself, making it innately non-hierarchical. By looking at pictures from pop ups there is no featured guest, Noname, sits among other book club members further reinforcing this concept
The book club rewards fans for a metric that many artists take for granted. Time. When calculating the “value” or dedication of a fan, how do artists track and reward their fans for time spent engaging? Time spent consuming content related to the artist, listening to their music, and other activities associated with their likeness. While these are all valuable activities that contribute to boosting an artists profile and demonstrate an active fan, they do not always correlate in the short term to immediate revenue for an artist.
Traditionally, the most coveted experience on the fan hierarchy - interacting with an artist was reserved for two subsets of fans. Fans who could afford an expensive meet and greet ticket and fans who paid with their time. leading to a non-guaranteed chance encounter. The fans that wait hours outside a television studio to catch a glimpse of an artist, hours in line for a book signing, dial endlessly to win a radio competition are no less (and potentially even more valuable) than a “fan” who simply shells out a certain amount of cash. How do artists weigh in comparison to each other the significance of a fan who contributes their time vs. their money to support them? In the upcoming weeks I will propose a framework to think about this.
The Noname book club rewards fans that engage with Noname with their time with one of the most coveted fan experiences for free. Attending her pop up book club meetings are completely free. As more artists explore and build communities that align with their interest but not rooted completely around them as an individual I think they will look to Noname Books as one that is leading the charge. Noname books and Noname herself does not seek to be the source of all truth but rather a space to explore it.
My Favorite Stan Moments:
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My Headphones
Session 32 by Summer Walker (I am convinced this song is less than two minutes because we are not worthy of anything longer)
Happy Tuesday!
Best,
D
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