Make people curious in one sentence
Screenwriters in Hollywood constantly pitch their movie ideas to studio executives. Each one has about five seconds to impress. The one sentence they use to describe their story decides whether the studio will read it or not.
Same with you. You just need one good sentence to describe your music. It has only one goal: Make people curious. That’s it.
It should not try to describe every note of music you make!
It should not try to justify your existence on Earth.
It only has to make them curious enough to listen. That’s all.
I described my band as “a cross between James Brown and the Beatles”. Of course not everything I did sounded like that, but that phrase was enough to make people want to hear it. I would watch them pause for a second to try to imagine what that might sound like. Then they’d say, “Wow — I have to hear this!” Mission accomplished.
The shorter, the better. Give them one good sentence and stop talking. Let them want to hear more.
It's taken a while for me and my band to be able to describe our music in very few words. But now that we've got that down we seem to keep people's attention better. Before, they would just look confused because they couldn't get a clear picture from our lengthy, chopped up descriptions.
Hi Derek,
Nice post.
I would apply it to my website descriptor, except that, thanks to your other posts, I already did.
I would remind folks, based on another of your other posts: It's OK to put in brackets, for your own eyes, at the end of your description: (today)
Lots of artists and bands "re-invent themselves," which is a socially accepted way of saying they change. Just as I can change my website or grow in my personal life. I am what I am, today.