I love this so much from “How Tiny Desk Concerts Became a pop culture phenomenon.”
Folk artist Laura Gibson felt deflated after her 2008 South by Southwest show in Austin, Texas. The Thirsty Nickel bar allowed noisy 6th Street revelers who didn’t purchase tickets to enter, and they had no interest in listening to the soft-spoken artist.
“Mid-set, I was like, ’Why did I drive all the way down to Texas … What am I doing with my life?” Gibson remembered. “I felt like ‘I really just want to go hide somewhere and cry.’”
Two folks from NPR were in attendance and offered Larua to come to their office and perform, and it became the first Tiny Desk Concert.
Laura had to go out and do something and it sucked. Yet she did, plowed through it, and it led to something else.
I think a lot of us had some great fun and success with social media back in the day, but then it sucked.
Laura (I hope) didn’t have to go back to play another shitty venue to keep her career going. She just moved forward, like I see a lot of other artists doing, leaving behind social media.
Yes, we made our connections, had some wins, but “going back to a shitty venue” isn’t how we’ll get to the next level.
(via Kottke)