Do I really need a brand?

When I was in adland,  the phrase I mumbled to myself more often than any other was, "You've got to be fucking kidding me."


Because in adland, people constantly debate things no sane person would ever debate.

A favorite topic: what is a brand? Now, keep in mind, this is like a manufacturing company arguing over the meaning of the word bolt. To their credit, however, adfolk know the foolishness of their ways, and call such exercises in redefining the obvious naval gazing (as in staring into one's belly button).

But now the music industry has got me saying YGTBFKM a lot


Because over and over again I see musicians talking about their brands. To their credit, however, they seem to intuitively understand that the word brand simply means image. Still, why is everyone using the word brand? What the hell is wrong with the word image? I think it’s a fashion thing, as in one word is in and the other is out. I also think it’s an indication of the total acceptance of commercial interest in music, and as a result, musicians wanting to adopt commercial marketing techniques

Now me, being a product of adland, I’m thinking, “Hey, I get this, I can DO this!”

So… what is my brand? How do I want others to perceive me? Am I a former big shot creative director who was tragically injured in some sort of massive accident resulting in a severe traumatic brain injury, but who has been neurologically rewired by said brain trauma to be a songwriting machine? Or am I just an everyday songwriter with odd twitches and who never plays live because of some sort of mysterious medical problem? Or am I an Apple project and not real at all but a long, complex string of computer code, soon to be dumped into a sophisticated robot being developed in Japan? Oh, the choices.

Any opinions? Votes for any of the above? Other ideas?

Next post: a more serious discussion of this serious -- truly, it is – topic.