How Could THEY get popular?

A few months ago Terri and I purchased a new vehicle that is equipped with satellite radio.  I absolutely love it.  We now listen to mostly commercial free country music.  My only complaint is their play list is relatively short, but at least I don't need to wait through 5 minutes of commercials before hearing the same tune I heard an hour ago. 

Occasionally, I switch the station to the Classic Vinyl genre.  The play list is much deeper and I recognize almost every song.  Terri is not so pleased with that station selection.  She will roll her eyes like women do, but usually put up with it for a while before commandeering the station selector.

Last weekend I made the switch to Classic Vinyl and was immediately treated to a Jerry Garcia Band tune that I readily recognized.  It was followed by a song from Bob Dylan.  The combination was more that Terri could bear.  She responded with a question, "How can THOSE people become popular?"  Fair question and it made me think about how any musical artist becomes popular.

Any musical artist that can play, sing and write has an advantage.  But people who do all three very well are rare.  A quick mental glance at my iPod produces a few names that meet that high standard.  John Mayer, Miranda Lambert, Brad Paisley are good examples of artists that do all three things well, and each have achieved a high level of popularity. 

So how do people like Jerry Garcia or Bob Dylan become popular?  Neither could make it past a first round American Idol audition.  Dylan has two strikes against him as he can neither sing nor play well.  Yet, both artists are iconic with large groups of devoted fans.  I agree with Terri that their popularity is a puzzle.

So do they overcome their inherent deficiencies by being extremely strong in the other two?  Maybe.  Garcia was a very good songwriter, and one of the best guitarist that ever lived.  Also remember that Garcia died 15 years ago, but remains very popular. Dylan is possibly the most revered song writer of his time who wrote many songs that other artists made popular.  He may be the Hemingway of folk/rock music.  Most popular artists only do one or two things well.  Some only do one thing - look pretty, an usually become flashes in the pan, or one-hit wonders.

So my list includes John Mayer, Miranda Lambert, Brad Paisley.  Remember that to be included, their talent must be more than just singing, playing and writing.  They must do all 3 extraordinarily well.  So who is on your iPod?