Now Appearing, with Special Guest

It would be interesting to see how many impressions Tom Brady’s name gets today after having been the MVP of the Super Bowl yesterday.  (I just gave you another one, #12.  You’re welcome.)  Equally fascinating, though, would be how many occurrences of ‘Katy Perry’ there are in light of her having been the halftime feature of the Patriots-Seahawks game.

Two people likely with large smiles on their face today are Lenny Kravitz and Missy Elliott.  Their names are sure to be mentioned in said reports of Katy Perry’s performance.  Each joined Perry on stage in Arizona yesterday during the entertainment spectacle within the football spectacle.  There used to be that old tagline, “Membership has its privileges.”  Well, in the case of these two ‘special guests’ it could be argued that they owe a big Thank You to Perry.  Putting the two of them back in front of the public – especially Missy Elliott – is sure to have generated a huge amount of “Oh yeah (Kravitz’s or Elliott’s first and last name here)” statements that won’t show up in any game recaps.  And with that, the two will now look for a spike in sales as well as venue requests.

What about an indie artist, though?  Can the same scene be set at the local level, playing at a club that would never be confused with an NFL stadium?  Of course.  But, will it?

Some “headliners” might be reluctant to have someone else come out on stage with them, even if it is just for one song.  They view it as an interloper or a scene stealer instead of a special guest.  This is something called insecurity.

What it also does is send a statement about collaboration and remembering their roots.  In other words, we work alone, and yeah, we were there once, but are now here!  (So back off.)

This is not meant to be a blanket statement and should not be interpreted as no one being willing to do it.

The lesson here is that since these folks could be a bridge for you, ask!  Up-and-comers get enough “No” answers trying to get booked or have their music heard (i.e. by radio, labels, critics/reviewers, and so on).  So what’s one more?  If you find someone who’s a Yes, you’ll get an opportunity to be in front of a whole new set of fans.  Again, it’s not a green light for you to hog the spotlight, but, doing the job well just might get you noticed.  Fans might start looking for your music and/or live dates.  The venue itself might decide to book you to play there.  And the headliner might like you enough to have you open some shows for them – perhaps including coming on for one song during their set.

Did Lenny Kravitz need Katy Perry to get him in front of such a huge audience?  Not really.  Did Miss Elliott?  Maybe.  Football teams have to get creative by this time of year.  There are more than 16 games worth of video to study, so they need to find new plays, new techniques to stifle their opponent.  The halftime show was a good example of a new technique for you to try to employ in working at your ascent to some trophy-type gigs.