Cultural Relevance

S Predict the future with pop music. Music predicts the future, as probably do many of the creative arts. Sociological research journals have published studies by academicians on this topic for years, generally concluding that musicians from Mozart to Jay Z reflect incipient trends in a culture. A half century ago, Tennessee Ernie Ford dominated the pop charts with his hit “Sixteen Tons,” foreshadowing a general awakening of public and corporate concern for the economic and physical afflictions-such as black lung disease-and other maladies of the coal mining industry. Fast forward to 2003, and you may interpret the meteoric rise and success of more traditional musicians such as John Mayer, Norah Jones, and Vanessa Carlton as a desire to turn toward conservatism.

The music industry, like most others today, is dependent on perceived cultural relevance or the degree to which a brand is up to date.

Few people want to be associated with a brand, style, fashion, or attitude that isn’t current-it doesn’t have to be the latest fad, but it has to be relevant to them to maintain favored status. Though rock and roll can be an effective crystal ball, cultural relevance is tricky for any brand, including bands, because musicians and other artisans often start as the outcasts of society and stay closely tuned to the perimeter of culture even after they attain success. In medieval Europe and England, it was the task of traveling minstrels to pick up gossip, unrest, and social concerns from the campfires of the countryside and taverns of the city and bring them into mainstream culture. In the Elizabethan days of Shakespeare, “fools” took the truth to the king or queen-hence the name of one of the best known newspaper columns and web sites, Motley Fool, claiming to tell the truth about investing to help readers laugh their way to the bank.