Right now there are millions of talented individuals that are playing music and thinking to themselves that they’ve “made it.” In fact, you may know a few people like this, as they’ll be quick to talk shit about how amazing they are and may even have a small following in their home town. However, outside of their closed knit circle of friends, family, and individuals that personally know them, they don’t have much of any fame or fortune. These local celebrities are not only delusional, they’ll never really get past the initial taste of success, of any, that they’ve received.

 

The Complacency Issue

First and foremost, many musicians that are popular in small areas are complacent. They aren’t ready or willing to work hard to get more support outside of their local community. Some are even happy with getting a few gigs at a local bar and that’s it, making no major moves and not getting into any arenas that may be tough to play within. Without touring, and without building a fanbase across any regions, they will continue to brag about successful shows without seeing major change over or success. Complacency, or the status quo, will eventually start to interfere with writing new songs, or doing new things, as it’s easier to do covers and just work on older material and play at the same bar or club over and over.

 

Minor Success Online

With the implementation of the internet, some of these local celebrities get a taste of success through uploading videos that get a little bit of attention. Uploading a video and seeing a few thousands views is a good feeling, but that in no way presents major success. However, for the delusional celebrity, that means they’ve gone viral and have finally arrived to legendary status. This is not an indicator that they are well known, but the numbers seem to convince them otherwise, and therefore they’ll never stop talking about it.

In order to gain true success today, especially in music, one has to be daring and move past local shows and online success (marginal at best). There’s a long hard road that many musicians have to deal with in order to get any sort of fame, and even after playing hundreds or even thousands of shows, many find that it’s harder than ever to maintain a career in music. The local celebrity is most likely too scared to fail, and therefore will stay within the comfortable area of success in their own mind.

Source: Why Local Musicians Stay Local and Never Make It