Where will your music take you?

Will you find fame? Will your songs be sung by generations to come? Are arena tours in your future?

Or maybe you’ll be able to eke out a living playing gigs in bars and coffee shops.

More than likely, you’ll have to work at a real job and your music will be your avocation.

If you’re having trouble grasping that reality, you should watch the documentary, Searching for Sugar Man. It’s about the artist known as Rodriguez.

Sixto Rodriguez recorded songs in the late 60s and early 70s, but his music went nowhere. Well, it did, actually, but he didn’t know about it. While living in obscurity in Detroit, his music became wildly popular in South Africa. It wasn’t until 1997 that he learned of his fame thousands of miles away.

Rodriguez has always made music, even while toiling away as a demolition contractor. No, he didn’t create beautiful works of art, he was at the bottom of the construction food chain, tearing out the obsolete so someone else could make something better. But he always had his music.

And he was content.

Yeah, he got his fifteen minutes of fame. And the documentary has given him more opportunities. But he would have been ok even if he had lived his entire life without critical or popular acclaim. His music was, is, and always will be a part of who he is. Even if no one else knows it.

So do your thing. Share your music. What will be will be.