Uh, oh!

I hope everyone had a great holiday! I sure did...I was the recipient of a very cool hat. You'll be seeing it later.

But on to serious business. Did you hear that the makers of Hello Kitty have a new marketing scheme up their sleeves? They're trying to make the products appeal to young males...I mean, young males would wear the stuff. They're trying to make Hello Kitty macho. They say they've made it's face a bit more rugged looking.

Ha ha! I'm sure I'll see the gangstas wearing big over sized Hello Kitty jackets, or perhaps all the "Mall core" kids will swap out their ubiquitous slipknot shirts for some HK apparel.

The scary thing is...It will probably happen. I've seen big tough guys wearing stuff that my Grandmother would buy, and little punks donning enough material to rig a sailboat.

What marketing says, goes, and that's a proven fact. (But I do think the Hello Kitty stuff is gonna be a tough sell, tho!)

So what does this have to do with music? A lot! The lesson: If you say something with enough conviction, or play something with enough conviction, it will go. The power is in your hands, if you believe it.

Let's draw some parallels here. I got Mom the third season of The Mary Tyler Moore show for Christmas. Have you looked at a 70's era show lately? Man, they have some ridiculous haircuts!
But it was the cutting edge of fashion, something that someone decided was "cool," and so it was. (Even though it looked like Mary was wearing a large cat for a hat.)

Our music parallel could be...Angus Young of AC/DC decides to wear schoolboy suits while he's taking over the world.

Everyone thinks it's awesome. But would you have the guts to do that?

It seems that if you don't carry it through with 110% conviction, then it's utterly stupid. But if you pull it off, and have that 110% confidence, it's utterly cool.

This might seem difficult. But it's just in your mind, and your attitude. Like everything else.

The question for you today is: Are you going to be the trend follower - or setter?
It could be in presentation on stage, musical style, technique, tone, songwriting, you name it! It's as cool as you say it is, and only as cool as you say it is.

Rock on!