The Mother of (Re)Invention

On my way out the door this weekend I grabbed the latest R.E.M. disc, Accelerate. I listened to it when it first came out a few months ago but had put it aside. In two words, it’s great. But knowing that you came for a little business with the music reviews, listening to this triggered some thinking.Here is a band that’s been around for 30 years. Like every enterprise, they’ve had some missteps along the way (and I’ll bet even they would tell you that “Up” was one of them), they’ve overcome a major personnel change, but they have managed to stay fresh and current for the most part. “Accelerate” is, in my mind, one of their top albums ever.

More importantly, R.E.M. is not a novelty act. Compare what you see when you go to see any of the 80’s hair bands that are touring now or even a band such The Doobie Brothers. The latter have no new material and have spent the last 20 years touring and playing their old hits (and they still put on a good show, by the way).  That’s fine, and there’s a good business in that.  But it’s probably very limited.  Your audience ages, your material sounds more dated.  Think of the doo-wop shows you see on PBS – same old material, performed well, but dated.  Fun, but not important.  Worth some time for free but are you really going to go our and spend a lot of moeny of this?

All of us in business need to constantly reinvent ourselves.  That’s not to say break up the band just for change’s sake or that the Springsteen should suddenly be playing techno music.  What it does mean is that we constantly have to be open to fresh ideas that capitalize on our past achievements and which help us grow.  In the case of R.E.M., the sound of this album is immediately recognizable as their own but further down the same road they walked in 1980 – more evolved, better instrumentation, more in line with, say, the power pop of Green Day than a blast from the past like The Who.

How are you keeping your business fresh?  How current is your sound?  Are you still playing hits from the 90’s or do you have something new on the charts?