this was a great read and I loved your thoughts on slowly building up to mainstream fame, Charli XCX style, versus explosive viral fame and the fragility that Chappell Roan is experiencing!
this resonated especially—“there is too much emphasis on scale and rapid growth at the expense of comprehension and loyalty. Sustainability is an afterthought.”
Brendon, beautiful as always. I really love the way you intertwined your own (really troubling, i'm so sorry some of that happened!) experience here, and you left me feeling inspired to keep sticking to my guns. <3
I clicked on the headline to the Zuckerberg story from someone on Bluesky and when I saw it was written by you, I had that same feeling when you're getting too into the conversation with your cashier at Trader Joe's and you say yes to the cashback prompt and then you have to choose an amount and you're like, "Wait, how did I get here?"
I prefer the luxury of having you show up directly in my inbox, but I'm excited you're getting reach.
Wow, I’ve never been on Bluesky before! It’s so interesting that you mention the inbox because I feel like there are two different worlds of Substack: those who receives newsletters on the app and those who receives it in their inbox. Those who get it in the inbox, which is the majority for me, aren’t subject to the discourse, the comments, the virality. In some ways, the app magnifies the scale of the audience and distorts it into its own beast. It can really warp with who you think your actual audience is. I appreciate you reading 🩵
I went to a talk with Debbie Harris and Chris Stein and something they said that really stuck with me is that things don’t ferment anymore. They described the time and effort they gave during the years when they were just getting starting, playing shows to only a dozen people or so. This time allowed them to harness their craft and “ferment” their sound, their artist ideology. There is such a pull towards quantity and less focus on qualities in the internet age. I feel like the culture is more about being seen than being remembered. This is a great piece!!!
Great article, but kind of shocked you didn't even mention what Kendrick accused Drake of, or explain why you would root for a pedophile to have a comeback ..
So good. Sorry about the scariness in your building! The Drake thing is so interesting to me- he's been around so long that I assumed criticism would bounce off him forever, but I'm sure that when he comes back it'll be like he never left.
Really loved this piece!
Thanks for reading, Bronwyn :)
Another amazing piece! Loved your thoughts on Drake, agreed
Thank you, Sandra 🫶🏿🙏🏿
i freakin love this piece. bar for bar
Aw damn, this was such a great piece I have to subscribe now. New Canadian fan from The Six 😊
thank you so much!!! fellow Canadian here too :)
this was a great read and I loved your thoughts on slowly building up to mainstream fame, Charli XCX style, versus explosive viral fame and the fragility that Chappell Roan is experiencing!
this resonated especially—“there is too much emphasis on scale and rapid growth at the expense of comprehension and loyalty. Sustainability is an afterthought.”
thanks a lot for reading celine! it's something I think about a lot on Substack.... should I be building for scale or building for resonance?
Brendon, beautiful as always. I really love the way you intertwined your own (really troubling, i'm so sorry some of that happened!) experience here, and you left me feeling inspired to keep sticking to my guns. <3
thank you Katie!!!!!
I clicked on the headline to the Zuckerberg story from someone on Bluesky and when I saw it was written by you, I had that same feeling when you're getting too into the conversation with your cashier at Trader Joe's and you say yes to the cashback prompt and then you have to choose an amount and you're like, "Wait, how did I get here?"
I prefer the luxury of having you show up directly in my inbox, but I'm excited you're getting reach.
Wow, I’ve never been on Bluesky before! It’s so interesting that you mention the inbox because I feel like there are two different worlds of Substack: those who receives newsletters on the app and those who receives it in their inbox. Those who get it in the inbox, which is the majority for me, aren’t subject to the discourse, the comments, the virality. In some ways, the app magnifies the scale of the audience and distorts it into its own beast. It can really warp with who you think your actual audience is. I appreciate you reading 🩵
❤️❤️❤️
🫶🏿🫶🏿
I went to a talk with Debbie Harris and Chris Stein and something they said that really stuck with me is that things don’t ferment anymore. They described the time and effort they gave during the years when they were just getting starting, playing shows to only a dozen people or so. This time allowed them to harness their craft and “ferment” their sound, their artist ideology. There is such a pull towards quantity and less focus on qualities in the internet age. I feel like the culture is more about being seen than being remembered. This is a great piece!!!
Great article, but kind of shocked you didn't even mention what Kendrick accused Drake of, or explain why you would root for a pedophile to have a comeback ..
So good. Sorry about the scariness in your building! The Drake thing is so interesting to me- he's been around so long that I assumed criticism would bounce off him forever, but I'm sure that when he comes back it'll be like he never left.
I absolutely loooove this !!!