34th & Now

INSPIRE ME, all of you: (Darla Remix)

I was talking to a friend recently about what makes an artist great as opposed to just good. Is it the quality of their catalog? The quantity? Is it the number of awards they have on their mantel? Do they have to earn a lifetime achievement award from one academy or another? I’ve always been of the opinion that what separates good artists from great artists is not so much the ability to be inspired as it is the ability to inspire others.

Think about it. There are literally thousands of hobbyists, weekend-warriors, semi-professional and professional artists out there who have been inspired to pick up a musical instrument, a camera, a paintbrush etc. and create something new—often with exceptional results—but the fact of the matter is that 99.99% of them will remain in obscurity. Why? What separates the many talented artists out there from the few whose names will live on? The ability to inspire others, that’s what.

John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Andy Warhol, Pablo Neruda, Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg—what do they all have in common? They were all revolutionary in their field, yes, but more than that they inspired future generations of artists to create their own bodies of work. You always hear other artists in interviews say things like “If not for Sgt. Pepper, I never would have picked up a guitar in the first place,” or “Even as a child I knew, knew, that I wanted to get into film after seeing E.T. for the first time.” It’s that ability to inspire someone else that makes all the difference.

To use a personal example, I know that had I not heard Travis Barker’s drumming on Blink 182’s 1999 album, Enema of the State, I would never have sat down at a drum kit and that I never would have pestered my parents for my first acoustic guitar had I not listened to Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds: Live at Luther College or been given a bootleg copy of Matt Nathanson performing live at New York’s Bowery Ballroom. These albums and the artists who made them moved me, as an individual, to try something new and inspired me—for lack of better phrasing— to seek out my own inspiration, and that is what makes them great.

Anyone with three chords can write a song—but will the music make someone somewhere want to pickup an instrument?

Anyone with a camera can be a photographer—but will the photos make someone somewhere want to get behind the lens?

Anyone with a pen can be an author—but will the words make someone somewhere want to put pen to paper?

Maybe; and therein lies greatness.