Learning from Britney

Although they are obviously a major event on the music calendar, the MTV VMAs are only tangentially connected to the topic of this site, and as such I wasn’t planning on mentioning them. All of the hullabaloo over Britney Spears’ performance, however, is a great example of the role professionalism plays in the music business. There are a lot of questions to be asked about what exactly happened with the performance – a good first question being why in the world anyone involved in her career let her take the stage – but the point here is that it will be very difficult for Britney Spears’ career to recover from this exceedingly unprofessional showing. The VMAs may seem pretty far away for a new band playing their first shows, but the lesson here works on any level. If you go into a 50 person capacity venue and “do a Britney,” you’ll find it hard to recover, too. (And maybe even a little bit harder even than Britney, because you’ll be burning bridges you technically haven’t even built yet). Is music a lot of fun? You bet. But the people who get to stay at the party are the ones who know how to be professional and deliver.

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