Hit Songs & Forgotten Follow-Ups

If you’ve ever considered investing in the stock market (or going in on that pyramid scheme your kind-of acquaintance from high school sent to you on Facebook), you should be well aware that past results do not necessarily guarantee future success. Just because something worked once, you can’t be 100% certain that it’s going to work as well if you try it again, and that applies to most pursuits in life, not just financial ones. One day in Canada, for example, Mr. and Mrs. Gretzky got together and created their son Wayne, who scored an NHL-record 2,857 career points. A few years later, they created his brothers Bret (four career points), and Keith (who never played in the league), and while they probably wanted them to exist for reasons other than just playing hockey, the thought “Hey, this first son is working out really, really well for us — let’s try it again” probably entered their minds at some point along the way.

That same mentality is one that’s often embraced in the world of music, where an artist can spend years grinding along and looking for that big break before suddenly dropping a hit single that launches them into the stratosphere. Say you find yourself in that position, and your now-massive audience is demanding to hear more — what do you do next? Why not try the same thing that worked before? It’d be foolish not to, right?