How to create a new genre
Meshuggah is a Swedish metal band that started in 1987. Their unconventional song structures and distinctive use of polyrhythms have always set them apart from the mainstream. Although they're not popular amongst the general public, they're very well-known within the metal genre. They pioneered a sub-genre of metal called "djent" and have been active for over three decades now. Pretty incredible.
Let’s look at some numbers
According to this chart, Meshuggah usually plays around 50-60 shows per year during an album cycle and it looks like they've released an album once every 2-3 years since they started. I attended a sold out show of theirs in Chicago a few years ago. There were around 3500 people there. A friend and I paid $35.
This is an estimate, but I think it’s reasonable to assume that they've been regularly selling out venues with ~1500+ capacity throughout their thirty year career.
Let’s say they play an average of ~30 shows per year, with ~1500 tickets sold at ~$30 a pop… for ~30 years. I’ll let you do the math. That’s not even counting merchandise sales, licensing, etc! Not a bad gig if you ask me — even after paying their crew, management, label, etc.
Persistence
Meshuggah has been playing the same unconventional music since they started, but you can see on this graph that it took almost 10 years and 5-6 albums before it finally caught on. Some may call this finding a product-market fit, but I call it conviction and persistence.
The takeaway that I want you to have here is that even though others may not see your unique value right now, you owe it to yourself and others to continue pursuing it, honing your craft, and doing everything you can to help the world see what you see.
– Charles
Song of the day
P.S. Wanna learn more about Meshuggah? Here's a great video from The Punk Rock MBA.