Do Artists Lose Fans For Switching Up Their Sound?; Kambua's Playhouse Interview
9 June 2020
by Kabura Ng'ang'a
We have been at home enjoying a lot of YouTube and for the past couple of weeks, A-Star’s YouTube channel, Cleaning The Airwaves (CTA) with the series ‘The Play House’ has been blowing up. Picking up on this, one of the most popular interviews at the moment is Kambua’s interview.
During the interview, Kambua mentions that it was hard to grow from the ‘Nishikilie’ sound because fans absolutely loved her break-out single and she was not sure if they would still appreciate her if she introduced them to a new sound. On this article, we explore the importance of an artist keeping their fans pleased.
For many artists, there is a single that solidifies their career. After said single, there is the dilemma of branching out to a new genre or sound. The dilemma usually is if they switch it up, will the fans still support them or will the fans feel betrayed and stop supporting them.
It is an endless argument in the world of an artist of whether the artist creates for themselves or for the fans.
In the commercial sense, the artist creates for the fan because they need the fan to keep consuming their art; you might get this from Rihanna’s Anti album, the opening single ‘Consideration’ talks about this. However this does not close the argument above as it goes much deeper.
However, for many artists such as Kambua, you first create for yourself then risk losing some fans, gaining new fans and really having an ever-changing fan base. Sauti Sol has also talked about this through the progression of their sound in their different albums.
As a fan, have you felt betrayed by your once favourite artist? Or maybe you progress with artists as they shape their sound?
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