Stuff About Music

Recently I was thinking about brand loyalty and how that applies to the music that we listen to. Technically bands are brands of music and we have loyalty to them. This is for a number of reasons: we like the product that they distribute, we want to associate with others that consume the same brand of music, or we relate to the product personally. There are plenty of reasons why we would be loyal to certain brands of music but also lots of reasons that those relations can cease to exist or be disconnected. For example, my music preferences have changed quite dramatically in the last few years. I find that my iPod, due to the fact that I haven’t really spent any time updating it recently, is full of music that I no longer relate to.

Some of it has to do with where I was during that time of my life and some of it has to do with where the brand has moved in the last few years that makes me not relate to it anymore. I think that music can be very similar to fads in the way that it can be interesting and attractive at one point in time but quickly move in the other direction. Dave Mathews Band, for example, was one of my favorite bands in high school. Now I usually change the radio station if most DMB songs come on. This could be because I over-used this certain product and I am now sick of it or because it reminds me of that time of my life and the long-gone high school girlfriend that I associate that band with and whom I would rather forget. In essence, most brand breakups happen due to the change in either the brand or the consumer.