Tribal Leadership Interview Part 2: Building a Tribe

Bylin: Throughout the music industry when we look for true examples of tribes, we often come up with examples like The Grateful Dead and The Kiss Army. Bruce Springsteen, The Boss, is a leader and his followers (also known as The Church of Bruce), operate as a true tribe.

What principles of Tribal Leadership do you think these types of artists may have unknowingly embraced that led them to be successful?

King: They all cast a very wide net. The themes and ideas that they were working with were universal, and yet...

could be mapped onto the individual fan. The were 'identifiable', and created hooks that imprinted the consciousness of the listener in a peculiar way that was both fresh, and somehow familiar in the same moment. The hook is what captures the tribe.

Bylin: Patrick Hanlon and I had a great interview about the importance of belief systems in a community or tribe. He asserts in Primal Branding that brands that we care about are belief systems, embedded with seven pieces of primal code (the creation story; the creed; the icons; the rituals; the pagans, or nonbelievers; the sacred words; and the leader) that work together to make them believable.

How do you believe well-structured belief system plays into attracting the following you sought out and how does it help to take your fan base to the next stage?

King: Ultimately, each person is a set of values want to be expressed. The band, the way they live, they way they perform is an heroic personification of the common values and aspirations of the fan. As they do it poetically and rhythmically - that is amazing. After all, all there is, is what you see and what you hear.

If an artist wants to rally the passion of a tribe, they need to make music for a movement. Black Sabbath, Nirvana, Rage Against The Machine, Bob Dylan, and Will.I.Am all made music for a movement. They told stories about who they were and the future they were trying to build.

Bylin: Why is it that when you find values that cut across a group of people that you can take an entire tribe to this zone full of appreciation and emotion?

King: Good one - your answer is in the question. Because the values that are driving the band are so apparent, and do cut across various cultures and stages of culture. This is the very definition of leadership, and music is a powerful way to capture a mind, a heart, a soul, in the interest of a movement. It's not an accident that Barack Obama is referred to as a 'Rock Star' - the values, the energy, the rhythm of his campaign connected people to their values and their dreams and noble cause, and they rallied to the cause. It is exactly the same with a band, except the band has the power of music as a transport mechanism for the values being transferred to the fan.

Read Part 1 here. Tomorrow author John King lays out his own thoughts on the various stages of fans and the bands themselves.

Follow the link to purchase a discount copy of Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization on Amazon.