"To remain relevant though, I think making great records is the key"
About this Quote
Relevance is usually treated like a social-media metric: stay visible, stay loud, stay in the feed. Kelly Jones flips that logic with a musician's stubborn practicality. "To remain relevant though" nods to the modern anxiety every legacy act inherits: the sense that time is a moving sidewalk and you're either sprinting or getting carried off. Then he plants his flag in a quieter, almost unfashionable place: the record.
The intent is defensive and aspirational at once. Jones isn't pretending relevance is beneath him; he's admitting the game exists. But he's also arguing for a kind of relevance that can't be hacked through branding, collaborations, or viral bait. "Making great records is the key" is a bet on craft as the one thing that outlasts cycles of attention. It's also a subtle rebuke to the industry's newer incentives, where "content" is constant and albums can feel like mere packaging for singles, playlists, and tour promo.
The subtext is about control. Artists can't fully control algorithms, critics, or cultural mood swings. They can control the work. "Great" is doing a lot of work here: not just competent, not just serviceable, but the kind of album that earns repeat listens and slowly rebuilds a band's place in people's lives. In an era that rewards immediacy, Jones is insisting that durability is still a strategy - maybe the only honest one.
The intent is defensive and aspirational at once. Jones isn't pretending relevance is beneath him; he's admitting the game exists. But he's also arguing for a kind of relevance that can't be hacked through branding, collaborations, or viral bait. "Making great records is the key" is a bet on craft as the one thing that outlasts cycles of attention. It's also a subtle rebuke to the industry's newer incentives, where "content" is constant and albums can feel like mere packaging for singles, playlists, and tour promo.
The subtext is about control. Artists can't fully control algorithms, critics, or cultural mood swings. They can control the work. "Great" is doing a lot of work here: not just competent, not just serviceable, but the kind of album that earns repeat listens and slowly rebuilds a band's place in people's lives. In an era that rewards immediacy, Jones is insisting that durability is still a strategy - maybe the only honest one.
Quote Details
| Topic | Music |
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