In 1990, the excuse that Jennifer Lopez is using for cancelling her tour would have worked. She is stating that
Transparency and the Modern Music Fan
People do not like being misled, and music fans can see right through it. She would have fared much better by being honest and saying, “Tickets are not selling for my show, so let me introduce you to my new line of spices.” Today’s music fans are much wiser and much more savvy. They can see ticket sales (or the lack of ticket sales), they can communicate via social media, and they know when a celebrity is not being upfront. There are few middlemen now. Fans and everyday people are directly connected to the industry these days, and they are not stupid. If you watched the documentary “The Greatest Love Story Never Told,” you can easily see why the title should have been more accurate.
The Disconnect Between Legacy and Modern Expectations
The entire movie was a hodgepodge of ego-driven pats on the back from disconnected people around her who did what they used to do but not what is expected or done in today’s industry. Having legacy in today’s industry has almost become a disadvantage because it is seen as a disconnect when you try to continue doing what you used to do.
The Fear of Irrelevance and the Power of Reinvention
To be viewed as old, disconnected, and irrelevant is a death sentence to a career, and it’s something that most celebrities fear the most. To that end, there is also a saving grace: reinvention. In today’s industry, you can be successful years beyond retirement with a strategy where you use your past as equity instead of as a continuation of what you did. Who you ARE takes the front seat today. There is something that we have all done that can be tweaked, updated, or changed to open the door to new opportunities.
The Challenge of Legacy in Modern Times
Jennifer Lopez is not Michael Jackson or Whitney Houston, but when you watched “The Greatest Love Story Never Told,” you would have thought that SHE thought
