Superstars don’t stay relevant by doing what people expect, or even what their fans necessarily want. Crowd-pleasing is a fast track to becoming a nostalgia act, where an artist is trapped in a loop of playing to type (i.e. the hits and only the hits) year after year. It’s not a bad life — Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, Elton John and countless others are making millions playing their decades-old hits to adoring, affluent, increasingly older crowds, with new songs being an indulgence for them and a bathroom break for the fans.
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But staying culturally relevant is a totally different game, one
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