This is something I really had thought about for a long time. And I really don’t have an answer to it. At least not an easy answer. It is a difference of a career and a career. I meet an artist that really is no household name, but have gotten her a big name in china. Or well she has been in front of magazines. And she has played some really big shows. But when I asked some chinse industry pros they didn’t know the name.

That doesn’t mean anything. I know a hell of a lot of industry people here in Sweden that doesn’t know Arash who is a big star in the Middle East. But both is not household names in either china, Sweden or middle east.

They have a career, they have lived out of their music, done things many artists just can dream about. Still we really don’t consider them to have made it? You can just tell that they are not the ones that are in the gang.

At the same time you would say that Sean Banan ( Swedish stupid artist, see video)

Has a career. At least in Sweden. But these other two artist has done more, but they would never be counted next to this joke to artist.

And when it comes to real artists it’s even harder to say why people think Danny Saucedo (another really bad Swedish artist) has more of a career then these other two? I mean Danny really failed to leave Sweden and make a career abroad. These two has really done it. But in peoples mind they haven’t.

I would guess it has to do if you are a household name. Why a career is real and not real. If you have made it or not made it. Yes in Sweden we know Danny Saucedo and Sean Banan they are household names that never will leave the borders of Sweden. Still many would think they are bigger then Millencolin that has toured the whole world and done all that Danny failed to do? Since Millencolin is not a household name, more a name in certain genre.

Right now I work with projects that really have both sides and I can see it clearly. But I can’t explain what is doing it. I can also see that the more famous artist is really not as good as the unknown artist in many cases, and I wonder why we are so blinded by the mainstream of peoples mind.

In the end though it is that house hold name thing. And that is easier to do in one country. I would guess that every country has their own Sean Banan that never leaves their borders. To be a household name then in several countries, now we talking doing a really heavy task. You just have to admire bands like ABBA and Cardigans.

At the same time, no you don’t have a career until you are a house hold name.