The Power of Belonging

It was the lockdown.

Picture this - it was 23rd March 2020.

It’s a Monday and I’m sat at home like everyone else and Boris is announcing that we’re going into the first UK lockdown.

I actually didn’t mind that we’d hit that important milestone in the COVID saga, it was a relief as it was the right thing to do.

The only thing I minded was that three days later on Thursday 26th March 2020, I was supposed to be attending a concert with my wife & son - because over Christmas in 2019, I’d bought tickets to see our favourite rapper and we were planning to see him in Bristol.

I’d planned the route, we’d drive from home and have some food together before heading over to the O2 academy and watching NF perform.

Except we didn’t (obviously).

Almost as soon as Boris had announced the lockdown then I got a text from Ticketmaster that our tickets had been refunded and we’d miss out.

Over three years have passed since then, NF has released two albums (one being a mixtape and one being a proper album) and in May of this year, he announced another tour to coincide with his new album ‘Hope’.

I got tickets in the O2 presale in May and the closest venue to us was London so that’s where we went last night - to the Hammersmith Apollo and we joined 6000 other people in watching our favourite artist with others.

The phones.

NF is a niche rapper - he’s only had what could be considered one ‘mainstream’ hit and he raps about things which other rappers don’t venture into - mental health struggles, relationships, religion and the general rap industry itself.

We had to queue for around 1/3 mile - the entire line was filled with people like me. There was no defined demographic, no standout group - it wasn't just teenagers, it wasn't just women.

It was mixed - men, women, young, old.

Some people had NF t-shirts, some were drinking cans of beer in line and some were stood with their caps on, hoods up and their hands tucked up into their hoodies, avoiding anyone’s gaze.

Two people in front of us were attending by themselves and they got chatting in line - introducing themselves to each other and striking up a conversation over the love of music. The two lads behind us were speculating as to whether there would be any special guests and who the support act could be.

Over the course of an hour and 20 minutes, we filed into the venue - 6000 people all crammed into one space, all waiting to see one person. We stood around for another 25 minutes in the venue, listening to Kendrick and Drake over the sound system waiting for the main act to begin.

Then the lights went out.

The venue lights went out but the whole place was lit up. Everyone (my son included) had their phone pointed at the stage and the entire venue was lit up, everyone’s face illuminated by their own screen.

Everyone’s eyes staring at the stage as it slowly filled with smoke and the beat to ‘Hope’ built up.

And then..

Collective cheering.

Everyone on their phones isolated in their own little bubble but collectively, they were all there.

The perfect metaphor for life today - we all sit in our little worlds until we join in with others.

That feeling.

As NF rapped through the first three songs, I sang (as did 6000 other people) and I took it all in.

I didn’t grab my phone, I didn’t want to experience the concert I’d waited for 3 years for through my screen.

I closed my eyes at some points and I listened to the crowd sing along and join in and I realised that I was with people who were like me.

Everyone around me had resonated with the lyrics at some point, everyone had used the songs to get them through some difficult moments, happy moments, sad moments - they had all had that moment which had brought them to this place.

And then slowly, the phones dropped and people focused on the show.

This is where the magic happened and slowly but surely over the course of an hour and 45 minutes - people joined in and the final concert of the ‘Hope’ tour drew to a close.

I’d ticked off one more artist from my Top 5 (the others being Ed Sheeran, Coldplay, Matchbox 20 and Foo Fighters).

The thing is - that feeling of belonging and being a part of something with others is spectacular.

Everyone focuses on how to build that community or that tribe but I want to focus on the feeling of actually being a part of it and what it means to me.

Belonging.

Being a part of a movement… (I’m going to call it a movement as it encompasses everything I want to talk about but you can interchange that with community or tribe as you wish)

Being a part of a movement is intoxicating - (adj. exhilarating or exciting."an intoxicating sense of freedom")

It brings you closer to others who are like you, you don’t need to ‘create’ a movement - you can join an existing one and still feel like you’re a part of something just as exhilarating and exciting.

The thing about being a part of a movement is that you don’t even need to know every moving part or every word to every song but you have something in common with everyone else who is a part of it.

When I was lined up around the Hammersmith Apollo - waiting in line with others, I didn’t feel out of place. Everyone I was lined up with had something in common with me and in the absence of any other commonality, we had that. I knew that I could strike up a conversation with anyone because there was one thing that we could all talk about.

And thats all you need - one thing.

One thing to be a part of something.

One Thing.

The thing about belonging and being a part of a movement is that it doesn’t have to be complicated. Businesses and creators focus on ‘creating’ something but you don’t need to ‘create’ to be a part of a movement - you just have to find one existing thing in common with someone else and you’ve formed an alliance.

It’s how fans are born and it’s how communities are created.

When you step out into your world as a teenager (and I should know, I was once one and I have two in my house) - you are searching for that place amongst others and you experiment with styles (yep, our daughter is going through some phases) and you look for places where you feel at home.

As you grow older, you refine those tastes and you find those things that excite you and that’s where you find your place.

Music is one of those things which is common to everyone, it’s all about taste and you find your place amongst others who like the same things as you.

It doesn’t need to be complicated to be a part of something - when you talk to others, you find out what makes them tick, you find out what makes them happy or sad and vice versa.

If you have nothing in common then the ties and the links are minimal but if you find your place and you all have something in common then typically, you become friends.

The same should work for business relationships and communities in general but we all focus on trying to bring as many people as possible to our businesses that we end up diluting what we’re about.

Imagine for second if your favourite artist decided to ignore creativity and instead focus on becoming a generic cover artist.

They would lose the one thing that made them stand out and in turn, they would probably lose you as a fan.

Stick to the one thing.

My advice to you would be to find that one thing that you need to stand out.

NF has it - it’s his story.

It allows him to rap about the things that mean something to him and it means that the 6000 people who packed into the Hammersmith Apollo on an October Sunday night all know exactly what he is about. They knew what they were going to get and they still went anyway.

The one thing that he brings, brought him fans.

The one thing I want to do is to write about things that mean something to me and I want to bring my fans to me.

It’s not going to happen overnight - I initially found NF when he released his debut album back in 2015 and none of the songs (nor the album) hit anywhere near the Top 40 in either the USA or the UK. The thing is, what I heard resonated with me and I stuck around to find out more.

NF didn’t change his style, he honed it.

He didn’t change what he rapped about, he just rephrased it.

The one thing that brought him into my world, made me stick to his.

And the same happened for 6000 others on Sunday night.