Author John King On Understanding Your Tribe

In Part 1 of my interview with John King, co-author of Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization, he gave us a brief explanation of how he thought the tribal stages of an organization could help us understand the occurrences of tribalism within an artist's fan base.  Like many of you, the brevity of his answer left me wanting to hear more.  Here to continue the discussion,  John lays out his thoughts on the various stages of fans and the bands themselves.

He said that it was hard separate the two from another given the a the band creates the fan, but, paradoxically, the fan nurtures, influences, and shapes the band.  Due to their symbiotic relationship, neither can exist without the other.  Further noting that the phrase, “When someone dies…” refers to both the fan and the band. – Kyle Bylin

John King on How To Understand Your Tribe:

Stage 1:  These are hard core rebels and often use music as an inspiration and a justification for social terrorism. As a cultural stage, they are dedicated to bringing down the system and creating a state of anarchy and chaos. Their music is supportive of rebellion and is fatalistic. This is a ‘born to raise hell’

stage comprised of a polyglot of often violent people who don’t particularly like each other, often fight with each other, and if they have a personal cause, it is designed to blow up existing structures. The fans are often found in jails and prisons and often belong to outlier gangs and political groups.  When someone dies, they are forgotten.

Stage 2: See the band as an extension of self. The fan disappears into the band and the personalities of the various band members. As a culture, they feel the injustice of a corrupt society every time one of the band members runs into the law, or, dies. To the fan, the world doesn’t ‘get’ this music. Obviously, the system is conspiring to block the music from the world. There is a conspiracy of corporate and ‘big brother’ interests that collude to exploit the downtrodden musician and keep the distribution channels free from the revolutionary and radical, and to persist the pumping out of mainstream pop and non confronting music. The music of a Stage 2 band is a metaphor for fans’ lives and they are misunderstood victims of the unholy machine that is made up of corporate and governmental systems. The band gets them and they get the band. The fan is one against the many unconscious lemmings that follow popular trends. The fan lives in hope that the message of the band will someday be discovered. When this happens, all will work out. The fans’ zeitgeist is grounded in the persona of a hopeful but resigned victim of a lost cause.  When someone dies, they are a martyr.

Stage 3: See the message of the band as a defiant and bold expression of their own philosophy of the heroic triumph of the individual at any cost. The fans life is dedicated to carving out their own unique niche. It doesn’t matter whether they are accepted today, it is inevitable that they will prevail – they are young and strong, and their message is the true way. The essence of their message is a judgment of right and wrong, and they are right even if they are seen to be wrong by society at large. In fact, being seen that way is a badge of honor and is proof to them that they are the future of music, politics, and society. They will prevail when the current establishment has passed away. The fan is very aware that there are thousands out there that feel the way they do, and it is only a matter of time until they win and inherit the earth. Meanwhile, they enjoy and experience the power of the music, and have little interest in whether the great unenlightened mainstream ever get it. The fan lives in a mythical reality and they see themselves and, by extension the band, as heroes in a just cause – the superiority of the individual hero at any cost.  When someone dies, they are a hero.

Stage 4: The fan has moved from the need to prevail as an individual to an ability to see the talent and contribution of others who are like them and are good at what they do. Stage 4 is secure enough to appreciate and collaborate with others, and is open to the suggestions of fellow enlightened travelers. They are realists, and realize that effective collaborations create a greater math, as in 1+1=3. They know their own world and are looking to see who, beyond the band itself, fits and can contribute. They often get involved in the business of promotion and production, and often are making a living in the music business. The fan, like the bands in this stage, have a vision of putting interesting combinations of bands and artists together to create new possibilities, new music, new projects.  When someone dies, they are a saint.

Stage 5: Has a point of view that is expansive and includes a conjunction of several Stage 4 groups who are called by a noble cause to come together to do something historic. They form co-jointly into a fan base broad enough  to support huge projects that are committed to world issues. Their bands have done the work and have the acceptance on the world stage that gives them the collective right to make ‘for the good of the people and the planet’ political statements, and are often ‘championed’ by strong and righteous political figures, or, more commonly, create significant concert events featuring prominent political figures and admired celebrities dedicated to noble causes. The fans want to make a difference and their bands have earned the position of spokesperson for the masses.  When someone dies, they are an immortal