Steal Like an Artist (Or a Blues Musician)

Mississippi John Hurt

I recently came across the book “Steal Like an Artist” bu Austin Kleon. The title is what grabbed me first.  Being a musician I know that Blues artists, especially in the first half of the 20th century, did a good deal of borrowing, sometimes, outright stealing of other musicians’ music and lyrics. 

Guess what…

When it comes to cool innovations there’s often a collision of different ideas/metaphors that results in some new idea being spawned.  Steal like an Artist gives these guidelines:

I really like number 3.  This could just as easily say, “Design the product YOU want to use”, or, “Play the music YOU want to hear.”

Is there bad theft?  Austin Kleon puts it like this: 

 

Blues artists did a lot of the “Good Theft”.

One last bit of wisdom for those artists, in fact, all people, that think they need to bring a cohesiveness to their lives and their work. 

 

I’m really looking forward to diving in to this book more deeply.