Faris Yakob has an intriguing post today on the idea of marketing the unmarketable, in which he writes the following as it relates to the story of Virgin Records:

In 1973 Mike Oldfield had been knocked back by every major label because his music was considered ‘unmarketable’.

Demos got to The Manor recording studio, which was being run by Richard Branson. He decided to take a punt on it and Tubular Bells became the first album on Virgin Records, essentially the foundation stone of the entire Virgin empire.

What makes this particularly profound, I think (although it’s only tangential to Faris’ post, truth be told), was the remarkable absence of any real market for the avant garde in 1973. Aside from the occasional fan of Karlheinz Stockhausen, or perhaps the rare sole who could get his hands on the odd Can or Faust record, the audience for the long tail of forward-thinking composition in 1973 was astoundingly small. Certainly, there was no preexisting musical context that might have predicted the success of the record.

In fact, it might be well-argued that Virgin marketed the unmarketable by, in no small part, creating the market for this avant-pop masterpiece. Certainly, the record benefited from another pioneering move put to great use throughout Virgin’s heyday: the soundtrack. Tubular Bells’ inclusion in the score for The Exorcist became the prototype launching the careers of lesser-known artists via the soundtrack.

When the market for the unmarketable doesn’t yet exist, invent it.

Please take the time to read Faris’ full post.

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1. The Love Affairs of Completists
2. More Beats and Pieces
3. Another Collector’s Love Affair
4. Late, and still inspired
5. Seven Inches of Hard Experience