I love to do things differently.
And one of my favorite ways to come up with unique creative ideas may surprise you:
I listen to 20 different versions of the same song as a creative exercise.
I pick a year and look up the most popular songs that came out that year.
Then, I find as many cover versions of each song as I can and listen to them all.
I wind up listening to 20 different artists share their own unique take on the same original material.
Some are amazing, most are mediocre, a few are terrible.
Some are mournful versions of happy songs, some are the opposite.
Some mimic the original, some are almost unrecognizable.
But every time it’s inspiring because it shows how the same thing can be done in an endless variety of ways.
This concept has broad implications.
• The same underlying idea for a LinkedIn post can be expressed in 20 different ways.
• A “course” can be presented in 20 different ways.
• What you do and who you do it for can be explained in 20 different ways.
So while I love music and it’s fun to do this exercise, it also spills over into my other work and drives me to think more outside the box.
To see what’s possible.
Plus, I pull the single best cover of each song from a given year and compile them into a playlist to listen to whenever I want as a reminder of what’s possible.
For example, here’s my 1985 Covered playlist.
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