Ron Pope
A passion stirred at a young age, Ron Pope poured out words onto the page as soon as he was capable of holding a pen. As his life has unfolded, Pope has experienced many angles from which a musician can be confronted. From his days of struggling to draw a crowd that were counted as his daily providers, to becoming a marvel in the indie music world, Pope is an example of a self-made artist and inspiration to those who struggle in the now, as he once did.
itself. “I became a part of the emerging middleclass in the music industry. I made records on my own, I put them out, and I sold a lot of music by myself. So, I was in a position where I didn’t need a record label to make music because I could produce my own records. And I didn’t need a record label to promote my music on a basic, low-level scale because I could promote it via social media on my own,” Pope says. “I now have the ability to do what I want, and share with my fan base.”
His fellow artists helped bring to light his gift and potential. Pope says, “I ended up joining a Song Writing Circle [at NYU], where we met each week and critiqued and worked on each other’s songs; what we liked and didn’t; what was good and not so good. For some kids, it was more social, and they would write one song a month or one song every six weeks. I would be writing five songs a week, asking, ‘What do you think? What should I do with it?’ There were a lot of great songwriters there. A lot of those who were advanced as songwriters really encouraged me to keep going, and I thought, ‘Wow, if these people think I’m good, then maybe there’s really something to this.’ ”
Pope has bared much fruit out of his labor. His inspiration and perspective of life has been made applicable to all walks of life. “I feel that the human experience has fundamental truths about it. Everybody knows of loss, love, hope, faith, fear and sadness; all emotions are universal. Even when you are a little kid, before you have fallen in love, you have a sense of it. It’s an inherent part of humanity,” Pope states. Pope invites his audience on a journey of music that is heavily influenced by many genres, and encourages his fans to be open to new renditions of music. “It has been a long journey to get to ‘Atlanta’. For the first time, I am able to express all the things I feel, what I want to In this lighthearted prediction, Pope had no come across, in this incredibly honest way. I idea as to how he would engrave his name and took all these things I love to say: ‘This is who style in the music industry. The strumming of I am, take it or leave it’, and people are taking his guitar serenaded him as an overnight sensa- it, which is incredible. People have shown that tion. Literally. they are willing to try new things,” Pope reflects. “[My MySpace] just went crazy in October 2007, all of a sudden. I had been working back With no restraints, Pope has unleashed songs and forth, trying to create a fan base and a few and created a masterpiece consisting of many devoted people, and [somehow] it just went textural sounds that complete ‘Atlanta.’ “I put ‘Boom!’ From there on, I had major labels ofall the things I love together, and painted this fering me deals. MTV had me on TRL, and I picture that is distinctly my own. I try to put just started selling tons of music. That is the this all together to create a distinct palette,” story of how I became who I am today,” Pope Pope says. recalls. This artist cloaks himself with an influence As soon as Pope was discovered, he had an from many diverse genres, conveying human epiphany that it doesn’t matter whose label you emotion in a transparent, intimate way. are under, but that your name has a title within Written by Meagan Thomas