Here’s something to give us hope:

Watts figures, if you rewound the world to 1982, Madonna would likely remain a total unknown–and someone else would have slipped into her steel-tipped corset. “You cannot predict in advance whether a band gets this huge cascade of popularity, because the social network is liable to throw up almost any result,” he marvels.

So, keep your head down, your underwear on top of your clothes, and work hard. Maybe the word-of-mouth will make you a star.