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Serious musicians needn’t always be serious.

Rational Funk with Dave King
Creative & Content Strategy, Digital Miscellany

In case you haven’t noticed, YouTube is wildly overpopulated with instructional and tutorial content. That includes an infinite number of music-themed channels and musical practitioners claiming to offer unique lessons, tips, and secrets to “getting the gig.” In response to this phenomenon, the acclaimed jazz drummer/composer Dave King (The Bad Plus) rose to the challenge of torpedoing conventional drum instruction videos with his own iconoclastic series, Rational Funk. It’s a mostly improvised, never self-serious, occasionally ludicrous journey into Dave’s brain — wrapping his legitimate instrumental mastery in layers of satire, physical comedy, and lo-fi digital-age farce.

As a producer, co-writer, and general co-conspirator on the show, I helped to create a strategic shell for the production and consulted on everything from episode content to positioning to merch sales. With a bare minimum of media promotion, we connected into Dave’s intersecting fan bases and grew the show into a cult favorite with more than 2 million views and 23,000+ subscribers to date. It’s not for everyone, but for a certain strata of music devotee who recognizes both the joy and absurdity of making modern music, it’s become a genuinely beloved internet artifact.

Core Creative Team: Dave King & Joe Johnson