Cortez, this might be my favorite solicitation of all time to try to pontificate upon. But, I will restrain myself from a time consuming stream of consciousness and try to keep this short :)

It's such a tough question to really nail in hindsight, but if everything GPN was moved forward 6 years I think there would have been 3 primary differences, some parts good and some parts bad:

1. The NBTW Boston Video would never have happened. At least in the sense that there wouldn't have been that one epic piece you could point back to and say "that's when they first hit digital culture."  First, because so many iPhone recordings would have hit the web before we ever had a chance to get a real version up (a year later than it was produced). Second, because the band's trajectory would have soared well before they hit the stage that night.  I saw GPN in front of 30 people at a 100 person venue in Boston a year earlier. If there was YouTube or Soundcloud, that would have been their last non sold-out show of the year.

2. We wouldn't be having this conversation.  At least not on this site, and not amongst some of the most dedicated music fans I know.  That same early trajectory would have meant no Posse, no Yellow Shirts, no ThisIsSomewhere.com and no 10,000 or 50,000 or how every many people can right now say "I really did listen to this band before they were an it thing." We wouldn't feel the ownership we do, the more meaningful version of this attitude (http://nyti.ms/HDLh0E). The band would still be huge and probably bigger, but the foundation wouldn't be there as strong as it is. Even now you can sometimes hear the whispers from long-time fans of GPN wishing they'd return to their musical roots. But still, they stay in love. Because we know that no matter if the latest single sounds like it was recorded the same day as Original Soul or not, this isn't a fly-by-night band that's "changing."  It's a true blue rock and roll band that's growing and evolving, and we're growing and evolving with them.  If GPN were a 2012 blog band, we'd have no patience for departure/evolution.  We wouldn't have had the luxury of watching the magic grow and already knowing how real the magic is.

3. We'd all be worse off. At least those who know how it really went down.  From someone who moved 3,000 miles with the initial purpose of getting involved in music, I can confidently tell you how easily jaded one can be around this stuff. Stars are made off of pay-to-play. Careers are ended because marketing team members got lazy. Image is everything. The best of the best don't always make it. GPN proved this all wrong. They're not the only band (see Black Keys, Jack White, Esperanza Spalding), but they are a damn good example. This is a band who did nothing but tour their incredibly talented hearts out for 100 shows a year for coming up on a decade. An "overnight success" who's been blowing crowds away in every state in the US. Who might not please every fan with every song, but has meant every note they've played. If they launched in 2012, they'd have the same attitude, but wouldn't have had the chance to prove it. And to prove to a lot of us that great things do happen to the right people.

with love,
JF