Needle, Meet Haystack

Joel Zimmerman is the platonic ideal of everything that Generation Y stands for.  He is confident, but has fun.  His personal brand extends through social networks and has helped him to develop a massive fan base.  He works hard and is rewarded for his efforts.  And until he was 27, he lived with his parents.  Joel is what might happen if someone took the lessons from every featured post ever on Brazen Careerist and applied them to his life.

You might not know Joel by his given name, but rather by his artistic persona: Grammy-nominated DJ and producer Deadmau5.

Putting aside the fact that tracks like “Faxing Berlin,” “Ghosts ‘N Stuff” and the Grammy-nominated “I Remember” are amazing productions in their own right, here are but a few lessons that Deadmau5 exemplifies:

• Personal branding through powerful symbols. The Deadmau5 logo is a bastardized version of the Mickey Mouse shape.  But it’s not just a logo – Joel has several giant ‘mau5 heads with eyes that strobe to the beat of the music that he wears when he plays.
• Social media and emerging technology optimization. Not only is his website cool and cutting-edge, but Deadmau5 was one of the first artists to come out with a branded iPhone app.  And it’s really good – it lets users become virtual DJs (with Deadmau5 music) – and has been updated several times to keep up with new iPhone/iTouch tech.  Plus, he made an awesome wristband for his fans that not only shows off their love and support of his music, but also contains albums, videos and other goodies on the built-in USB drive.
• Poster child for Boomerangs. If you missed what I said at the beginning of this post, the dude lived with his parents until he was 27.  With around 1/3 of people under 30 still at home, Joel’s success serves as an inspiration to all of us who chill with mom and dad on the weekends.
• Extreme location independence. Deadmau5 is a world-renowned DJ.  That means that he spends a lot of time travelling to play shows in different countries.  He produces music, tweets, blogs and releases updates all of the time.  He is a business machine.
• Adaptation to conventional business models.  He gained fame and renown in the genre of dance music, a category that thrives on singles, not albums.  And somehow, his debut album, Random Album Title, did very well commercially.

Deadmau5 is the perfect example for everything that Gen-Y bloggers talk about.  So why has no one talked about him?  My guess: they’re too busy enjoying “The Reward is Cheese.”