Flight of the Conchords, a project of Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement, has found its way back into the spotlight with the arrival of its upcoming special on HBO. But given its lengthy hiatus from the main stage, how has the band managed to maintain its appeal to audiences over the past decade?
In a recent appearance on The Late Show, the “almost award-winning fourth-most-popular folk duo in New Zealand” was asked how its performances have changed since their departure from their hit HBO series in 2009. Bret remarked that “the fans have gotten a little bit older,” to which Jemaine replied, “it seems like we’ve gotten more older, to me.”
The key behind Flight of the Conchord’s success lies within the concept of “spreadability.” In his book Spreadable Media: Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture, Henry Jenkins remarks that spreadability is a multifaceted concept, encompassing the technical resources, economic structures, textual attributes, and social networks that fuel media’s success (p. 6). Jenkins elaborates on spreadability and the notion of “popular culture” during a TEDx talk, noting that “the most successful stories are the places where young people and adults meet each other on equal footing based on common interests.” Gaining spreadability appears difficult, but, as Flight of the Conchords demonstrates, the effect is amplified as much, or perhaps even more, by the power of listeners sharing and relaying the content as the content itself.
Although the band grew its fanbase through live shows in New Zealand and Australia and a radio show on BBC Radio 2, Flight of the Conchords took off (pun intended) with its series on HBO, running from 2007-2009. The group gained a cult following, praised for its abilities to balance its musical parody prowess with cliché geek humor tropes (spiced, of course, with hints of kiwi).
But even after the series’ abrupt end, the duo maintained a steady following as videos of various songs from their show and other specials appeared on Youtube. Their most viewed video, a live performance of their song “Business Time,” has garnered almost 35 million views. Another video, taken directly from the series, has amassed over four-and-a-half million views. The video posted above has gained nearly a million views in less than a week. And yet, none of these videos were posted by Flight of the Conchords itself.
Flight of the Conchords is content with listeners sharing their thematically and perennially universal art. What they lack in ad-revenue, they gain in contracts for specials, which, to be fair, are simply recorded versions of the live shows from which they began. To the band, success is merely a matter of witty lyrics and a guitar. And in this day and age, that’s quite refreshing.