A couple of months ago I decided to revisit The KLF’s classic book, The Manual (How To Have A Number One The Easy Way). It’s a short, brilliant (and very funny) account of how they got to No.1 on the Official UK Singles Chart with ‘Doctorin’ The Tardis’ by The Timelords. Despite being written in 1988, the book is packed with surprisingly relevant insights for today’s aspiring artists, so this week I’m going to break out a few themes for discussion.
I should start by saying that I’ve been a fan of Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty - aka The Timelords, aka The JAMs, aka The KLF - since 1987, when I first heard their debut single ‘All You Need Is Love’ on John Peel’s Radio 1 show. I was already fascinated by cut-up sample-based records, so a release that sampled The Beatles, MC5, Samantha Fox, The Osmonds and actor John Hurt immediately grabbed my attention. Eventually, in 1990, I even made a documentary for BBC Radio 1 called Can You Steal It? tracing the evolution of sampling.
On the face of it, The KLF had a major problem: how could two average-looking white guys in their 30s (Cauty was 31 and Drummond 35 in 1988) compete with the likes of Bros, whose members were all still teenagers when Brosmania exploded?
Looking back now, it’s clear The KLF intuitively understood what I recently described as my Iceberg Principle. Their songs were only the visible tip - catchy, attention-grabbing and cleverly constructed, but beneath the surface they built something much larger: mythology, provocation, mystery and an ongoing cultural narrative that kept fans engaged.
Importantly, neither Drummond nor Cauty were naïve outsiders. Cauty had been in a band called Brilliant signed to WEA, while Drummond had worked as their A&R man. Drummond had also managed Echo & The Bunnymen and co-founded Zoo Records. Between them they deeply understood how the music industry worked - and how to manipulate it.
And manipulate it they did.
The KLF ultimately represent what happens when highly intelligent post-punk pranksters learn how the pop factory really works.
So what can artists learn from them today……
Lesson 1: Figure out how the music industry really works.
The KLF approached the Top 40 as a system that could be hacked. This was the core thesis of The Manual and the duo proved they could do it. They treated hitmaking like behavioural psychology, systems engineering and game theory. They watched the charts and studied patterns. They understood momentum, familiarity, repetition and timing. Their experience also included an invaluable year working with the pop impresarios of the time, Stock Aitken and Waterman.
Today’s artists are operating in a world of AI tools, algorithmic feeds and overwhelming competition, but the core lesson still applies: study the system you are operating within. Read articles; listen to podcasts; build relationships. Learn how streaming platforms, algorithms, fandoms and culture actually work.
And learning should never stop.
Lesson 2: Understand when to follow the rules - and when to break them.
This applies across every creative industry. Once you understand the rules, you earn the right to break them. In fact, if you truly want to cut through, you probably have to break some. The KLF practised what they preached. Their first album release as The JAMs in 1987, ‘1987 (What The Fuck Is Going On?)’, sampled ABBA’s ‘Dancing Queen’ without permission. ABBA’s lawyers came down hard. The duo were forced to surrender the master tapes and pull the album, and they ended up driving to Sweden to deliver a gold disc to a sex worker they passed off as Agnetha Fältskog, before stopping in a field to burn the unsold copies - only to be chased off by an irate farmer firing a shotgun at their car. It’s an extreme example, but it makes the point: they broke a rule, took the consequences, and emerged the better-known for it.
By the time they came back as The Timelords a year later with ‘Doctorin’ The Tardis’, every rule-break in the record was a calculated choice. The unauthorised Doctor Who theme. The Gary Glitter sample (a faintly disreputable choice already in 1988, and a disastrous one in retrospect). The decision to credit the song to a 1968 Ford Galaxie police car they’d named Ford Timelord and which they had ‘interviewed’ on the BBC. They knew exactly which rules to break and which to honour.
Lesson 3: How to write a hit
The KLF’s Manual contained several “Golden Rules” for writing a No.1 single.
Here are some of them:
You must be totally committed to getting to No.1
The duo believed many musicians subconsciously sabotage commercial success because they prioritise credibility over connection. They were partly joking and partly serious here, but there’s still a useful insight underneath it: focus matters.
Steal from everywhere
The KLF believed all pop music is recombinant. Their first No.1, ‘Doctorin’ The Tardis’, combined Gary Glitter’s ‘Rock and Roll Part 2’, The Doctor Who theme and Sweet’s ‘Blockbuster’. More importantly, they intuitively understood something neuroscience would later help explain: we are most moved by music that gives us just enough familiarity to feel grounded, and just enough surprise to feel alive.
Simplicity wins
The KLF strongly believed in: strong intros, simple hooks, repetition, clear emotional signals and recognisable structure.
Their recommended song structure was:
intro, verse 1, chorus 1, verse 2, chorus 2, breakdown, double length chorus, outro.
Sections should arrive in multiples of four bars. Running time should stay under three minutes thirty seconds, preferably three minutes 20 seconds. No indulgence.
Remarkably, much of this aligns closely with modern streaming behaviour, optimal song length and skip-rate psychology.
The chorus matters most
Their advice:
“The lyrics for the chorus must never deal with anything but the most basic of human emotions.”
And they insisted the chorus should never exceed eight bars.
Keep the title short
The KLF argued titles should be: short, memorable, emotionally direct and easy to repeat. They later realised ‘Doctorin’ The Tardis’ probably should have simply been called ‘Dr Who’.
Interestingly, I checked Spotify’s Top 500 most-streamed tracks of all time and roughly 70% of the titles contain two words or fewer. Once again, the duo were ahead of their time.
Groove matters more than musicianship
The KLF argued that: feel, momentum, rhythm and emotional energy mattered more than technical virtuosity.
They closely followed hip-hop, house and dance culture because they understood where emotional momentum in popular music was heading.
Note that Cauty became involved in the emerging acid house scene, DJing in the ambient/chill-out room at Paul Oakenfold and Ian St Paul’s Spectrum nights at Heaven, and in 1988 he co-founded The Orb with Alex Paterson as a side project. He was at the heart of the most exciting cultural movement in music and this informed The KLF’s next steps including the hugely influential ambient album ‘Chill Out’ released in February 1990 and their next no.1 single, the rave anthem, ‘3 a.m. Eternal’.
Personality matters more than originality
This is the deepest idea in The Manual - and one that feels increasingly relevant in the AI era. The KLF understood that breakthrough artists rarely win through pure originality alone. They win through emotional identity, timing, mythology and cultural connection.
Technology changes. Human psychology doesn’t.
Mythology is part of the music
Long before social media, The KLF understood world-building.
They used: symbols, visual identity, slogans, controversy, mystery and recurring imagery to create an ongoing narrative around the music.
In many ways, they were generating memes before the internet even existed.
Timing and cultural context matter
The KLF believed hits emerge when three things align: familiar ideas, new technology and cultural mood. That observation arguably feels even more relevant now than it did in 1988.
A final lesson: don’t burn £1 million in cash
If you’re lucky enough to succeed and the money starts pouring in, there is one final lesson worth learning from The KLF. It’s probably best not to travel to a remote Scottish island with £1 million in cash and burn the lot in front of invited journalists.
The stunt guaranteed their place in cultural history - but there are probably better uses for the money.
Final thoughts
The music industry remains chaotic, unpredictable and impossible to fully decode. Nobody can completely predict what will cut through and what won’t.
But The KLF understood something timeless. What audiences actually want from music isn't originality - it's emotional connection, identity, surprise, mythology and meaning. The technology will keep changing. Human nature is the constant.
I’ll leave you with one final extract from The Manual:
“We all have the capacity for unlimited fantasy, it is the fuel of genius. Do not be afraid to turn on the tap and let it flow. As we discussed before, a record will automatically equal more than the sum of its parts. However coldly we calculate the making of each part, our personality will be there on the record for the world to feel.”
And in my opinion, in the AI era, personality is going to matter more than ever.
Classic Cut-Up Records playlist:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKKPopPV8pxcn4RrrAeOGjwuf9yBY3VeX& I3Q8U0q1QuAe7Z3x