From an indie rock musician's standpoint, I could interpret the MVP of a song as many things. A cool sounding riff, an instrumental (song w/o lyrics) or poetry

From an indie rock musician's standpoint, I could interpret the MVP of a song as many things. A cool sounding riff, an instrumental (song w/o lyrics) or poetry (lyrics w/o instruments). The quick answer is that my band performs none of those things in a concert setting. The most MVP we perform is a song that maybe doesn't have all of the lyrics worked out or maybe needing another section of music added to it - a work in progress. In our private practice sessions, of course, we build songs from scratch and you could make some comparisons to MVP. I would compare music to hardware rather than software. You need to have things pretty well worked out before public performance because no one comes to a show to hear you play one riff and most audiences don't care to listen to a boring set full of rock instrumentals and no lyrics. Also, it is generally difficult to get real-time feedback from an audience while performing rock music. Some audiences just stand and stare at you while bobbing their heads and other audiences jump around so long as there is a beat. You don't have the constant feedback that a comedian has after every joke. Pretty much the only feedback you'll get is that people will leave if you suck, or they will clap a little less after a song if they aren't as entertained. I have to ask my close friends after the show what they think of certain songs. I don't think any musician creates music for the sole purpose of pleasing the audience. A musician creates and performs music as a means of self-expression. So, in my opinion, MVP and its market testing methodologies are less applicable to musicians.