I think it's about time for a new rock underground to rise up and squash the mainstream in a new rock n roll revolution. It's just history repeating itself, that's all. It seems like everything is in place... the mainstream is filled with fucking crappy boy-band emo rock and with the internet and sites like myspace, underground bands are able to reach a whole new audience without the help of big distribution record companies.

In the early 90's it was college radio that got it out there and as many of you have experienced I'm sure, people from fucking Belgium and South America and Japan are finding the underground music by themselves and hopefully the day of the big record companies is coming to a close. Lets hope that the fact that your record isn't sitting on the shelf in every WalMart in America won't matter anymore.

What do you guys think?

Maybe I'm old and cynical, but I've seen plenty of "underground" musical genres get big, and you know what? So far, not one of them has "crushed" the mainstream - matter of fact, most of them became mainstream or were absorbed by the mainstream.

I'm happy enough knowing that (mostly through the internet)today, I can be exposed to countless artists from all kinds of different musical styles and genres. Many of them are trying to hit the mainstream; others couldn't care less, but the sheer number of artists that the average person can be exposed to has increased dramatically.

Even if 95% of them either suck or lack originality, that can't be a bad thing.

Again......The Sword is a drop in the bucket just like every other band, but the world is tired of whatever has been happenening for the past fifteen years, its all so commercialized and produced and fake and boring for the most part... people are more concerned with piercings, tatooos and haircuts than music...i pray to every god in the fucking book everyday get back to the roots of this rock n roll culture back to the soul....yes there is a musical revolution upon us...stay tuned...

quote:

but the world is tired of whatever has been happenening for the past fifteen years, its all so commercialized and produced and fake and boring for the most part...

The sales figures of the "commercialized, produced, fake" stuff stands as strong proof against that theory. Seems to me the majority of the "world" swallows whatever crap it's fed.

The sad truth here (as I see it) is that for most people, music is an inconsequential lifestyle accessory. Only a small segment of the population (for convenience, I'll call them "us") takes music seriously enough to devote any kind of thought to creating music and/or choosing music for listening. Most of these, however, are not in the 12-13 year-old power market that buys most of the music in the USA. Remember, the "flavor of the month" bands exist because there is a huge market for them.

I'll just shut up now and go back to making music that won't sell in huge amounts, but that I enjoy. And I'll continue to support others who are doing the same.

quote:

I'll just shut up now and go back to making music that won't sell in huge amounts, but that I enjoy. And I'll continue to support others who are doing the same.

well said! that's the important thing... to love what you are doing. and to be making the music that you enjoy.

I do think that the web is opening new marketing and distribution possibilities for bands like never before.... I mean, what were the possibilities of anyone in Europe, Japan, South America listening to your songs 10 years ago?

it was a lot harder!!!

quote:

what were the possibilities of anyone in Europe, Japan, South America listening to your songs 10 years ago?

I remember Fetal Remains being big in Japan 15 years ago...hehe

quote:

I remember Fetal Remains being big in Japan 15 years ago...hehe

yeah, but i bet they couldn't download a song 15 minuites after you recorded it

quote:

The sad truth here (as I see it) is that for most people, music is an inconsequential lifestyle accessory. Only a small segment of the population (for convenience, I'll call them "us") takes music seriously enough to devote any kind of thought to creating music and/or choosing music for listening. Most of these, however, are not in the 12-13 year-old power market that buys most of the music in the USA. Remember, the "flavor of the month" bands exist because there is a huge market for them.

RacerX hit it on the fucking nose with this one. I don't watch TV. I listen to NPR. I also listen to music. Like put on a CD and sit there listening. How many of your "non-musician" friends have that kind of attention span? The last chick I dated (long ago{sigh)would start talking as soon as I put something on and said "listen to this." To these folks, music is more just rhythmic background noise. I'll say a bit more on record companies, but let me have a beer or two first, and I'll get back with y'all shortly.

quote:

Originally posted by RacerX:

quote:

but the world is tired of whatever has been happenening for the past fifteen years, its all so commercialized and produced and fake and boring for the most part...

The sales figures of the "commercialized, produced, fake" stuff stands as strong proof against that theory. Seems to me the majority of the "world" swallows whatever crap it's fed.

The sad truth here (as I see it) is that for most people, music is an inconsequential lifestyle accessory. Only a small segment of the population (for convenience, I'll call them "us") takes music seriously enough to devote any kind of thought to creating music and/or choosing music for listening. Most of these, however, are not in the 12-13 year-old power market that buys most of the music in the USA. Remember, the "flavor of the month" bands exist because there is a huge market for them.

I'll just shut up now and go back to making music that won't sell in huge amounts, but that I enjoy. And I'll continue to support others who are doing the same.

Yeah i hear you but the point is that those 12-13 year olds are going to be 15-16 and they are listening to Jimi and Led Zepplin and Janis, and on and on and on..so they will be open to a style that is more roots based and wherever the baby sittin dollar goes so goes the marketing...its been in the news quite a bit lately...all it takes is a few bands to push the threshhold and if good stuff is marketed then we will begin to see change in mainstream music on the radio and also the exposure of bands that might have been previously unnoticed
such as all the artists who do it because they love to do it, not because their haircut matches their sound....Please keep inmind that the good shit used to be mainstream and that is where i want to see it go again...this shit has been painful brothers and sisters paaaaiiinnnffffuuuulllll!!!!!!!!!!

quote:

well said! that's the important thing... to love what you are doing. and to be making the music that you enjoy.

Thanks - since enjoyment is probably all I'll ever get back from it, that's my one policy. Life's too short to make crappy music.

quote:

I do think that the web is opening new marketing and distribution possibilities for bands like never before....

Definitely - I often wonder how different my tastes (and music collection) might be if the internet had been around when I was growing up. Major label advertising, word of mouth and the music press were pretty much all we had to guide us through the musical maze...

quote:

all it takes is a few bands to push the threshhold and if good stuff is marketed then we will begin to see change in mainstream music on the radio and also the exposure of bands that might have been previously unnoticed

EDIT: Hippie Rocker - I appreciate your enthusiasm, but I'll stick to my more cynical worldview. I adopted it right around the time I realized that "Stoner Rock" wasn't gonna become the "next big thing" as many people had predicted.

quote:

their haircut matches their sound

Does my hair match by gurgling bitch scream?

quote:

Originally posted by Cidderiforous:

quote:

their haircut matches their sound

Does my hair match by gurgling bitch scream?

Is that what a comb over sounds like he he he

quote:

the web is opening new marketing and distribution possibilities for bands like never before.... I mean, what were the possibilities of anyone in Europe, Japan, South America listening to your songs 10 years ago?

We had our track Between My Teeth picked up by some internet radio deals in Nashville, Paris France, Brazil and the Phillippines. They'd just link to our track and of course we didn't get paid. But it's been getting average 400 hits a day for months, with our other tracks picking up some extra as well. All our tracks together once went as high as 4,000 hits in one day! (that doesn't even count Myspace, i-sound, iTunes, cdbaby, etc-which isn't that many) The Brazil station has pages and pages of comments... in Portugese... I don't know if they are positive or negative or just random bullshit.
I didn't even know about it until I got a warning from my hosting plan that I was going to go over my limit. I tracked them back though the referrers bit.

None of them are buying the disc though.... At least as far as I know since Socyermom handles the cdbaby and iTunes shit. I'm pretty sure we would have been told if there was any big spike or anything. If even 1 percent were buying we would have sold out a while ago.

I'm no expert. I agree-kinda-about internet business potential. It'll be more efficient, lower costs, fewer middle men.
I think we'll see music stores go before we see the big labels go. For a while the internet will be the only place besides Wal-Mart, Best Buy, a few others, to get music. A lot of smaller labels will be bought out or collapse first too. I think it'll go that way for years before distribution monopolies are broken, and there is still the chance that some business will find some way to monopolize that as well (when iTunes loses most competition, what's to stop them from screwing over bands worse than current majors do?)

Also: when there are potentially infinite bands getting infinite distribution, how the hell are any of them going to make any money? Ultimately I think the audience is so fractured... what was the last album everyone bought? Nirvana, Michael Jackson, KISS? Nirvana is a band we consider HUGE and I bet if 100 random people were asked only maybe 2 percent would own that shit. The pie just keeps getting sliced up smaller and smaller. Hyped bands like The Strokes, The Arctic Monkeys... these guys aren't even top 40, or if so just for a small time.

I have a question... Maybe it's the inner punk in me talking but when did it become "Cool" to sell out? All i see nowadays is people/bands shamelessly promoting other people's products. I guess doing it "On your own" is a thing of the past? Lazy fucking America. Now don't get me wrong if you score a record deal and shit more power to ya, fuck I wish we could so I could get out of the military and really live my dreams out but, that will never happen because we don't play what "America" wants to hear. Sorry, my hearts not broken and I don't like reliving my high school dating failures like they just happened. And I'm sorry but the 80's are done let's not relive that failure of a music era (Strokes, The Bravery, Panic at the Disco). So I say fuck going mainstream fuck becoming someone elses dream.

sigh - Levi is right again, nothing but crumbs

I'll consider my bands "big" when we can routinly play regional shows in phoenix, tucson, el paso, clovis, denver to crowds of 100+

that's all I'm trying for. Good crowds in small venues that aren't so far away that I have to tour for a month to get there.

of course, even success on this level requires YEARS of hard work

quote:

The Brazil station has pages and pages of comments... in Portugese... I don't know if they are positive or negative or just random bullshit.

I lived in brasil for 15 months if you need a translation

"Maybe it's the inner punk in me talking but when did it become "Cool" to sell out? All i see nowadays is people/bands shamelessly promoting other people's products."

I've noticed that the biggest indie labels are pretty much becoming smaller version of the larger ones. In 2005 28% of all the musical profit pie came from indie labels combined. I'm damn proud of that, but it was also exactly what Sony's chunk was...ALONE.

Larger labels have quietly bought several indie labels while they still operate to appeal to this chunk of the pie. Alantic just bought Ferret Music...for example.

Victory and Century Media have brought bands on to high profile festivals like ozzfest and the warped tour.

My point is that it's all just shifting. The word rebel is always changing and after a while....mohawks are for sale.

My thing was always giving people choice so they can make their decisions in music. Underground isn't for everybody but people should know about it. There has to be a majority right? I'm not saying that money isn't ruining the art in music but the majority of people are going to like simular musical concepts....right?
Pop makes sense. Making music a commidity and mass producing bands is a mistake but popular music makes sense to me.

Just define what's out there (thank you internet and satellite radio) and make it accessible. That's all I've ever wanted. Right now you have to dig to find it.

And if you think music gives you identify...You should just fucking die.

quote:

Originally posted by Insidesout:
And if you think music gives you identify...You should just fucking die.

I disagree. As a young teenager, music helped me put my emotions and what I thought of myself into a tangible idea. Sure, the music by the bands that influenced me was their own, it wasn't written for me, it was written for them. But I still found a way to relate it to myself and I think it really helped shape me as an individual. In mid-school, people would ask, "are you a gangster or a rocker?" Its one of those stupid things that kids to to categorize themselves as a step to realize who they really are. So, music does help people realize their identities. Hopefully, there are other influences that contribute to that, but music is a big one.

quote:

music gives you identify

This would be a great album title. Dibs!