Message 12/24
Date: 06-May-03 @ 07:27 PM Edit: 06-May-03 | 09:46 PM -
RE: Dance Music Vinyl Sales down 38%
Filthy and Influx may be on to something.
Remember when music was a cottage industry with regional hits? Neither do I but this pre-rock-n-roll paradigm is a historical fact. Think the scene in, "O' Brother Where Art Thou", where our three heroes record their tune. In America at least, that scene played out across the country, particularly in the east where bluegrass was paving the way for country music's popularity. Is the dance music community so above ground that such polls can be seen as accurate? Maybe that's the real problem. Maybe its time for the dance community to take a step backward in order to take a step forward. Wasn't "Chime" recorded in a bedroom (along with the rest of the first CD)?
Anyone remember the DIY ethos?
I've brought this up before but I'll reiterate that performing live will become more important for electronic musicians. Initially styles would evolve based upon the limitations inherent in the available gear used for live performance. If this becomes a significant movement within the electronic community, gear manufacturers will acknowledge the issues of those playing live on a larger scale than they currently do and market more gear designed to address the technological challenges of live electronic music.
I don't think the era of dance music is over BUT the era of the DJ may be giving way to the era of the live electronic "band". Its been happening below the radar for a few years now as evidenced by a few of our DT brethren who have braved the live electronic music minefields. Taking what they and others have done one step further, imagine six synth players and a couple of drummers (one acoustic, one electronic?), all or at least a few who can sing playing at local clubs, regional universities and locally distributing their DIY singles to DJs at traditional dance clubs and their DIY CDs to college radio stations and "locals only" commercial radio jocks.
When vacation time comes along our intrepid octet load up into a van and end embark on a DIY tour of a larger part of the country over a summer. They do interviews on college radio stations, play in every dive they can find, sell CDs and singles at the same dives, sleep on the floors of people they meet at shows, and after its all over they come home, return to their jobs and plan the next tour all in the hopes of
developing a larger audience.
The above band situation should sound familiar to anyone who has ever been involved in the punk scene. The next step in the whole DIY recording thing is DIY touring. The punk community has known this for two decades, "Book Your Own #@&*!%! Life" was required punk rock, DIY touring, research material for years when Tim Yo was in charge of MRR. The grassroots nature of the punk scene has created a situation in the states whereby its nearly impossible to cite a lack of opportunity for a DIY tour. Perhaps the electronic music community needs to develop a similar model based around live performance and grassroots networking.