“Music can save people, but it can`t in the commercial way it`s being used. It`s just too much. It`s pollution.”
“Undermine their pompous authority, reject their moral standards, make anarchy and disorder your trademarks. Cause as much chaos and disruption as possible but don’t let them take you ALIVE.”
“I’d rather be dead than cool.”
Dylan, Vicious, Cobain… all of them began as a part of some kind of underground movement, intent on overturning the status quo and putting something real into the increasingly synthetic world of mass media. Now, almost every person in this room recognizes their face as a celebrity, a symbol of an era that has been pigeon-holed and co-opted into what “popular culture” thinks it should be.
Ever since mass entertainment began to skyrocket in the 1950s and ‘60s, independent musicians like these guys have been locked in a constant struggle against the number one arch-enemy: MAINSTREAM. Major record labels held such sheer power that the independents were invariably lost somewhere in the shadows of the top 40 charts, or otherwise preyed upon by major labels: dooming them to 1% profits and an image dictated by the status quo.
Such is the dilemma that faces underground musicians: without mass media you are nothing but background noise, but with it you become an emblem of whatever the masses construe your values to be. Though the specifics did vary, these guys all had a message that was fundamentally about being real, being individual, and standing up for the outcasts in popular culture.
These days, that message sounds a little tired and overused to the point of satire – we’re keeping it real, man, it’s all about the music – and that seems to the inevitable result of allowing the media to help you voice your cause. This is not to say that these guys weren’t in any way revolutionary, or failed in their attempts to change the way society thought. What it comes down to is the idea of the “sell-out”, the shameless promotion and commercialization of ideas that begun as a grassroots philosophy but ended up as synthetic media nostalgia.
So can there only be two options for artists: to remain fledgling independent acts restricted to small local scenes, or to sell out and go mainstream, forfeiting their values for a major record release?
Maybe in the 70s, but the digital generation is launching yet another offensive against the mainstream: a DIY revolution that is creating huge waves in the previously calm, controlled waters of the record industry. Armed with little more than an internet connection, artists are able to record, upload, share and promote their music online – entirely free, entirely independent. Download GarageBand to record your song, upload it to your Myspace Music page, film your own gigs in your bedroom and upload them to YouTube, and spam thousands of Facebook groups, Twitter followers and music blogsites… bam, an international audience is at your feet. The internet has been dynamite for the indie music scene – but is this the ‘real deal’ that dedicated musos have been fighting for for generations? Or are we in fact facing another dilemma, what Tim Walker at The Independent refers to as “the globalisation of hip”?
The independent “indie” music scene has indeed become synonymous with musical elitism and a cooler-than-thou attitude. The growing indie crowd are developing an identity based on avoiding ‘mainstream’ like the plague, regardless of musical talent. To quote the infallible Urban Dictionary: “Indie kids get off on listening to music that nobody has heard of. (Often times, it is some random crap they found on myspace) If they tell you their favorite band, and you have heard of it, they have failed as an indie kid…. Avoid them, unless you’re ready to be ripped to mental shreds for liking Beyonce.”
But like it or not, a cultural revolution has begun. What the user-generated mediasphere will do for the fate of independent music remains to be seen. Will the internet emancipate true musical talent from the historical suppression of major record labels? Or are we merely allowing some strange form of vertigo to blinker us from what good music really is? Has this allergy to mainstream, cultivated by so many inspiring non-conformists like Dylan and Cobain, actually taken us further from the pursuit of real, unadulterated music? Like Lester Bangs tells young William in Almost Famous, it’s an industry of cool. The times they are a changing… but, be it Britney Spears, Bright Eyes, or your brother’s best rendition of ‘Wonderwall’, there is still music being made, shared and appreciated around the globe.
And according to Jack Kerouac, the only truth is music. (awww.)
LINKS WORTH CHECKING OUT:
“DIY and Indie: record labels, options, benefits and disadvantages”
Recording Industry vs. The People (blog)
How to be an Indie without Knowing Independent Music
FINDING INDEPENDENT MUSIC ONLINE:
The Hype Machine (links to hundreds of music blogs)
AltSounds: Independent Music Journalism
Drum Media (free publication from most big music retailers)
