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Re: Popularity vs Obscurity

In a message dated 2/12/01 9:10:50 PM Central Standard Time, 
prestokelvo at yahoo_com writes:

<< > if faith no more would have never gotten
 > big on "epic," i would have never gotten
 > into the messed up brilliance that is mr.
 > bungle...
 
 If the Backstreet Boys had not released "I Want It
 That Way" I would not have bought Millennium.  If
 Ricky Martin had not released "La Copa de la Vida" I
 would not have discovered his cd.
 Oh wait...that's totally different...
 
 K
  >>
See that's the thing that bugs me most about commercialism.  Pretty much 
every avenue that we have to hear music plays and promotes only chart stuff 
because that's where the money is. (1) Meanwhile, for every band being played 
there's 50 great bands laboring in obscurity.  It not only hurts them (often 
destroys them) but it hurts everyone who will never have a chance to hear 
their music. 
  There's nothing wrong with a band writing stuff with catchy hooks and all 
if that's where their vision lies.  And of course occasionally a band does 
become big for all the right reasons--cutting edge, brilliance, strikes a 
common chord, etc.  The problem arises when the band falls to the crappy 
level that the music industry in general is in.  I know it's always been that 
way to a degree but you know, there used to at least be a place for any good 
musician to get heard up until the late 70's.  Since then it seems to be 
getting worse and worse.
  If the industry wasn't in the shape it's in even if Faith No More WASN'T 
*big* you'd have the chance to hear them on any number of smaller radio 
stations that catered to that particular genre of music.  For instance, the 
radio station TRIAD that I shared the weblink to recently -- back in their 
day you could hear all kinds of obscure stuff from Germany, Italy, and other 
places.  There was room for Jazz, Blues, Rock, Progressive, Experimental, 
etc., etc.  You were able to hear what was going on in the music world not 
just what the Beatles and the Stones were up to.

O.K. I'm done.  I know this thread is about run it's course but I just had to 
throw a couple more pennies in the pot.

kevin

(1) it seems that college radio has filled that void to a degree from what I 
hear, but you have to be around a college to hear them.  The web has become a 
great avenue to hear lesser known bands, between custom web stations and 
places like Napster.  I think that's the biggest benefit Napster had to 
offer.  You hear something about a band and you can go there and listen to a 
tune by them to see if you like them enough to search out their disc.  The 
music industry wasn't concerned with that though, they were concerned with 
people getting the music of bigger bands.  Who gives a shit about the smaller 
bands that may profit immensely from something like Napster, they can't show 
you the money. But again to take advantage of this you have to be online....
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