Is Local the Answer for New Music? |
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New music has, historically, oftentimes developed within a scene that exists in a particular city or region. Good examples of this can be found in UK music. In the 1980's, for example, several bands that would come to define the "Gothic" music genre popped up around London and Manchester. Though their music became and remains a worldwide phenomenon, the local music scene in which they developed still remains forever associated with their sound. Local music is oftentimes a term that is partially pejorative. After all, if the bands were particularly gifted, wouldn't they soon throw off the confines of their hometown and become national or international artists? The fact remains, however, that established, international artists produce very little new music, at least in the aesthetic sense. New music is defined as being risky, innovative and known for pushing the boundaries of what's currently popular. Established artists tend to produce more of what garnered them success in the past. When the trend becomes tired, the sales drop off. In the last few years, genres such as Nu-Metal, Rap Metal, Crunk, and a host of others have come and gone, sometimes within the space of a year. One must wonder if local scenes are the antidote for the homogeneity that characterizes the offerings of major labels once one of their artists establishes a new sound and other artists seek to simply imitate rather than innovate location de voiture. Local music can sometimes encompass the same genre as interpreted by several different local scenes resulting in different fan bases. UK music, for example, is famous for bringing Punk to the world. Even within the local music scenes in which Punk developed, there are several regional differences that remain significant today; over 30 years after Punk first became a worldwide phenomenon. Punk bands are oftentimes defined by the local music scene in which they developed. Irish punk is a much different animal than that which originates from the London scene, for example, and is most certainly different from the Punk that originates in US scenes such as New York and Los Angeles. Each of these markets, while producing new music that fits under the broad genre label of Punk, produces unique incarnations of the music that appeals to different fans. Each group of fans, of course, is a new market, hungry for more of the sound that originated from the specific local music scene in question. Local music also coincides with a current trend among consumers: The rejection of things which are viewed to be overly-packaged and sterile. Especially where music is concerned, the 1980's are over and slick packaging is definitely not hip. Even music videos, once regarded as the future of music distribution, are seldom worth the airtime of television stations that were once music-only formats. Consumers are looking for something new, something fresh and something that doesn't rely on appealing to the least-common denominator to increase sales. Local music, with its penchant for experimentation and its ability to generate a new sound as a particular scene of musicians move from one band to another defining and redefining the local sound, is a good place to look for something new. |
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