Perspective 2
In some sense, it’s all just been a loud, long F…You! Trying to isolate eras or seminal events and bands might be somewhat productive. But in the long run, it will be a study in frustration.
Maybe the rock historians can do us a service by patching together a “people’s history of rock and roll” that doesn’t just focus on the most popular or recognized names in music. Perhaps this work will actually show how indie/alternative music came to be in the place it is in 2008. One place to start would be by looking at the media used to promote music. There are still print magazines, of course, though the effect of these is quite limited. More to the point, there are online magazines, Web sites and band sites that are the new public relations/marketing tools. It took this explosive change in the way music is presented for this one fan to understand what Marshall McLuhan was trying to tell us decades ago – the medium is the message. He is also the author and social critic who helped many understand how Gutenberg’s printing press changed the world’s population centuries ago.
How we get our music, and how it is sold to us, should be one of the most important topics included in any rock and roll/alternative music history. Without that, it would be, as Counting Crows sings, “the clang of electric guitars” and not much more.
[tags]Perspective 2[tags]
Tags: independent music, indie music, indie, music
