Indie Update

Every year, there is a debate concerning government funding and the arts and here’s the question.

Is it the government’s responsibility to fund fine arts, especially music? The answer is no.

Many Americans don’t want to hear that at all but truth is truth. The government funds the arts when they have money left over from budgets. The arts are not a priority.

The governments’ mindset about a nation and how it should operate is in the U.S. Constitution. You will not find an article or amendment addressing the fine arts or welfare. Heck, they just barely have amendments in there that concern voting and civil rights.

The argument from artists is that Fine Arts programs enhance the spirit and the soul of people and music has an influence on all people. This is extremely true.

But the powers that be don’t spend their time listening to the radio. Some of these guys don’t know what a checkout counter is (see George Bush Sr). Their more concerned about running the country and charging you more taxes.

Stay tuned, there is a part two to this which examines why the government started funding Fine Arts programs.

The first area, of course, is money. Indie labels, like indie bands, will never and have never had a lot of cabbage. This means that they also generally lack clout within the promotional world, so any revenues must be generated solely through the work of the artists and whatever staff the label happens to have.

Another huge difference between an indie label and a big label is the type of music they put out. Now, it may seem like all the major labels are putting out the same type of music, but in fact what you mostly here are the more popular formats. In fact, major labels will have a variety of genres that include many artists, with some falling in importance according to the label’s definition of what is worth marketing at the time.

Indie labels, on the other hand, generally have the same type of artist. Not replicas, of course, but if you listen to a couple of the artists the label produces, then you have an idea of the kind of artist the label works with.

There isn’t a more complicated industry in the world than indie rock, a fact that is demonstrated by the way indie rock fans bristle when the movement is called an industry. The paradox represented within the world of indie music is beautifully apparent in the success of major player Matador Records. There is little doubt from any quarter that Matador at least began as an indie label. By the standards that define indie music, Matador continues to represent the movement in its practices: artists such as Liz Phair and The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion still retain control of their music, the label has little power within the commercial world, and is still relatively small. Unfortunately, when it comes to indie, relative is a death knell among some fans. The fact that Matador has 40 artists and a staff, as well as the fact that the more popular artists mentioned above have distribution deals with big labels, is enough for some indie fans to have declared the label passé, entirely dismissing its continued adherence to the unwritten rules of indie. The regards in which the label is now held pose the ultimate question for indie music, one that is as old as the movement itself: is a certain type of music or artist to be dismissed simply because it or they become "too" big? What is the point of making music just to be heard? Shouldn’t all music have some appeal? And why is it that if an artist or a label produce music that many find relevant they are dismissed by so many more within their original fan base? As noted in some other blogs, this essential conundrum is a facet which indie music fans must come to terms with if the indie scene is to survive.

If you were a fan of rock music (hell, if you listened to the radio) during the 1990s, the odds are that you know one or two songs by the band Collective Soul. The odds are also pretty good that you do not know that you know them.

If that sounds pretty confusing, you can chalk it up to yet another mistake by the big record labels. Collective Soul is one of the many bands that have a high sing-along quotient, but no overall recognition. For that, they place the blame squarely on their former label, Atlantic Records.

What sets Collective Soul apart from the many bands that create meaningful, appealing music that fails to get out to the masses due to the poor management of the label is that they decided to do something about it. Shortly after releasing a Greatest Hits album, the band parted ways with the label and began their own project, the El Music Group. In the fall of 2004, the band released the Indie label’s first album, entitled “Youth”.

The mission statement of El Music Group is clearly in opposition to the principles of the big name labels. The band’s goal is to create an integrated approach to music production while also distributing the profits generated by the music equitably. It’s a project where success will only be determined by time.

Hardly words that inspire the independent musician to cry with joy, but another record label has been established by Corey Taylor, of Slipknot fame. Great Big Mouth Records even has their first act lined up and ready to go in the shape of local Iowa band Facecage. The aim of the record label, according to Taylor, is to promote bands local to the Iowa region and bring a little unity to the local music scene. He goes on to state that record labels are dubious about traveling to the Midwest because there are no direct flights. As such, there are a lot of really good bands waiting to be discovered. That’s where Taylor and his label step in to take over and lend a helping hand. While we would certainly agree that there are doubtless plenty of good bands in the Midwest it remains to be seen whether Great Big Mouth Records will go the same way as many other labels – to the bank with their artist’s money.