I've been recording and independently releasing music for around 15 years now, admittedly with limited success. (My last album has sold exactly one copy, thanks Greg Brendel!) At one point in time I actually thought I was somewhat ahead of the game as far as promotion went. Back then the idea was simple: write awesome music, post it to friends on a message board, use that momentum to climb the charts on a couple of music sites, and that was about it. Unfortunately, at some point in time the scene became incredibly saturated with spammers. (Hey guys if you like Bands X, Y, and Z, you'll love My Shitty Band which sounds nothing like them. Thanks!) Ever since then, I've found it difficult to get my music out there without feeling like a dick.
I don't like marketing. Quite the opposite, really. I guess I figured that someone else would take care of that stuff. Or maybe my stuff was just So Fucking Good that it wouldn't matter. After all, experimental groups like Coil or Autechre must have just released albums and hoped for the best, right? Or what about guys like Richard D. James or J.G. Thirlwell who put out stuff under a bunch of different aliases? In my mind these records just existed, I never thought for a second about why.
My experience with playing live shows has been similar. What do you mean you want me to bring X number of people? How about I show up and be awesome, and hopefully some people there enjoy themselves? Some of my favourite local shows I ever went to were those where I just seemed to be in the right place at the right time. Especially when dealing with experimental music, I never really thought much about promotion at all. As an artist, fuck advertising.
"So then how will you ever get anyone to listen to you?" you might ask. I suppose my answer would be by getting better? Or maybe by writing a blog and getting you to subscribe to it.
#1 you're welcome.
ReplyDelete#2 I like how all 4 experimental bands you mentioned have either remixed NIN songs or were on Nothing Records.
#3 fuck advertising. Not sure what else to tell you.
#4 favorite doesn't have a u, hoser.
#5 I just subscribed to your blog.
Wow, I didn't realise the Nothing Records connection. Very interesting. It kind of goes along with my naive mindset from 15 years ago, doesn't it? Of course that's how I discovered that stuff. There was probably a part of me that figured the next Trent Reznor would just start signing guys off of mp3.com or something.
ReplyDeleteAdvertising has a bad rep. just because of the douchey big brand corporate crap, but a little kid selling lemonade to neighbors and strangers alike for 5 pennies a cup on the corner of the neighborhood street is harmless and charming--or annoying if one hates all things fluffy, soft and innocent.
ReplyDeleteAdvertising is just a way of bringing a product's most interesting features to the fore and drawing the attention of potential customers, and trying to retain those previous customers in the future. Nothing wrong with that.
I think it has to be layered, so that a product can continue to give meaningful surprises long after it has been purchased. Try linking songs together from track to track or album to album, by embedding musical Easter Eggs (leit-motifs). Come up with a concept and write songs for the concept, or identify some cause that moves you and write songs meditating on different aspects of that concept or cause. Or write about life. And always be writing. Write a shit ton of songs. Not only do we get better, but we learn to write more quickly the more we write, and begin to gain the ability to compose using chunks of familiar patterns rather than painstakingly reinventing songwriting processes with every song.
Since you mention NIN, Reznor famously does this, and he has a signature dissonant key change that occurs at the end of many musical phrases in various songs throughout his career. He also releases a crapload of material. Lots of it crap. And mixed in with the muck are so many of his gems.
People like puzzles. They're fun, and thought-provoking. Try to create mysteries in your music and advertising for people to piece together. It's also fun to create because when people start figuring stuff out, you're winning fans. Just have something interesting to reveal. I hate Insane Klown Posse, but they're a prime example of the success of creating a "mystery religion" around one's music. They suck balls, but their gimmick is pretty awesome. If only they didn't turn out to be even more stupid and superstitious than the rest of us figured they already were. And gimmicks are far more interesting when they are actually related to your character, or something you believe in. Again, highlighting something interesting about you/your music.
People don't just want good, interesting music, they want to belong to something, or to own something. They want to feel vested in a culture when they invest in art/music. Die hard fans of any genre seldom ever talk about the music, can barely reproduce the music they hear by their own means, are rarely musicians themselves, and generally talk about the exploits of the artists, or the artists' messages, or the atmosphere of the shows an artist performs in. The music is just one of the glues that brings people of similar lifestyles together.
I mean, why after all these years do I still find the Beatles so fascinating? Their music was good and precise, okay. The album covers are full of Easter Eggs. When the band went through their experimental lifestyle changes you can hear it in their music. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds? LSD? Gotcha. Then their interest in classical Indian music. Sure. OK. I hear your sitar in there, bub. Hey that is interesting and different from the mainstream, in line with the spirit of the times. Thanks for expanding my worldview or wutevs.
Why do I listen to American punk still? Small, tight-knit culture, lots of good memories. The music was the glue that held together inner city and suburban kids from failures of blue collar nuclear families dealing with alcoholism, depression, suicide, judgment, poverty. Yadda-yadda.
ReplyDeleteMetal? Testosterone-driven chunky guitar chops, long hair, black-clad, angry crew very similar to punk in many ways, but often with better musicianship. I mean, seriously.. Iron Maiden > Circle Jerks.
Social commentary galore -- Jelo Biafra / Dead Kennedys, Black Flag, MDC,...
Electronica genres... hard to pinpoint what I love about genres except that they are contextual... mood-oriented... part of the overall atmosphere of certain of my social networks and relevant to the styles of music and the types of dance and drugs related to them or something. Jungle was fun to do crystal meth and hi-speed dance to. Even more fun when you were plugged deep down into a k-hole and slo-mo dancing to Dieselboy. Trance was a blast to dance to after popping acid and candy-flipping it with some good MDMA. Something about cutoff filters climbing to the top of a massive 303+snare+kick breakdown before a drop just always set off the roll big time. Who was that track by? Couldn't rightly say but it was dope.
I dunno. I guess it helps to identify what we like about other artists and then go and do likewise if the shoe fits. There are always ways to make the familiar seem new and fresh and different.
Look to the fringes of civilization for the next wave.