And The Award For Excellence In Social Media Goes To: "Ready. Set. GRO!"

As the band put it recently, It's been a long journey for alternative rockers Green River Ordinance over the past 10 years.  Speaking from a personal standpoint, I have been following this band since their early release: "The Beauty of Letting Go" all the way through their major label signing and debut album.

Finding them by happenstance during a (now defunct) idea to move to Texas in 2004, I searched for young bands making waves near the city I was potentially moving to.  In a miraculous "Google" search I found GRO stationed in Fort. Worth, TX and was instantly drawn to their talent and (perhaps even more) their then exceptional online presence.  I know that 6 years doesn't seem that long ago, but remember this was long before the inception and success of Facebook and during the initial years of Myspace Music when it was just starting to get some traction.  Regardless, this band was extremely connected as musicians with their fans, and to me, were pioneering along with others an online model that was working. 

An A&R's Minneapolis Dream: "Last Kiss, Mpls."

In lieu of a regular post today, I felt the need to highlight the convention of the best Minneapolis unsigned artists held last night that was "Last Kiss, Mpls."  As a writer and musician, it is even hard for me to describe the breadth of talent that was compressed into one room for what some would call an emotional farewell show to successful Minneapolis local artist, Ari Herstand, as he ships off to Los Angeles.

Its funny, because I would argue that the Minneapolis music scene has been the industry's best kept secret for as long as I can remember.  As a young musician, I used to follow my favorite Minneapolis artists thinking to myself:  "How is this artist not known on a larger scale?"  "Isn't it easy to make it big?"  Sadly, I had no idea at the time what being a musician really meant.  The journey, the sacrifices, the indescribable hard work, and not to mention raw and developed talent.  To this end, the Minneapolis music scene has become an elite group of individuals who have put in years and an immeasurable amount of heart into developing themselves daily in order to make a career out of something that they love.  This type of determination is sometimes so rare that this group of artists can sometimes all fit on one stage, and last night, they did.

Catch 22: Major labels step quietly with "indie artists"

In the past 15 years a well known evolution took place from both the artist and label perspective as far as promoting music, touring and gaining a fan base.  It seems to be well known that as the digital age grew to fruition, the label's business model slowly evolved from their original focus of making a long initial investment on an artist that was fairly unknown before discovery by their label to the model of today which essentially involves the label looking for artist that had already created their own buzz, had experience recording and touring.  (I go into more detail on this in a previous post: "Industry Entry: Remember the 90's?"  Regardless, this business model is aimed at reducing their risk on investment by attaining an artist that has already been "road-tested" so to speak. (They have already proved that they CAN be liked by audiences and be successful as an artist.)

This shift although brought on an a change in what is now considered "indie" "major" or anything in between.    Specifically, any artist that has created a following before the assistance of a major label could technically be considered an "indie" artist no matter what type of music they play whether it be pop, hip-hop, rock, etc.  Here is a better illustration:

"Indie Artist" (Old Definition:)  An artist that creates, distributes, and performs music independently with a sound that sits outside the boundaries of current popular music.  Lack of label support derives from fear of investment in an artist with a musical style out of the norm

"Indie Artist"  (Digital Age Definition:)  An artist that creates, distributes and performs music independently.  Lack of label support derives from fear of investment in an artist that has not already been heard or exposed to fairly large audience.

The Musical Science of Contemporary Pop

Do you ever wonder why (as a listener) you tend to not like a certain artist, but you somehow find yourself bobbing your head to their tunes on the radio?  Well I am going to explain to you the (theoretically) subliminal strategy behind what makes you seem to think that song is so catchy.

Of course there are a million reasons why a pop song might catch your ear even if you don't like the artist.  Even though you might hate to admit it, sometimes the vocal melody is actually that well written, maybe an instrumental performance by the studio musician is really outstanding, or maybe the lyrics are just so insightful.  Sadly, most of the time none of these things are true.  Most of the reason a song is successful is because of studio tricks.  And no, I don't mean auto-tune, beat mapping, or other various software plug-ins.  Lets be honest, even the least savvy listeners nowadays are keen on how these are utilized in the studio.  However what I do mean is the strategic use of instrument addition and subtraction that is so incredibly overused that at the bottom of the post I will show you 2 examples of massively popular songs within the past year that use literally the exact same layering technique, even in the same order.

Contemporary and radio pop, in my opinion, is framed around the idea that you, the listener, are not actually listening.  The producer and artist are shaping a song that in the most general sense is built to make you bob your head and have what a musician would call:  "A Pulse."  This "Pulse" is always the goal when creating a Top 40, radio friendly song, and usually takes the drivers seat as opposed to lyrical or instrumental composition in this genre.

Holding a Crowd, & We Don't Mean Online

Over the weekend I was somehow reminded of an extremely jaded and somewhat (re)antiquated approach to pushing your music:  Over-relying on the Internet and using it as the sole avenue for moving out of garageband status and into doing "bigger" things. 

More than ever I felt compelled to do a short post about a band concept that is now and will forever be the element that is larger than life.  An element that will always take the driver's seat when guiding a bands success:  the live show, and the ability to do it well.

As the Internet continues to evolve into a resource for Labels, artists, venues and everything in between we must remember that there is no substitute for a bands ability to perform well in a live setting.  Over time it seems that both the artist and it's potential label have lost sight of it's significance.

If I were to make an overtly judgemental statement it would be that we, as artists get caught up in the midst of the Internet's ability to generate automatic delivery and sometimes get obsessed with the idea of a "release" whether that be an album, a single or whatever else.  The idea that we can potentially connect with ANY listener or record executive, or whomever else overnight on the Internet makes us overly focused on the concept of "overnight success."  In some cases this can make some of these budding musician's dreams dangerously limitless thus flooding the Internet as a resource with musicians whom are arguably not ready to show their creations to an audience.  Be it poor production value, writing, branding, etc.  Through this, it appears that young artists lose focus of what it will take to further their career.  Which, in the most general terms, means getting out and playing live.  Playing live serves as an avenue to bettering one's musicianship, songwriting, presence and more.