Good music stays good and musical geniuses remain genius. Over the past decade, there’s been somewhat of a musical revolution, not so much in the actual tune, but how we can get our hands on that tune. New bands are infiltrating the sound waves daily…some we love, some we loathe. Regardless, their music is out there and it’s getting heard.
With the outpouring of social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, not to mention Web sites dedicated solely to music fanatics such as Pandora.com and Pitchfork.com (my buddy Zack’s favorite), it makes you wonder how Jimi, The Beatles, Sinatra and other legends ever got their music and their message out there. In 2009, almost 2010, artists and bands have “fan pages” where they can communicate directly with their fans – share tour schedules, new songs, you name it… heck, I’m guilty of “fanning” a few bands myself, including but not limited to My Morning Jacket, Management and my gal, Taylor Swift. Taylor’s great about staying connected with her OUT OF CONTROL fan base!
Can you imagine if John Lennon tweeted? How would we expect him to say, “Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we’re being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I’m liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That’s what’s insane about it,” in less than 140 characters? I bet he’d beat Oprah in number of followers…
This weekend someone asked me a brilliant question – “If you could resurrect one band, who would it be?” A live show from the music legend of your choice – still contemplating. The Beatles? Johnny Cash? I saw Walk the Line. Then, there it was, a suggestion from a true believer in awesome music, Grady Luckey – Graham Parsons comes back to play with the Rolling Stones – incredible. I saw the Stones once in Prague on Mick Jagger’s 60th birthday…long sigh. Money says some tech geek would have that live show up on YouTube before it finished, a slideshow on Flickr and tweet heaven about the “sick tunes.”
The Flaming Lips – talk about a putting on a show – are active Tweeters, Facebookers, MySpacers, and they’ve been around since 1983, pre-social media domination. Get on board or get out. New bands like Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros (thanks for the recommendation Billy), are taking over, popping up on Letterman (streamlined on YouTube, of course) and Facebook – with 6,338 fans btw. They’re playing at the 40 Watt in Athens next week – to date my favorite venue for band-stalking…including first MMJ rock session…another long sigh.
For so long radio and classic TV shows like The Ed Sullivan Show, dictated what songs made the airwaves. Now, through social networking sites and Web sites like Pandora, we gain access to some astounding tunes that never got the play they deserved, like Grateful Dead’s, “Broken Arrow.” The power artists have over their destiny is a thing of the 21st century, and the access we have to it is overwhelming – in the best sense of the word.
What have we learned today? Everday a new band is born, in large part because of the massive compilation of resources on the Web – helping people, namely artists in this case, get connected with zillions of people and potential “fans.” By no means should we discredit traditional modes of communication – door-to-door knocking on recording studio’s doors, coffee shop shows and writing lyrics on napkins – some illustrious artists were born from that – just imagine what they coulda done with all of this hoopla. Our Internet would likely implode.
If you get the urge to bust a move today at work check out some these favorite music sites:
opbmusic.org, www.woxy.com, www.pandora.com, www.pitchfork.com
In closing, I was dreaming when I wrote this…forgive me if it [went] astray…
As senior vice president at Cookerly, Mike Rieman specializes in building and maintaining relationships with the media and has an excellent track record of landing significant placements in print and broadcast media including USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and Money Magazine.
As design director at Cookerly, Tim serves as the creative lead in the development of branding campaigns, print collateral and digital media for clients across a broad range of industries, including consumer, professional services, healthcare and technology.
As vice president of Cookerly, Sheryl Sellaway uses her extensive corporate communications background to lead consumer PR efforts, deliver strategy for marketing programs and share expertise about community initiatives.