Everyone's a Critic

"You still buy CDs?" asked Ross the Intern. "Why?"

"I don't know," I replied, truly not knowing why I still accumulate plastic discs that are left in stacks after being loaded onto the MacBook, never to be touched again. It's an interesting generational issue, one that most certainly has effects on how people discover, buy, share and collect music. I know a lot college kids who never buy a hard copy of any music. On the other end of the spectrum, my friend Phil has one of the most incredible music collections of anyone I know. This man has vinyl, 8-tracks, cassettes and CDs to fill his entire basement. I wouldn't be surprised if he had piano rolls down there. As for me, I would estimate I have about 2500 CDs plus maybe 250 LPs and some cassettes. All of my stuff would easily fit on the 500GB external drive I have.

It's not just the hard copy versus electronic file preference thing that intrigues me. The very way people get their music now has undergone a sea change in the past ten years. Unless you've been living in a cave, you know that. Still, it's amazing to think that ten years ago, national chains like Tower Records, Sam Goody and Musicland, along with the radio and video programmers, really ran the music distribution business. Now, the only brick and mortar retailers that matter are Wal-Mart and Target. And then there's Amazon. Once i-Tunes hit cyberspace, Amazon and others quickly retooled their models to deliver MP3s. Sure, radio and video still has influence. But with XM and Sirius taking away share, along with no end of streaming opportunities, long gone are the days when local radio play really matters to new artists.

All this got me to thinking about the factors of influence on the music buying public these days. Driving this musing in part is that I have a couple papers to write this semester; one is for a media theory class and the other is a media effects class. In the effects class, we've been talking a lot about the power of personal influence. There are a lot of angles to that area of study. The theory of Two-Step Flow of Communications, which suggests people rely on opinion leaders to help them shape and understand what the media is telling them, has given way to a more complex theory that has everyone influencing everyone else. (That description will not get me far on a test.) For these papers, and perhaps ultimately building up to my thesis, I want to zero in on how the confluence of digital technology and the nature of blogs and social networking are impacting the discovery, sharing, distribution and finances of the music business.

As for myself, I used to owe a lot of my new music discovery to WXRT-FM in Chicago. XRT is a great station that has remained as true to its roots as possible given its transition from independent rebel to corporate property. Some music press added to my information net, along with the occasional recommendation from a friend. Now, with limited access to good over-the-air radio in Madison, I am accommodated by the web in my pursuit of new and different music. Sources of information are still, in part, tools of the industry. I buy everything from Amazon, and their logarithms are always offering suggestions... and I am occasionally acting on them. But, more and more, I am turning to blogs and other internet sources for recommendations. These aren't necessarily major sites. Case in point, my current fascination with Vampire Weekend.

I first heard of this quirky band from a friend's blog:

I've been listening to the self-titled debut album by Vampire Weekend, and its pretty damn good. I was a little apprehensive at first because the band members are all Columbia grads and many of their songs have pretentious titles like "Oxford Comma." So they had a strike against them before I started listening.

But I love their shit. What do they sound like? Imagine Paul Simon circa Rhythm of the Saints getting drunk on a boat with Sublime and Peter Gabriel. A lot of their songs have a quality that I can only put into words as "summer lakehouse-y".
--Mike at Irrational Exuberance

Mike, the blogger, is half my age. We listen to different stuff for the most part. But the way he wrote about this band sent me right over to Amazon to order the CD (hard copy!) sound-unheard. It was worth the ten bucks to take a flyer on it. I am not alone. On the heels of their Saturday Night Live appearance, their debut album holds lucky number 13 right now on Amazon. More interestingly, they are the number three album on iTunes. That kind of supports my research hypothesis that the kids buying music are operating under a different paradigm.

That two-song performance last night merited several positive blogger reviews, like this one, that one, and another one.

But not all is sunshine and roses for these guys. Their rapid ascent, lightweight songwriting and musical prowess, and instant stardom are also already being chronicled. This guy hates 'em, if I interpret his one-line review correctly. Another blogger-reviewer put more thought into why he's not impressed. And he makes a good argument, including this part:

And then I got home and found out who these guys were: a bunch of prep-school white boys from Columbia University. For an indie pop band, this is not entirely surprising, but from a musical standpoint, I find their ubiquitousness kind of troubling. Why? Because they're doing Afro-pop. ...break... I just think there's something inherently racist about what this band is doing, or something at least condescending toward Afro-pop artists who will probably never explode in America in the same way: they're putting a white face on African music and getting the approval and encouragement of their establishment.

--John at The Short List

I think, but can't say for sure, that Vampire Weekend is a good example of a band with a CD to sell whose success is being driven by the web, specifically by blogs and music sites. And with two videos up on iTunes, they are on their way to the fame, however fleeting, that awaits them. In another era, they may have been a one-hit wonder with a novelty song driven by record company promotion and DJ payola. (Think Winchester Cathedral or Don't Worry, Be Happy... if you must.)

I don't know yet if this is a good idea for a series of research projects. It will depend on how much study has already been done... that has data I can get. But common sense tells me that the power of multi-step communications flow (aka interactive media and media users) means end users of content (aka people who listen to this stuff) have a whole lot more sway on what makes it in the music business these days. At the same time, the technology allows even the lonely musician with three fans not including family to put something out in the ether and hope for the best. Publishing is, well, as easy as this tripe I put up here.

So who is the next Vampire Weekend? Watch the blogs and Facebook and you may know before I do.

Comments

[Mike]

Hey, alright! Vampire Weekend is pretty darn good. But the backlash is already beginning...I was watching "The Real World" on MTV last week and their songs were literally all over the station. But not in music videos, like MTV used to play for about 6 months back in 1983 before they discovered reality TV. Instead, they'd play their songs over promos- like when they'd cut to commercial, but before the commercial began, they'd flash the Toyota logo and some cheesy announcer would say something like "The Real World - brought to you by Toyota." And in the background would be a Vampire Weekend song. But vastly more annoying were these MTV-sponsored bits during commercials where they'd have the band engaged in various hijinks (pushing one another in shopping carts IN BROAD DAYLIGHT! IN A PUBLIC PARK! Kids these days...), then flash up MTV's URL onscreen. Overexposure, damn you.

[Rich Nolan]

John at the Short List thinks VW is condescending at best, and possibly even racist because of their musical style and influences? I wonder if he would have made the same comment in the 80s regarding the Clash and the Police as those groups obviously had reggae music heavily influence their sound.

Speaking of the 80s when I hear groups like VW, Bloc Party and Interpol I'm happy to hear that the music of my era has influenced the 20 somethings of today.

And the next band everyone should check out is The Duke Spirit.