New Wave Outpost Forum

Simon Reynolds of "Rip it Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984" fame in The Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicbl ... nderground

It's a topic I've been thinking about a lot - what's underground vs not, how do I really hear about it, what part is even alternative at all, does that even matter, what am I missing that might be insanely great, etc.

[quote]Originally posted by Blir
[br]Simon Reynolds of "Rip it Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984" fame in The Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicbl ... nderground

It's a topic I've been thinking about a lot - what's underground vs not, how do I really hear about it, what part is even alternative at all, does that even matter, what am I missing that might be insanely great, etc.
[/quote]

Ha!!
A UK paper uses a picture of a Brooklyn subway entrance for the article!![;)]

This is a very interesting article, as is the Momus article referenced therein. I like the line about being "famous for 15 people".

It brings about a sense of nostalgia in me, as I recall huddling in the import section of Sam the Record Man with a few other regulars with spikey hair looking for something new, weird or different and exchanging recommendations with one another. It seemed easier in those days to find something off-beat.

The author is correct that these days with the technology to make music inexpensively and the openness of the internet, there is literally a niche for every musical taste. Yet the very technology that makes it possible to have a niche for everything has resulted in such a proliferation of niche material that it is a daunting task - at least in my opinion as a time-constrained, father of two, often travelling, exec - to sift through all the noise and find music that suits your personal tastes.

Blir's top songs of the decade brought it home for me. Literally half of his picks (I've listened to them all) I LOVE and half of them make my ears bleed! So where do I find a netradio station or blog that only plays music similar to the half I love? You would think searching out music I like would be easier than ever with the internet but instead it has become an incredible chore!

Maybe artists need to be compartmentalized and pigeon-holed even more aggressively than we ever imagined...eg "Franco-Canadian-white-indie folk-jangly guitar-accordian-sung in Japanese-female vocalist-anti-Obama lyrical content"...so you can easily find what you're looking for using well described search words.

At the same time, I would say that 75% of the people I know still just listen to whatever the local radio stations spoon-feed them and don't bother looking any further. Another 20% use satellite radio to fine tune what they hear, and the last 5% are people like those on this board actively seeking out "something". I believe the number of people worldwide listening to Joy Formidable and the XX is relatively small, so even if they're the darlings of the blogosphere it doesn't necessarily mean that they're anything other than alternative or underground or whatever word you want to use.