The internet is not very good for musicians these days, is it?

It's an excellent post, LL. And I see it tying into the larger question this way: what, exactly, is valued, what is value, and where does it come from? You've made a clear case here that both the superstar dream model and the 'our band could be your life' model are limiting (thinking in part about people who literally can't/will never be able to put in that kind of time and commitment), while the romanticism of the 'record on four-track in your bedroom and make 50 tapes' model is outdated in an era of more immediate connection.

the lowered barrier to entry is undoubtedly great, but the same issue still exists in getting people to care about unfamiliar artists. the barrier's not just "a fuckton of capital" anymore but it is "a fuckton of capital and/or a fuckton of social capital"

How do you develop your own value within the community? "Where does it come from" is a very interesting question too imo. My guess is that because musicians aren't a monolith, it comes from different places for people with different musical goals.

Also I have found that "we jam econo" is more useful as an ethos than "our band could be your life" because one is something that is within my control and the other is definitely not.

young people music scenes in north america is a shift away from bands and towards solo electronic projects who do lucrative dj gigs.

"lucrative"

xp Right, definitely.

To Katherine: I think that's key but I also think that's part of what can be called a retreat from the idea that there's a way to know about 'everything.' While always impossible, the illusion of being reasonably au courant held for a long time due to limitations in terms of cultural production. With that gone, easier now to say "Well this is of interest" as opposed to "This is era/genre defining." And more truthful. (Obv more can be said.)

yeah LL post is good. i think there's an interesting unintended side-effect to the lowering of barriers in that the absolute diversity of music increases but the average diversity decreases. for every creative genius who would previously have been locked out enter and make original stuff, there are 20 derivative synth solo projects (or whatever). since individual listeners only see a small non-random snapshot of all music, relative diversity is more important to our perceptions. kind of a weird cognitive bias we have. it can give the impression that music is becoming more samey or less creative, even if globally that's not the case

Basically the explosion of the amount of stuff means that universality is less and less of a factor. 'Everyone' (not really but bear with me) can hear something now; rolling the dice and assuming you can place a marker that 'everyone' will in a practical and unavoidable sense continues to ebb. These are truisms based on long trends but they are further accelerating.

"lucrative"

― change display name (Jordan), Tuesday, July 24, 2018 12:39 PM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

zing! but you know, it's relative. several of my friends live off djing now, in the sense of not working side jobs. none of my friends in bands ever did that

Also the glass-half-full take on the cliquish scenes and social capital that Katherine is complaining about is that a lot of exciting music still comes out of irl communities, people supporting and motivating each other, which is a good thing imo (although can be frustrating if you're outside of it, sure).

xp

So I was writing a long post in the best multi-album run 2010+ thread detailing that there's been a whole bunch of female musicians that have been on really good runs this decade, at least to me. I haven't statically compared the 2010s to preceding decades, but to my unscientific eye it seems to me like we are living in an outlier so far. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

In any case I was wondering if female musicians/female critics saw a levelling of the playing field for them over the past few years? And if yes (or no!) if it is thanks to the internet?

I'm probably not the best data point here as far as female critics, but as far as female musicians, then the playing field is more level if you have PR and/or social capital, are young, and working in a currently trendy genre, but otherwise not remotely. (see the Roisin Murphy quote upthread). but I wouldn't attribute it to the internet, nor overt sexism, just the bleak reality that large swaths of people don't care about female musicians and especially don't care about ones outside that narrow purview.

feel for roisin murphy re that quote, damn

also with niels on the negativity itt

Personally I want to read more about the broken dreams of musicians itt, it is sweetly cathartic.