Once upon a time in a galaxy far far away, I wrote songs and sang in a band. You can find some of the stuff we recorded on my website for download btw. Anyhoo, this kind of brings me to the point of this whole rant. You can’t find that shit on iTunes or Spotify or whatever. It’s just on my website.
When I was coming up, to make a living as a muso, you kinda really had to be signed. To a record label and a distributor. There was no other real path for an artist. And you had to fit into a mould or an image or something they could easily package up and sell. The road to now is paved with the balls of women being told to change the way they look and telling record companies to go fuck themselves.
Joan Jett got rejected by 23 labels, so she made her own record company, Blackheart Records. Can you fucking imagine a world without Joan Jett’s music? No. I cannot. Pat Benatar has spoken about ongoing battles with record company execs sexing up her image and almost having kittens when she presented a punk look for one of her album covers. One of them said something like, “If you are pretty why wouldn’t you want to look pretty”. Pat told them to fuck themselves too. Missy Elliot was a big girl and completely broke the barriers of imagery down. Nobody even comes close to Missy’s shows and clips. I’m sure people used to throw a whole lot of shade her way. Idiots. She is fucking amazing!!!
We still get the inundation of imagery and record deal promises from reality shows like The Voice. They love to peddle out the sob story but at the end of the day they want a face and a voice that is easy to sell. Sorry fans. Celeb Instagram feeds are carefully curated lest we get them at a bad angle and sans filter.
The older I get the more I shy away from the imagery of musicians. I’ve chosen to set my intake up in that old fashioned way I guess – when we didn’t have MTV and didn’t even know what anyone looked like haha. I used to follow one particular artist I really really love – her hooks, her lyrics, her voice all amazing – but her Instagram feed is just pretty much her tits. And while she is beautiful and has a banging bod, it’s not why I’m interested in her. I unfollowed her but I still download her music. Anyway – record deals came with imagery and sell ability. We gotta get down under that and find the authenticity.
It’s been a long road for independent artists finding a platform. Places like Unearthed on Triple J were pioneers and are still great, but they can only do so much on their Pat Malone. BUT now……with social media and things like Patreon and all kinds of amazing shit combined with radio platforms like Triple J and it’s a whole new world. Artists can be painters and poets and musicians and wear what they want and talk about shit that’s important to them and it’s fabulous.
I’ve been an Amanda Palmer follower for some time and it’s a legit community that she has built. Nobody really cares if she writes a number one single. We just like to meet her chickens, hear whatever she writes, and show up with a spare ukulele if she is in our town and needs one. You can find Sarah McLeod, AFP, Ben Folds and Kimbra on Patreon and I’m sure it’s like the rabbit hole once you get started with them and alternate platforms.
I admit I’m a bit lazy and like the old subscription where I can just download copious amounts of music, but another thing I’ve started to try and do is go directly to an artist. This means you can usually enjoy cool things like artists will send you an mp3 link you quite literally download direct from them. And it’s one offs that aren’t on albums or iTunes or Spotify.
I have started buying t-shirts and caps from artist websites just to help them not have to go get a real job and keep creating amazing content that I love. The more I can just put my money straight into their pocket, the more I love it..
I love the new “live” platforms we are using – Sound On, Delivered Live – I have discovered new and revisited old amazing Aussie acts that I wouldn’t normally see since they don’t tour in my area and – well – I don’t like crowds haha. Thanks to the Rona I feel like my intake for local music has been increased in a lot of ways. I hope these sorts of platforms remain once we get this pandemic under control (optimistic).
As consumers we have the luxury of being able to curate our own intake to suit ourselves, but let’s make sure we are genuinely supporting innovation and creativity. Sustainability – right? And I guess the point of this rant is I encourage the consumer to be willing to do the yards.
Getting on artist websites and buying direct from them. Spending some cash over on Patreon to fund the content you get to enjoy in return from these amazing creative people. Taking notice of who that person is over in the corner crooning away while you’re having Sunday arvo beers, buying their CD (which I bet they have with them and they’re probably the price of a couple of rumbos), and following them on Insta.
All these grass roots things we can do to encourage true creativity instead of the packaged and branded version we get from the record companies. (P.S. I still love Taylor and Beyonce tho). Anyway – get down on it, people.
Hit me up in the comments with artists you love and ways you’re supporting them. One Love.
