lol guys...
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This is obviously a very conceited and subjective question on my part, but how many of you would say you make the effort to try music outside of the mainstream?
That is, outside of the artists that are well known, publicised and advertised. Beyond what even your friends would recommend you, especially if you'd say they're pretty closed minded in their music variety. |
Within the framework offered by the original poster, I think we all do know what 'mainstream' means here. Do we go the extra mile, to be curious about other artists, other than the heavily marketed; the heavily promoted, and the popular face on the radio/t.v./reality show.
I think of my ex-neighbour, the Elephant Woman - she would trundle up the stairs going thump! thump! Thumpety Thump! And then when she gets home she opens the door with her trunk and slams it shockingly shut. In the day time, she listens to Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan's greatest hits from the 90's; all kinds of Phil Collins and Chicago and on a wild night she'll turn on Susan Boyle.
Thank God she moved with her music taste with her. Is she mainstream? I think so. Her taste was radio music (I'm not talking about BBC4 either), whereas I'd rather download the New Yorker's Short Fiction Stories and listen to that on podcasts than ever turn on the radio.
I think I tend to have a relationship with mainstream music like the ebbing tide. I think of grassroots artists whom I loved from the Fast Folk Magazine - like Suzanne Vega and Shawn Colvin who were unknown quantities in their early days, but pretty much institutionalised in contemporary folk/pop music today. At some point, I stopped following their new releases. The same is true of highly original bands, like the Cowboy Junkies, who were splendid and original, crafting music like no yankee had ever heard before. Quite amazing for a bunch of Canadians. Or Dolores O'Riordan as she left music school from Dublin, to go and and produce some interesting pop music, but then become commercialised pop; or Sarah McLachlan, whose 'Solace; album was a defining moment in non-mainstream purity, breaking out into the Canadian scene, only to see her sell out to drum beats and disco remixes of nauseating variation after variation.
Well I guess mainstream music isn't my thing, although I do listen to bands and artists on major labels (that's what I would tend to refer to as mainstream). The indie labels, or even true grassroot 'indie' singer/artist - who creates her own work and sells it on the internet without marketing - is a joy to discover, particularly for their originality.
I think of
Serena Matthews;
Chelle Rose and
Susan Onan - none of whom have major record labels who are 'indie' through and through, except in terms of 'indie' sound.
Some of the great 'indie' sounding bands, hail from neglected bands like
The Violet Burning,
Woven Hand, or even
Serena Maneesh on their obscure Honeymilk label (Norwegian) before being zapped from grassroots into the mainstream consciousness.
Equally, I think I'm sick of listening to so called 'heavy metal' with girlie screeching male vocals from greasy long haired anorexic men in leathers playing formulaic guitar riffs and banging their heads wailing to a useless set of lyrics about slitting their wrists or necrophobia. It all gets very tiresome after years of listening: tiresome as in repetitively mainstream for that genre; mainstream for their lack of lyrical innovation; mainstream in every way, especially in their appeal to the 'fringe' crowd who don't get commercial pop. This is just an alternative variation, but not really alternative music.
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| And for that matter, do you think it's worth doing, and what's your general opinion of lesser known bands versus their mainstream counterparts? |
Not sure if I've already alluded to a response here. I guess a listener who is 'curious' about music and willing to discover what is outside of the box, speaks volumes about the personality of that listener. This kind of listener....is not like the Elephant woman.
Mainstream music abides by having an Elephant in the room: the marketing; the lipstick and gloss. Alternative music turns this into slapstick and opens up new insights into music, whether musically; lyrically, or through exploration of different forms of music.
I'd say it's worthwhile: it enrichens one's music taste, rather than narrowing it: it enables a listener to become more critical and discerning...about what and why he likes music, rather than just being a wishy washy mainstream "oooh ... I enjoy everything" kind of listener. That's just mindless.
No offence
