Besides money, the one thing that seems to make the world go
‘round is music; It is everywhere.
One of the things you see a lot of, or should I say hear of,
is music; Just like money it is something that makes people’s life better. A
lot of people will disagree with this, but if you really think about it you
will see that on some level this is true. Let’s explore this a little before I
continue, let’s say you like to listen to music to relax and just let your mind
drift off, thinking of nothing just “feeling” the music. Isn’t that escape from
the stresses of your day making things better? How about this example; you’re
going through a really tough time and you feel like you just can’t handle it
anymore then you find a song that “speaks” to you letting you know you are not alone.
Doesn’t that make you feel better even if it’s for the moment? If you answered
yes than in a way that song or songs just made your life a little more bearable
which in turn even briefly made you’re life better.
A bad aspect of music, just like having money has bad
aspects, is that there is so much hate and labeling of people who listen to one
or the other. It seems like in today’s
society no one is allowed to have their own opinion about things. I feel you should listen to whatever helps
make your life better, and only you can decide what kind of music does
that. Another aspect of music that gets
hated on is the artists in both mainstream and underground. Since I listen to
both underground and mainstream depending on my mood and situation, but listen
to underground artists more I will focus on some things that will hopefully
help others understand that just because an underground artist is popular doesn’t
mean he is mainstream or “sold out”.
There is a lot of conflict when an underground artist gets
popular, knows their way around the business end of the business they are in,
and starts making enough money that they aren’t struggling anymore. I hope what
I include in the post will help some understand things better , I don’t expect
the bashing to stop honestly because people will still do as they please which they are free
to do that when it comes to speech. I want you to know in this blog I am
expressing my opinion.
Let me start by saying that even though it’s mostly hip hop
(rap) that most people seem to bash when it comes to underground I wanted to
say that, just like mainstream, underground covers lots of different genres.
Some examples of genres that are both underground and mainstream are Rock,
Electronic, Pop, hip-hop, Dance, Alternative Rock, Folk, Blues, and Punk. The difference between mainstream and
Underground is Mainstream is commercialized.
Yes there are contracts between artist and Independent (Underground)
record labels to protect the rights of both parties, but that doesn’t mean they
are commercialized. Let me give an example that isn’t music related but still
has the same concept. I am an Independent (Indie) author, I have a contract
with the people I do business with for the printing of my book, the platform
used for my EBook etc. Those services cost money and my contract states they
will get their money from the products I sell. I have all rights to my works
and I am the one who does all the work including marketing and promoting. That
is pretty much how an Independent record label works.
For those who say “Oh this person when mainstream”, “that
person sold out” I got a question for you do you really expect people to just
work hard to give you things for free. That would be like you going to your job
every day and not get a paycheck at the end of the week. Would you do that?
Would you be able to provide for your family like that? No, so why are you expecting
music artists to do that. They are people with families and bills that make
music as their job. They are self-employed and still have to pay taxes just
like any other working person. Artists that are successful at their jobs for
example Tech N9ne, Insane Clown Posse, Twiztid didn’t “sell out”, to “sell out"
means to imply that the entity changed due to an influence considered negative.
I don’t see how any of these artists changed due to a negative influence, just
because they are profitable at their jobs doesn’t mean they “sold out” it just
means they know how to sell a product. In this case the product is their
persona.
Mainstream artists are usually on labels like Sony, Universal, Warner and their imprints.The way mainstream works
is they look for talent that fill the requirements of that label. They have
image consultants that fully create the artist or bands persona that the label
believes would work for them. The artist has no say in it. As I said earlier Independent
artists are just that independent most of the ones I listen to don’t try to fit
into a certain demographic, if you like them you like them if you don’t you don’t
it’s really that simple. All ages and walks of life like a lot of different Independent
(Underground) artists they don’t do their music for just one type of person.
The mainstream dominates the radio, television, and
magazines, but the Underground seems to dominate the Internet, such as YouTube,
and social media as well as internet radio. In the world of technology it is easier for
the Independent artist to market and promote their work. A major part of
promoting any kind of business is word of mouth, when artist reach out to their
fans like Twiztid, Tech N9ne, Claas and Bukshot, to name a few, do on social
media like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook they are expanding their reach that
had been limited before. Mainstream is
all about the money and to be honest I don’t know of a lot if any mainstream artist
do free shows or help with food drives like I know some Independent artist do.
They are still about the people even though they now have money they may not
have had in the past. Like I said earlier though they are just getting paid for
the work they do.
In conclusion just because someone does their job well and
gets compensated for it doesn’t mean they “sold out” and unless you know they
are one an imprint of a major record label saying “they went mainstream” is just
speculation on your part. Why can’t we just enjoy the music we like listening to
and stop trying to make every other individual think their choice is wrong, when it
is right for them?!
