From: The Cassette Mythos, Autonomedia 1990
Freedom can yield bizarre offspring. It is responsible not only for the rare works of original genius that keep us all going, but also for the far more numerous works that will never make a mark on history. Nowhere is this dichotomy clearer than in the world of independent/alternative music. The amount of mediocre and just plain bad music put out by folks in this community is truly staggering--even Carl Sagan would be taken aback if he stopped to consider it. Why is this so? Well first of all, it's a consequence of the low cost of high-tech goods. Anybody can afford tape, decks, and (optionally) an instrument. Hit a good sale and you can get it all for a C-note or less. Cheap but workable stuff. This means that shimmering daydreams can easily be crystallized into 3-D fantasies. So why not play around with the idea and have some fun? Since many of these chip-driven devices can compensate in myriad ways for a lack of talent or ability, another historical impediment falls. And many have (mistakenly) gleaned from a superficial glance at punk and avant-garde stylings that you don't have to know what you're doing at all. Well, if you've gotten this far, why not record it? If you're going to record it, why not send it to a mag for review, or shell out some bucks and slap an ad together? It's not quite the same as having your name up in lights, but it's a rush, and it will certainly do. It makes you feel one hell of a lot better than working your shift at the processing plant. So far, no harm done and lots of fun. It might even get some creative folks hooked on a whole new track. Great. Bravo! Artistic democracy. Sonic Darwinism. But people are people, so it doesn't end there.
A very disillusioning fact about many (too many) political radicals is that in the end they simply want the same thing as the guys they are trying to kick out: Power. Sad but true. And a lot of deep-down-good idealists have gotten shot, gassed, and bashed for nothing more than helping those jerks achieve their wet dreams. Well, it's the same with music, although the consequences are usually less severe. I would guess it's the same with most everything. No matter how good you are, the pressure is still there to play the game. You've got to be in the right clique, live in the right city, have a glossy cover with lots of colors, use the right equipment, develop a hip-sounding philosophy, etc. Politics. And then there are those who hold up amateurism like it's some kind of grand heroic mission in life. They look down on you if you try to turn out something that's professional in any way, because to them it's an indication that you have "sold out." Your art is a product. Those folks are perhaps the strangest of all. Do they just want to be big frogs in a small pond? Are they jealous? Lazy? I don't know.
Then why not stick with the major labels? At least they're consistent, right? Nah--they're still the biggest void of all. Under the surface slickness of the latest releases by the likes of Madonna, Michael Jackson, et al., is nothing but watered down rehashes of styles that peaked twenty years ago. They sell like crazy because marketing analysts correctly assume that (1) people would rather be safe and comfortable, or nostalgic; (2) a lot of folks weren't listening twenty years ago (maybe weren't even born), and so it's all new to them; or (3) folks don't care (which is an entire subject on its own). If you want to stay in the game, you've got to do what the big boiz think is going to sell. Period. That's the only reason you ended up in their game in the first place. It's not art they're interested in, it's money.
But the alternative music community is not the cloudy reflection of the major labels that it may seem to be. Amidst all the it's-been-done-before self-indulgent slop of independent music there are some real blinding moments of sonic genius. In all the genres. Innovative, creative people who don't have a chorus line of corporate dictators to tell them what/when/where/how to do something. And since it's extremely doubtful that they're making much money off their art (in fact most are probably going in the hole pretty consistently), there isn't an overpowering motive to compromise their work to conform to whatever trendy fad the public is currently embracing. Freedom. Clear light. And even if it's only ten percent--hell, even if it's less--it's a beacon that makes it all worthwhile. And it's still the main place (increasingly the only place) you'll find them. And though they may not become stars, they'll survive the politics (if they choose to, or are addicted to their art) because the fluid variety of the community isn't conducive to knee-jerk lock-step controls. If the community is a mirror, it's more the kind Cocteau used to toy with. Just because it looks like it came from a dime store doesn't mean that's where you can find it. Look closer.
And the mediocre? Even the most mediocre of the indy stuff was probably still fun to do. And for their purposes, maybe that's all it needs to be. Do people like Michael Jackson and Madonna look like folks who have fun? Guess it depends on your perspective, but I wouldn't bet my life on it. On one level, independent music can be viewed from the mass of catalogs the labels and individuals artists generate: a sea of static information. Approached from another perspective, the biggest catalog of all is the network itself. Primarily a cassette phenomenon, it works through a fluid interchange of information where connections may be made and dissolved as interests and focuses change, but movement never stops. By dropping down into this arterial flow, you can become part of it and start mainlining information and resources. Not overnight, but let's face it, nothing happens overnight except maybe death and pregnancy. It'll take a quarter or two, just like a phone call--except that when you make a phone call it's finished and gone, and you'd be amazed at what you can get to grow in your mailbox. But you don't have to trust me on this--take a peek for yourself. Get an overview, get a world view. Take a risk, have fun. I'll probably see you around.