Breaking Barriers

Rap has finally entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Grandmaster Flash was inducted March 12, leaving questions about where music is heading. Predictions have been made that there will be a switch from additions of 70’s punk performers to hip hop performers. Hip hop has been held back in past years due to the requirement that an artist cannot be inducted until 25 years after his or her first release. Since hip-hop is such a young genre, rock artists have filled the hall in the past. Grandmaster Flash is credited with being the first popular rapper to present a social theme.

This however, does not mean that rock is out of the picture. Recently 60,000 indie-rock fans showed up to the Coachella music festival. Rock sales are also up, with Modest Mouse’s latest release selling 80,000 copies, and making number 19 on Billboard’s album chart. For indie-rock file sharing has been a blessing, and fans have started spending once again. Websites like Myspace have probably also contributed to indie rock’s rise. Ask almost anyone in Generation Y where to find information about an upcoming band, and the answer will almost always be on Myspace. These band profiles offer music to listen to and download, pictures, tour dates, and you can even be friends online with your favorite band. Fans can feel a personal connection as they leave comments on the band’s profile page. Even MTV and larger radio stations are beginning to take notice, and play music from upcoming indie-rock bands. Devin Gordon of MSNBC Newsweek says, “We’re in the golden age for pure songwriting.” The only problem is that no one wants to take the lead. Supposedly the cynicism about the music being put out in the recent past has made upcoming indie bands not have the desire to become major stars. More and more bands are viewing their music as a hobby rather than a main focus. This is too bad considering that Geoff Mayfield of Billboard claims that “alternative rock” has made bigger strides than rap, increasing its market share over the past five years. MTV added five rock clips to its show “Buzzworthy” last week, which has not happened in four years.

Indie artists are bringing rock to the front lines again, without the help of major labels. They are focusing on marketing themselves through merchandising and ads for major companies like McDonalds. Rather than being viewed as selling-out, this is the lesson indie rockers are taking from hip hop artists in order to afford being able to stay with an independent label. Independent labels offer more artistic freedom, and one singer, Todd Baechle of the Faint, explains that signing to a major label “is more like a sentence than an agreement.” Now that bands are starting to find ways to better market themselves and stay loyal to their independent labels, major labels are soon going to find themselves searching for business. Major labels may have to start focusing on fully developing new artists if bands are not willing to leave their independent labels.