As Singapore’s indie, or independent, music scene grows, a prominent problem surfaces: Singaporean indie bands and musicians are underrated and not given enough opportunities in their homeland. This paper explains why there is a need for more opportunities to be accorded to indie musicians.
Indie music is “music [that is] produced and funded by any band or label not affiliated with … major corporate labels like Sony or Epic”. (Andrews, 2006, para. 4). A few factors have resulted in indie music gaining popularity worldwide over the years. The usage of social media as a marketing tool is one factor. Websites like YouTube, MySpace and Facebook have made it easier for indie bands to distribute their songs, reach a wider audience and increase their fan base. Podcasting is another important publicity method. George Smyth, host of the Eclectic Mix podcast, asserts that people are able to discover the music of talented indie bands through podcasting (as cited in Scott, 2010, p. 81). The success and recognition of indie music at the Grammy Awards in recent years is another reason for indie musicians’ popularity. Lewis (2011) states that at the 53rd Grammy Awards, more than half of the total nominations went to indie musicians. Indie musicians won 45 of 108 awards, a significant increase from “195 nominations and 36 wins four years earlier” (para. 7). Furthermore, indie musicians Arcade Fire and Esperanza Spalding won top awards of “Album of the Year” and “Best New Artist” respectively (para. 1-2). These show why indie music has become more popular and recognised worldwide.
Unlike indie musicians overseas, the talents of Singapore’s indie musicians lack recognition from locals. Most Singaporeans only know of the pop singers who have made...
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What’s good in the music industry is its openness into hearing out budding artists, may it be worthy or not to listen to. The always changing demands of mainstream music require artists, acts and groups to comply, or other aspiring performers would be taking up center stage and steal the spotlight. Despite the risks involved, many ambitions and the people who carry it surge through the business accompanied by their strong liking to entertain and the undying passion to reach what they truly dream of. And we, as the majority who don’t like the squeamish effect of attention, gauge each passing act, as if deciding for them if they will be lasting in the industry or not. One name reverberating through the halls of mainstream music is that of Bryson Tiller, and with how things are rolling for this very talented future superstar, he is meant to stay longer than the rest.
Waits, Jennifer C. "Does ‘indie’ Mean Independence? Freedom and Restraint in a Late 1990s US College Radio Community." The Radio Journal: International Studies in Broadcast and Audio Media 5.2&3 (2008): 83-96. Print.
Popular music’s worth tend to be determined according to values of authenticity, truthfulness, and no concern for commercial success. Thus, artists who perform their own songs are critically acclaimed and recognized as better than performers whose material is written by others. However, there is a grey area of sampling and covering. Many artists who do a lot of sampling, in particular DJ Danger Mouse and Kaye West, are not only critically acclaimed, but also can be credited to changing musical history. Sampling greatly complicates the black and white rules of authenticity, and rightly so.
Leonard, Marion. Gender in the Music Industry: Rock, Discourse and Girl Power. Hampshire: Ashgate Publishing Company, Aug. 2007.
I now know that there is not a secret handshake that gets a person into the indie rock scene. Nor is there a panel of ultra-cool guardians hiding out in rock clubs deciding who's in and who's out. There is merely a certain type of literacy that one eventually picks up if one observes and listens and lets oneself become part of the scene. Just like any other kind of literacy, nobody is born with it, it needs to be learned.
... Popular Music Studies 23, no. 1 (2011): 19-39. Accessed April 28, 2014. Academic Search Complete.
The music industry can trace its roots to the 18th century when classical composers such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart sought commissions from the church or aristocracies by touring to promote their music (Boerner). By the early 20th century, recorded collections of songs were available for purchase for home listening. Towards the middle of the century, record album production had become the norm for getting new music to the masses and album sales had replaced sheet-music sales as a measure of popularity, with the first gold-recor...
Mixing cultures and influences from reggae to pop, hip hop, and even punk, Island has shaken up ideas and introduced new genres to mainstream music, bringing cultures into the musical spotlight halfway across the world. Still alive and thriving today, Island has produced some of the music industry’s biggest names and groups including Jimmy Buffet, The B-52s, U2, and Bob Marley. But like all companies, Island too started out as a hobby before it was even a small business; and the story is incredible.
...he essence of a grief-stricken generation, exhibited an unyielding emphasis on the importance of piercing passion over musical intricacy, and introduced the world to a vast array of gifted musicians who did not deem music as a tool to achieve recognition or financial stability. In turn, the decades that followed the rise of alternative rock have been inundated with so-called musicians whose main goal has been to get their faces plastered on magazine covers and achieve maximum public exposure, rather than devoting themselves to their craft. Consequently, the world has been left with nothing but an endless parade of shocking behavior, skimpy outfits, and mediocre music. Unfortunately, if the current state of affairs is any hint of what the future holds for music audiences, the magic generated by the nineties alternative rock will not be matched in years to come.
The genre of pop rock has taken the music industry by storm, giving record companies enormous amounts of power and endless financial success along with a way to reproduce it. Owing its popularity to the “light” nature and simplistic, yet catchy melodies, pop music is one of the broadest genres. There’s no way of clearly defining parameters as to what distinguishes a pop music song from other genres. This is largely due to the genre's’ reliance on popularity. Pop music has taken many forms over the decades, keeping characteristics through each generation it passes through.
Music in every country has a history going back hundreds of years. It is an excellent type of entertainment that any person can enjoy. America being such a diverse country, any person regardless of race or gender needs to be given a fair shot in an opportunity to showcase his or her talent. However, there is a lack of Asians Americans represented in America. Asian Americans must go above and beyond on what is expected in the industry, compared to white and black Americans who seem to have it much easier. “Always, it is the Asian who assimilates, who must explain his or her prese...
Quite a huge number of American pop singers has already visited Singapore to have multiple concerts held here. Different people who enjoy American pop music or particular artist, came together as one to again experience and consume the Americanization through music. However, even though these concert activities contribute to the spread of American popular culture through music, technology plays even a bigger part as people grow attention and interest for the artists through listening to their music or watching their music videos through internet or television which will be discussed further towards the end of this
Ramsay, D. (2012). The Rise of EDM | Music Business Journal | Berklee College of Music. [online] Thembj.org. Available at: http://www.thembj.org/2012/10/the-rise-of-edm/ (Accessed: 20 May 2014).
Steve Jones in the article "Music and the Internet" suggests that popular music as well as academic articles relating to popular music were created and distributed by people who didn’t completely understand the idea of the "music industry." He ultimately suggests that today compared to the introduction of popular music, a growing number of consumers are using the Internet to attain music. The internet has drastically changed the distribution systems also creating many ethical problems that weren't found in the music industry before the internet. Because the internet started making a presence in almost every single business, it was almost no question that the internet is bringing about some changes in the music industry; a billion dollar industry. Steve Jones ultimately knew the inversion of the internet would create dominant change in the music industry; one that many popular music artists during the early years didn't think was possible. The article was written in a lot information paragraphs that gave insight to the extreme lack of strong distribution during the early times of popular music compared to modern day. Strong and insightful syntax showed the way many musicians felt that about the way their music was performed and distributed during these times, but had nothing to do about it.