Rolling Stone : San Francisco: The Start of the Revolution: "In San Francisco in October 1965, some Red Dog veterans, now calling themselves the Family Dog, staged an evening of bands and dancing at the Longshoremen's Hall; billed as 'A Tribute to Dr. Strange,' it featured the Charlatans, Jefferson Airplane and the Great Society. The event spontaneously fused the lenient spirit of the Acid Tests with the Red Dog's focus on dancing and proved a pivotal occasion in the psychedelic scene's history. Over the next two years, San Francisco dance ballrooms--primarily the Avalon and the Fillmore--became not merely a central metaphor for Haight-Ashbury's reinvention of community but also a fundamental enactment of it.
The bands that emerged in this setting were made up largely of musicians who had come up playing in the Bay Area's folk-music venues. The folk crowd had been notoriously dismissive of rock & roll; they saw it as unserious and decadent, not at all committed to social or political concerns. But after the arrival of the Beatles in 1964 and Bob Dylan's transition to electric music in 1965, Bay Area folk musicians began to see how electric music could incorporate substantive themes and poetic language."
Showing posts with label sense of place. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sense of place. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Branding Detroit
Here's more about Detroit's branding campaign. Commercials will run on MTV and the Comedy Channel.
Detroit is hip, you should visit, ads say - Detroit Free Press, 6/14/07: "The Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau announced plans Wednesday to market the area to young adults in Grand Rapids and Cleveland, using three TV commercials touting Detroit as a hip and exciting destination.
For the first time, the organization is trying to attract more visitors to southeastern Michigan by going after 21- to 34-year-olds who live within a 5-hour drive of Detroit. Most of the visitors who come to the area for leisure trips live in western Michigan and Cleveland....
Marketing research found that Detroit's auto attractions, casinos, music and sports activities particularly appeal to adults in that age group. And though they spend on average about 25% less on a typical trip than older adults, they travel more frequently."
Detroit is hip, you should visit, ads say - Detroit Free Press, 6/14/07: "The Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau announced plans Wednesday to market the area to young adults in Grand Rapids and Cleveland, using three TV commercials touting Detroit as a hip and exciting destination.
For the first time, the organization is trying to attract more visitors to southeastern Michigan by going after 21- to 34-year-olds who live within a 5-hour drive of Detroit. Most of the visitors who come to the area for leisure trips live in western Michigan and Cleveland....
Marketing research found that Detroit's auto attractions, casinos, music and sports activities particularly appeal to adults in that age group. And though they spend on average about 25% less on a typical trip than older adults, they travel more frequently."
Saturday, June 02, 2007
Rap-Vermont style
Yo, Vermont, What Up? These 3 Dudes, for Starters - New York Times, 6/2/07: "The rap, at www.youtube.com/watch?v=GL7uW4TYqbs, pokes fun at Vermont institutions and stereotypes like dairy products and snowplows.
“Green Mountain State, where we roll on skis, don’t mess with our cows or we’ll break your knees,” go the rappers, who perform under the name X10."
“Green Mountain State, where we roll on skis, don’t mess with our cows or we’ll break your knees,” go the rappers, who perform under the name X10."
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Leisure: How People Spend Their Free Time
Here's a good resource to get you thinking about American society and what we do and don't do with our free time.
Focusing on music, or even entertainment, can often be too limiting. If you are selling these concepts, you need to take into consideration all the various activities competing for a person's time, attention, and financial resources. The academic field of leisure studies gives a broad overview of time/recreation consumption.
In particular you might want to look at the PDF file, "Leisure in America: Searching for the Forest Amongst the Trees." It has culled data from a number of different research studies to give you an overview of American culture and leisure time activities.
The Compleat Leader (Getty Leadership Institute)
Focusing on music, or even entertainment, can often be too limiting. If you are selling these concepts, you need to take into consideration all the various activities competing for a person's time, attention, and financial resources. The academic field of leisure studies gives a broad overview of time/recreation consumption.
In particular you might want to look at the PDF file, "Leisure in America: Searching for the Forest Amongst the Trees." It has culled data from a number of different research studies to give you an overview of American culture and leisure time activities.
The Compleat Leader (Getty Leadership Institute)
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Creating IPod Tours of Your Music Scene
Here's a site that makes available audio tours via iPods. Some people sell them, others give them away for free. I don't see a lot being done with music yet, it would be make sense. Combine a tour of local venues with music from local bands that play there frequently. Find interesting little facts about the venues that would appeal to tourists and locals who want to know more.
Denver would be a perfect location because some of our hippest venues are in colorful parts of town and have long histories as converted bars, failed past music experiments, etc. For example, the Family Dog, which existed briefly in the 1960s and featured the Doors, Janis Joplin, and the like, is now a strip club.
And Denver, famous for "On the Road," is intrinsically colorful anyway.
AudioSnacks.com: Podcast and MP3 Audio Tours for Travel, Museums, and More!
Denver would be a perfect location because some of our hippest venues are in colorful parts of town and have long histories as converted bars, failed past music experiments, etc. For example, the Family Dog, which existed briefly in the 1960s and featured the Doors, Janis Joplin, and the like, is now a strip club.
And Denver, famous for "On the Road," is intrinsically colorful anyway.
AudioSnacks.com: Podcast and MP3 Audio Tours for Travel, Museums, and More!
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Mexico City and indie rock
Los Dynamite Noiselab Mexico City Rock - New York Times, 5/13/07: "Thanks mostly to the downloadable avalanche of globalization and the rise of MySpace the current independent rock scene is full of artists who may be from Mexico City but sound as if they could be from New York, Stockholm or Paris....
The debut of MySpace in 2003 couldn’t have come at a better time for the Mexico City indie scene. In the 1990s major labels could still afford to be interested in a diverse swath of rock and alternative acts, but by 2003 they were no longer signing bands whose sales weren’t projected to reach gold in their first month or who weren’t easy matches for telenovela soundtracks. In response a string of indie labels emerged to fill the void, and suddenly it seemed that there were more bands than ever. There were more young people making music on home computers, more places to play (galleries and storefronts as much as clubs) and more international acts — like the White Stripes, which made Mexico City a heralded early stop on a 2005 tour — coming to town.
Most in the scene agree that the watershed moment came in 2004 with the appearance of Reactor, a taste-making, state-supported radio station. Unlike previous Mexico City alternative rock radio ventures, Reactor made breaking independent and underground bands from Mexico as central to its mission as playing the latest from Franz Ferdinand. 'If a band has a strong following, we take notice,' said Raúl David (Rulo) Vázquez, the station’s lead programmer.
Everything, then, was in place for an indie explosion. MySpace just struck the match.
'There’s always what we call the Mexico City lag,' said Luis Arce, a member of Chikita Violenta, whose debut album, 'The Stars and Suns Sessions,' was recently released on Noiselab. 'In the U.S. there was the college rock boom — Pavement, Sebadoh, even Nirvana — and now in Mexico City we have our own version of that. This is our own ’90s indie boom, just a decade or so late.'...
'In previous generations the goal was to present yourself as part of the city, to define the city and express the city,' said Jorge Hipolito, a veteran of the Mexico City scene who works at Noiselab. 'Now that doesn’t matter so much.'...
One particularly controversial result of Nafta has been the growing number of young bands choosing to sing in English, even if the members don’t speak it particularly well. Most of these bands claim that it’s not a bid for crossover success, but a direct reflection of their musical upbringing. 'We’re more comfortable singing and writing in English,' said Mr. David of Chikita Violenta. 'We’re proud of being from Mexico, but this is the way we like to do music. It would be dishonest for us to sing in Spanish.'"
The debut of MySpace in 2003 couldn’t have come at a better time for the Mexico City indie scene. In the 1990s major labels could still afford to be interested in a diverse swath of rock and alternative acts, but by 2003 they were no longer signing bands whose sales weren’t projected to reach gold in their first month or who weren’t easy matches for telenovela soundtracks. In response a string of indie labels emerged to fill the void, and suddenly it seemed that there were more bands than ever. There were more young people making music on home computers, more places to play (galleries and storefronts as much as clubs) and more international acts — like the White Stripes, which made Mexico City a heralded early stop on a 2005 tour — coming to town.
Most in the scene agree that the watershed moment came in 2004 with the appearance of Reactor, a taste-making, state-supported radio station. Unlike previous Mexico City alternative rock radio ventures, Reactor made breaking independent and underground bands from Mexico as central to its mission as playing the latest from Franz Ferdinand. 'If a band has a strong following, we take notice,' said Raúl David (Rulo) Vázquez, the station’s lead programmer.
Everything, then, was in place for an indie explosion. MySpace just struck the match.
'There’s always what we call the Mexico City lag,' said Luis Arce, a member of Chikita Violenta, whose debut album, 'The Stars and Suns Sessions,' was recently released on Noiselab. 'In the U.S. there was the college rock boom — Pavement, Sebadoh, even Nirvana — and now in Mexico City we have our own version of that. This is our own ’90s indie boom, just a decade or so late.'...
'In previous generations the goal was to present yourself as part of the city, to define the city and express the city,' said Jorge Hipolito, a veteran of the Mexico City scene who works at Noiselab. 'Now that doesn’t matter so much.'...
One particularly controversial result of Nafta has been the growing number of young bands choosing to sing in English, even if the members don’t speak it particularly well. Most of these bands claim that it’s not a bid for crossover success, but a direct reflection of their musical upbringing. 'We’re more comfortable singing and writing in English,' said Mr. David of Chikita Violenta. 'We’re proud of being from Mexico, but this is the way we like to do music. It would be dishonest for us to sing in Spanish.'"
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Revitalizing Denver's "Harlem"
A new theater is opening in what was once Denver's center for black culture. Now the neighborhood is a mixture of 25% black, 43% Latino, and 27% white, so this theater plans to draw upon its neighborhood history but also expand to showcase a variety of cultural influences.
5/10/07, The Denver Post - New theater opening in Five Points neighborhood: "The Denver neighborhood once called "the Harlem of the West" is enjoying a cultural renaissance of its own these days....
Another person who sees the upside on the cultural front is Denver lawyer Kurt Lewis, who sold his house to open a new live theater, Crossroads at Five Points Theatre....
Five Points developer James Ellis is one of his biggest fans.
'One of the things we really like about Crossroads is that there are no boundaries, and that is implied by the name,' said Ellis, who plans to restore the facade of the historic Rossonian Hotel next door and reopen it as a live jazz venue with an upscale restaurant by summer 2008....
Five Points once boasted more than 50 jazz clubs and earned the city's first-ever designation as a neighborhood of 'cultural significance,' Ellis said. It was not only a favorite destination for such legends as Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Dinah Washington and Billie Holiday, it was a respite from the racism that pervaded just 10 blocks to the south....
And now Lewis, a white man, has leveraged his future to build an 84-seat, $450,000 theater in a building owned by a black man.
Everyone involved with Crossroads believes the theater, and the neighborhood, can best survive into the future if it celebrates its cultural past while also welcoming, even encouraging, all those who dared not go there before. That means celebrating diversity in a rainbow of colors.
That's one reason Lewis' 3,600-square-foot theater is opening with an Irish play. 'Bold Girls' will be followed by a one-woman jazz musical, and the world premiere of 'The Sisters, Sweetwater,' the story of two black women in the 1920s written by Hugo Jon Sayles of Shadow, Denver's only black theater company.
But Lewis envisions a melting- pot community resource open all day every day for classes, jazz, cabaret, poetry, fashion shows and even weekly 'open- mic dance.' Theater performances will start no later than 7 p.m., followed by late-night spoken- word artists Café Nuba and late- late-night screenings of the cult film 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show.'
Allowing many visions
'Denver doesn't really have a place that embraces the creative class, and it doesn't have a place that celebrates ethnicity,' Ellis said. 'Crossroads is a place that plans to do that and then some.'
Crossroads board member donnie l. betts said the theater will be unique because it seeks a convergence of creative cultures with differing values."
5/10/07, The Denver Post - New theater opening in Five Points neighborhood: "The Denver neighborhood once called "the Harlem of the West" is enjoying a cultural renaissance of its own these days....
Another person who sees the upside on the cultural front is Denver lawyer Kurt Lewis, who sold his house to open a new live theater, Crossroads at Five Points Theatre....
Five Points developer James Ellis is one of his biggest fans.
'One of the things we really like about Crossroads is that there are no boundaries, and that is implied by the name,' said Ellis, who plans to restore the facade of the historic Rossonian Hotel next door and reopen it as a live jazz venue with an upscale restaurant by summer 2008....
Five Points once boasted more than 50 jazz clubs and earned the city's first-ever designation as a neighborhood of 'cultural significance,' Ellis said. It was not only a favorite destination for such legends as Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Dinah Washington and Billie Holiday, it was a respite from the racism that pervaded just 10 blocks to the south....
And now Lewis, a white man, has leveraged his future to build an 84-seat, $450,000 theater in a building owned by a black man.
Everyone involved with Crossroads believes the theater, and the neighborhood, can best survive into the future if it celebrates its cultural past while also welcoming, even encouraging, all those who dared not go there before. That means celebrating diversity in a rainbow of colors.
That's one reason Lewis' 3,600-square-foot theater is opening with an Irish play. 'Bold Girls' will be followed by a one-woman jazz musical, and the world premiere of 'The Sisters, Sweetwater,' the story of two black women in the 1920s written by Hugo Jon Sayles of Shadow, Denver's only black theater company.
But Lewis envisions a melting- pot community resource open all day every day for classes, jazz, cabaret, poetry, fashion shows and even weekly 'open- mic dance.' Theater performances will start no later than 7 p.m., followed by late-night spoken- word artists Café Nuba and late- late-night screenings of the cult film 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show.'
Allowing many visions
'Denver doesn't really have a place that embraces the creative class, and it doesn't have a place that celebrates ethnicity,' Ellis said. 'Crossroads is a place that plans to do that and then some.'
Crossroads board member donnie l. betts said the theater will be unique because it seeks a convergence of creative cultures with differing values."
Monday, May 07, 2007
Hotels, tourism, and local music scenes
A big hotel chain may not want to bother with pairing with local musician (too much trouble overseeing quality control as it relates to the brand), but this idea could be used for smaller, independently run hotels. Local bands/musicians could make songs available for guests to download and take with them.
Design: Music: In tune with guest expectations - Hotel & Motel Management, 5/7/07: "Hyatt Hotels & Resorts introduced a digital download music program that will roll out to properties throughout 2007.
Each property will have a unique music library while meeting a set of music standards for the brand, said Walter Brindell, assistant v.p., rooms operations, Hyatt Hotels Corp. Different music collections are used in different spaces of the hotel, so the spa has a different mood than the lobby.
Guests can download the collections from both brands' collections and take their experiences home."
Design: Music: In tune with guest expectations - Hotel & Motel Management, 5/7/07: "Hyatt Hotels & Resorts introduced a digital download music program that will roll out to properties throughout 2007.
Each property will have a unique music library while meeting a set of music standards for the brand, said Walter Brindell, assistant v.p., rooms operations, Hyatt Hotels Corp. Different music collections are used in different spaces of the hotel, so the spa has a different mood than the lobby.
Guests can download the collections from both brands' collections and take their experiences home."
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Music is happening in Denton, Texas
PopMatters Music Feature | Could Denton, Texas, be the nation's next hot spot for indie rock?: "Is Denton ready to elbow aside the flashier, bigger cities of Fort Worth, Dallas, Houston and, yes, Austin, to take its place atop the Texas-music food chain?
Could it be a town on the verge? Is the next Seattle or Omaha (home of Bright Eyes and the whole Saddle Creek label scene) brewing right up Interstate 35? ...
There are some who would say that Denton, home to an estimated 104,000 people and three universities, including the well-regarded University of North Texas with its acclaimed music department, already has a national reputation as a music mecca. The considerable roster of past and present Denton residents lends credence to the notion. Artists such as Roy Orbison, Norah Jones and Don Henley have spent time in classrooms on the UNT campus (see story on this page)."
Could it be a town on the verge? Is the next Seattle or Omaha (home of Bright Eyes and the whole Saddle Creek label scene) brewing right up Interstate 35? ...
There are some who would say that Denton, home to an estimated 104,000 people and three universities, including the well-regarded University of North Texas with its acclaimed music department, already has a national reputation as a music mecca. The considerable roster of past and present Denton residents lends credence to the notion. Artists such as Roy Orbison, Norah Jones and Don Henley have spent time in classrooms on the UNT campus (see story on this page)."
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Colorado has a new song
Colorado now has a second official song, "Rocky Mountain High," by John Denver.
I've never been a huge John Denver fan (though I really liked Peter, Paul, and Mary's vesion of "Leaving on a Jet Plane"). Mainly I didn't like the fact that he co-opted the state's image for commercial purposes.
Still, reading the lyrics of the song, and occasionally hearing it on the radio, I have to admit it is very appropriate. It does capture the essence of what many of us feel for the state. Outdoors, mountains, love of life, etc.
music scene
Denver
Colorado
I've never been a huge John Denver fan (though I really liked Peter, Paul, and Mary's vesion of "Leaving on a Jet Plane"). Mainly I didn't like the fact that he co-opted the state's image for commercial purposes.
Still, reading the lyrics of the song, and occasionally hearing it on the radio, I have to admit it is very appropriate. It does capture the essence of what many of us feel for the state. Outdoors, mountains, love of life, etc.
music scene
Denver
Colorado
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Cincinnati has a song
Having not heard this song, I don't know if it will capture the world's imagination. New York has a song (several actually), so do Chicago, San Franciscio, and others.
Denver doesn't have a song, but John Denver did "Rocky Mountain High," so that kinda captures it.
My guess is that songs about locations work best when they are written as love songs to the place, and if they capture a widely-agreed-upon image.
I lived in Yellow Springs, Ohio, quite awhile ago and visited Cincinnati a few times. What caught my attention was the Proctor and Gamble factory and the working class neighborhoods that surrounded it. It struck me as a blend of American values and European immigrant influences. There's probably a song in there.
The Cincinnati Post, 2/16/07 - Song sings Cincinnati's praises: "The Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber is again drawing on the vibrant music community to tout the area's arts and creative features, and take some playful shots at other cities as well.
The advocacy group has commissioned a Cincinnati-centric song, and this week is releasing, mostly through Internet distribution, the tune by local troubadour Jake Speed. 'All Roads Lead to Cincinnati' sings the praises of the region in a way designed to capture the attention of the highly sought young professionals demographic."
Cincinnati
tourism
economic development
Denver doesn't have a song, but John Denver did "Rocky Mountain High," so that kinda captures it.
My guess is that songs about locations work best when they are written as love songs to the place, and if they capture a widely-agreed-upon image.
I lived in Yellow Springs, Ohio, quite awhile ago and visited Cincinnati a few times. What caught my attention was the Proctor and Gamble factory and the working class neighborhoods that surrounded it. It struck me as a blend of American values and European immigrant influences. There's probably a song in there.
The Cincinnati Post, 2/16/07 - Song sings Cincinnati's praises: "The Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber is again drawing on the vibrant music community to tout the area's arts and creative features, and take some playful shots at other cities as well.
The advocacy group has commissioned a Cincinnati-centric song, and this week is releasing, mostly through Internet distribution, the tune by local troubadour Jake Speed. 'All Roads Lead to Cincinnati' sings the praises of the region in a way designed to capture the attention of the highly sought young professionals demographic."
Cincinnati
tourism
economic development
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Memphis music inspires movies
An interesting article about how Memphis music has become the inspiration for a movie director and a composer.
Back to Memphis, This Time Making the City Moan - New York Times, 2/11/07: "'It’s like there’s music in the air in Memphis. You can just grab it. It’s ancient, and it’s just a part of the dirt, [said composer Scott Bomar].
.... 'I’m trying to do a music series for my state,' [director Craig Brewer] said. 'It sort of starts from the music and begins to inspire me with images and stories. I really wanted "Hustle & Flow" to be the rap movie. I tried to write a story that would use it as a soundtrack and capture what I felt was the essence of hip-hop in Memphis. Now I’m doing blues. My next one is outlaw country.'”
Memphis
Back to Memphis, This Time Making the City Moan - New York Times, 2/11/07: "'It’s like there’s music in the air in Memphis. You can just grab it. It’s ancient, and it’s just a part of the dirt, [said composer Scott Bomar].
.... 'I’m trying to do a music series for my state,' [director Craig Brewer] said. 'It sort of starts from the music and begins to inspire me with images and stories. I really wanted "Hustle & Flow" to be the rap movie. I tried to write a story that would use it as a soundtrack and capture what I felt was the essence of hip-hop in Memphis. Now I’m doing blues. My next one is outlaw country.'”
Memphis
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Local residents can market to tourists
I've put up links to some cities which are using music to brand themselves. Often location-based branding is done by marketing specialists who refine a city's image to pitch to the tourist market.
But this approach begins at the grassroots level. Citizens are being asked what they think makes their hometowns special. It combines oral history with tourism marketing. Certainly the concept could be extended to local music venues and why people should check them out. (A variation that is already being done are the many "Best of" city guides that alternative weeklies put out on an annual basis.)
Commercial Dispatch Online, 2/9/07: "Sharing stories of people and places is what Mississippians do well, and it's what will move this corner of the state into a new wave of cultural tourism, as a whole generation of retired baby-boomers with time on their hands and pension checks in their pockets begin weekend drives looking for life beyond the strip-mall.
The Mississippi Hills Heritage Area Alliance, a tourism cooperative made up of 30 counties in the northeast corner of the state is set to begin gathering data on topics like history, culture, nature outdoor recreation and just about any other topic residents believe is necessary to tell the heritage history of their town.
'Each place has a little bit of a different feel,' said Darienne Wilson Mobley, principal of Creative Solutions, a Baton Rouge, La., tourism consultant.
'I call it your soul - what is your sense of place,' Mobley added, speaking Thursday morning at Mississippi State University, as MHHAA made a series of stops in northeast Mississippi to meet with local tourism leaders, elected officials and others in the industry to introduce MHHAA's new Web site, where soon anyone will be able to get online."
tourism
But this approach begins at the grassroots level. Citizens are being asked what they think makes their hometowns special. It combines oral history with tourism marketing. Certainly the concept could be extended to local music venues and why people should check them out. (A variation that is already being done are the many "Best of" city guides that alternative weeklies put out on an annual basis.)
Commercial Dispatch Online, 2/9/07: "Sharing stories of people and places is what Mississippians do well, and it's what will move this corner of the state into a new wave of cultural tourism, as a whole generation of retired baby-boomers with time on their hands and pension checks in their pockets begin weekend drives looking for life beyond the strip-mall.
The Mississippi Hills Heritage Area Alliance, a tourism cooperative made up of 30 counties in the northeast corner of the state is set to begin gathering data on topics like history, culture, nature outdoor recreation and just about any other topic residents believe is necessary to tell the heritage history of their town.
'Each place has a little bit of a different feel,' said Darienne Wilson Mobley, principal of Creative Solutions, a Baton Rouge, La., tourism consultant.
'I call it your soul - what is your sense of place,' Mobley added, speaking Thursday morning at Mississippi State University, as MHHAA made a series of stops in northeast Mississippi to meet with local tourism leaders, elected officials and others in the industry to introduce MHHAA's new Web site, where soon anyone will be able to get online."
tourism
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Music in a barbershop
I suppose I should have put two-and-two together and figured out that the term "barbershop quartet" probably linked music and barbershops in some fashion. But barbershop quartets didn't have any cachet when I was growing up so I never paid any attention to them.
This article isn't about those a cappella groups, but it is about a long tradition, in at least one Appalachian town, of having morning live music in a barbershop. Maybe it is time to get back to this in more places.
KnoxNews, 1/31/07 - Barbershop offers southern musical heritage along with clean shave: "Each Thursday, for the past half-century, musicians of various stripe and age have arrived at 8 a.m. at the barbershop on West State and 10th Street to pick and sing for three hours. Then, they pack up and leave, just as leisurely as they arrived.
If you go there, make it by 8 a.m., or you might not get in. Some Thursday mornings, Boyd's barbershop is so jammed with jamming musicians that finding a seat is all but impossible. One side of a wooden partition separates those waiting for a haircut and those playing music. There is only one barber chair used for cutting hair....
[Bill] Bowman says that Thursdays are not the only events in Bristol where musicians gather. It all began, he says, in the 1920s outside the Hickory Tree Grocery. Today, several other places around Bristol provide venues for musicians to pick and sing, but Star Barber Shop is probably the most popular because of Boyd and tradition.
'Music just seems to be handed down through families here,' says Bowman. 'It is just part of our lifestyle. You grow up with it. I think music is something you are born with.
About 80 percent of all musicians who have made big names hail from within 100 miles of here, he says.
'At one time, we had live radio shows out of here,' he says. 'That was the only entertainment there was.'"
third places
This article isn't about those a cappella groups, but it is about a long tradition, in at least one Appalachian town, of having morning live music in a barbershop. Maybe it is time to get back to this in more places.
KnoxNews, 1/31/07 - Barbershop offers southern musical heritage along with clean shave: "Each Thursday, for the past half-century, musicians of various stripe and age have arrived at 8 a.m. at the barbershop on West State and 10th Street to pick and sing for three hours. Then, they pack up and leave, just as leisurely as they arrived.
If you go there, make it by 8 a.m., or you might not get in. Some Thursday mornings, Boyd's barbershop is so jammed with jamming musicians that finding a seat is all but impossible. One side of a wooden partition separates those waiting for a haircut and those playing music. There is only one barber chair used for cutting hair....
[Bill] Bowman says that Thursdays are not the only events in Bristol where musicians gather. It all began, he says, in the 1920s outside the Hickory Tree Grocery. Today, several other places around Bristol provide venues for musicians to pick and sing, but Star Barber Shop is probably the most popular because of Boyd and tradition.
'Music just seems to be handed down through families here,' says Bowman. 'It is just part of our lifestyle. You grow up with it. I think music is something you are born with.
About 80 percent of all musicians who have made big names hail from within 100 miles of here, he says.
'At one time, we had live radio shows out of here,' he says. 'That was the only entertainment there was.'"
third places
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Memphis markets its musical history
Memphis 50 Years of Soul - Memphis, Tennessee: "In 2007 the sweet sounds of soul music will take center stage as 'Memphis Celebrates 50 Years of Soul.' Long known as the 'Home of the Blues' and the 'Birthplace of Rock 'n Roll,' Memphis is proud to once again bring its great soul heritage to the forefront. For 50 years, soul music, with its incredible energy and engaging sense of funk, has been an international sensation. It all began in a neighborhood that would gain the moniker 'Soulsville, USA,' right in the heart of a city that is an international music mecca."
tourism
Memphis
tourism
Memphis
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Your music should sound like where it's from
Great Lakes Myth Society, a Detroit band, talks about place-based music.
Myth, mirth and fresh water (Metro Times Detroit): "'Music should sound like where it's from. Even if it's not entirely in the lyrics, it's about the dark and the light. Pop music is so wonderful and beautiful, but the girl songs have been written so many times over, and all the neat little pop themes, so it's kind of going back to folk music to where a certain sound seems more genuine.'[said Timothy Monger].
"Tim's older brother, vocalist-guitarist and songwriter James Christopher Monger, agrees. 'I think the further north you get, the more folk songs are just outright dark. It's just all laid out there, in British folk all the way through to Scandinavia. There's a reason why there are so many black metal bands in Sweden -- they're all based on folk music, because the translations of those folk songs, the titles themselves, are the entire story. Like, 'My baby was born with one arm; a monster ate it three weeks later.' It's all Beowulf.'"
music scene
indie
Detroit
folk music
Myth, mirth and fresh water (Metro Times Detroit): "'Music should sound like where it's from. Even if it's not entirely in the lyrics, it's about the dark and the light. Pop music is so wonderful and beautiful, but the girl songs have been written so many times over, and all the neat little pop themes, so it's kind of going back to folk music to where a certain sound seems more genuine.'[said Timothy Monger].
"Tim's older brother, vocalist-guitarist and songwriter James Christopher Monger, agrees. 'I think the further north you get, the more folk songs are just outright dark. It's just all laid out there, in British folk all the way through to Scandinavia. There's a reason why there are so many black metal bands in Sweden -- they're all based on folk music, because the translations of those folk songs, the titles themselves, are the entire story. Like, 'My baby was born with one arm; a monster ate it three weeks later.' It's all Beowulf.'"
music scene
indie
Detroit
folk music
Saturday, October 28, 2006
Hip hop and local scenes
This NYTimes article says the days of national hip hop artists selling millions of CDs may be over. Now the focus is on hometown boys selling locally and regionally.
Lil Boosie and Hip-Hop - New York Times, 10/19/06: "It’s easier than ever for fans to learn about regional scenes, from the Bay Area’s space-age hyphy movement to the rough beats and rhymes of Baltimore. The Internet has made it easier to get mixtapes, too ...
"...hip-hop feels both more local and more accessible, and nothing captures that combination like the continuing popularity of hip-hop dances. ... they filter up from clubs to YouTube, and then back down into bedrooms."
hip hop
music scene
Lil Boosie and Hip-Hop - New York Times, 10/19/06: "It’s easier than ever for fans to learn about regional scenes, from the Bay Area’s space-age hyphy movement to the rough beats and rhymes of Baltimore. The Internet has made it easier to get mixtapes, too ...
"...hip-hop feels both more local and more accessible, and nothing captures that combination like the continuing popularity of hip-hop dances. ... they filter up from clubs to YouTube, and then back down into bedrooms."
hip hop
music scene
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
YouTube and location images
This article discusses how Downtown Los Angeles is portrayed through the videos people have posted on YouTube.
A community rich in culture can make for more interesting viewing (1) because more artists are there to do the filming and (2) there is more art/culture to be filmed.
LA Downtown News Online: "Type 'Downtown Los Angeles' into YouTube and dozens of Downtown scenes arise from the Internet ether. Some are inane personal vignettes, like a 10-second car ride through the Second Street tunnel. Others are poignant, such as a music video juxtaposing Skid Row with Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills.
"With images of a colorful, painted elephant featured in the artist Banksy's warehouse exhibit last month, a drive through traffic on the 110 Freeway, military helicopters flying in between the skyscrapers, concerts like the recent Detour festival, rallies and loft tours, the videos capture Downtown's disparate facets, suddenly all visible at once."
A community rich in culture can make for more interesting viewing (1) because more artists are there to do the filming and (2) there is more art/culture to be filmed.
LA Downtown News Online: "Type 'Downtown Los Angeles' into YouTube and dozens of Downtown scenes arise from the Internet ether. Some are inane personal vignettes, like a 10-second car ride through the Second Street tunnel. Others are poignant, such as a music video juxtaposing Skid Row with Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills.
"With images of a colorful, painted elephant featured in the artist Banksy's warehouse exhibit last month, a drive through traffic on the 110 Freeway, military helicopters flying in between the skyscrapers, concerts like the recent Detour festival, rallies and loft tours, the videos capture Downtown's disparate facets, suddenly all visible at once."
Monday, October 09, 2006
The continuing importance of local music in a global world
A book review.
Popular Music and Society: Sound Tracks: Popular Music, Identity and Place: "The local not only continues to be the place in which most people encounter music and its potential meanings, according to Connell and Gibson, but conceptualizations of the local have become even more crucial in the global context. Often, the local lingers in new transnational situations as a reinvented ideal of authenticity, allowing senses of place to be voraciously commodified. But so too, Connell and Gibson note, locality and place help people cope with, transform, or even resist, the disruptive, harmful aspects of the growing global market."
Popular Music and Society: Sound Tracks: Popular Music, Identity and Place: "The local not only continues to be the place in which most people encounter music and its potential meanings, according to Connell and Gibson, but conceptualizations of the local have become even more crucial in the global context. Often, the local lingers in new transnational situations as a reinvented ideal of authenticity, allowing senses of place to be voraciously commodified. But so too, Connell and Gibson note, locality and place help people cope with, transform, or even resist, the disruptive, harmful aspects of the growing global market."
Friday, October 06, 2006
Making music about places
An article about a band that understands the importance of place.
The Hold Steady - New York Times: " ... surely it can’t be a coincidence that, just as the Hold Steady is starting to reach a few more of the boys and girls in America, Mr. Finn has refocused on Minneapolis. He’s clearly obsessed with the link between small stories and big ones, between local favorites and national successes, between punk-club stages and dive-bar jukeboxes, between bands no one’s heard of and songs everybody knows.
"This, maybe, is his idea of what it means to be an American band: singing about Minneapolis, and all the Minneapolises across the country. A dull street corner gets transformed into a rousing refrain; a fictionalized town inspires its real-life counterpart. That album title, 'Boys and Girls in America,' really isn’t so misleading; it’s a salute to the neighborhood kids in the songs, and outside them too. The Hold Steady’s made-up map of the country is looking a little bit less imaginary."
The Hold Steady - New York Times: " ... surely it can’t be a coincidence that, just as the Hold Steady is starting to reach a few more of the boys and girls in America, Mr. Finn has refocused on Minneapolis. He’s clearly obsessed with the link between small stories and big ones, between local favorites and national successes, between punk-club stages and dive-bar jukeboxes, between bands no one’s heard of and songs everybody knows.
"This, maybe, is his idea of what it means to be an American band: singing about Minneapolis, and all the Minneapolises across the country. A dull street corner gets transformed into a rousing refrain; a fictionalized town inspires its real-life counterpart. That album title, 'Boys and Girls in America,' really isn’t so misleading; it’s a salute to the neighborhood kids in the songs, and outside them too. The Hold Steady’s made-up map of the country is looking a little bit less imaginary."
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