RTP-area local music and culture

[grady <grady AT ibiblio.org>]

Your theories are fairly on-base, but you forgot Playstation/XBox and/or 
 BitTorrent and/or whatever else it is that keeps some segment of kids 
glued to the TV/WWW. I just don't think "music" in general is as high on 
the list of hobbies/loves/fave recreational activities as it once was.

*And* I don't know that "rock music" is as high among those people who 
still list "music."

You'd have to ask Frank about lower show attendance overall, as he's 
probably in the best position to track how major club draws are doing 
now vs 5 or 10 years ago. Glenn will I'm sure answer about stuff he's 
seen firsthand this year.

I'm going to amplify on one of your clauses a bit. You said "the major 
media machine has penetrated even further into the indie world (meaning 
that college-kid-friendly indie rock bands often get major contracts and 
tour buses very quickly, leaving less room for genuinely local rock in 
kids' brains??)"

I know there have been quite a few pseudo-indie-rock/pop shows that have 
sold out the Cradle (and/or moved to the larger venues) far more quickly 
than I, with head firmly *not* in that world, would have predicted. The 
kinda stuff that might get played on XYC/XDU a bit but which would 
generally be maybe too tame/straightforward to chart really highly at 
XDU/XYC, but which is probably still not fully "mainstream." Stuff like 
Death Cab for Cutie & Franz Ferdinand & Postal Service & Interpol &, 
yes, Bright Eyes.

Stuff that yr average RTP-area Music Director might dismiss as "total 
pop" but which isn't exactly tearing up MTV heavy rotation, and which 
is, along with emo, apparently really popular among "the kids". Which is 
why it's sort of doubly odd that all these kids who're making those 
bands sell out super-quick aren't lining up to see the local bands.

I assume that "the kids" are apparently getting their info about hip 
bands via other methods than college radio or MTV, & I assume that means 
the Internet since I doubt they're getting it via Rolling Stone.

But I guess this means that the types/styles of music that we would have 
considered "ours" 10 years ago have either been co-opted or migrated at 
least partially out of the [local] clubs-and-college-radio milieu. If 
you're 19 and you like Franz Ferdinand, do you hear it on WXYC (I don't 
think it charted at all) or XDU (actually did chart) or does the 
somewhat esoteric nature of college radio work against you & do you find 
out about it by ________________?

Either way, the gulf seems to have re-widened between the bands that 
"the kids" go see and the bands that the local musicians are in, either 
stylistically or conceptually. We're not fully there yet, but we seem to 
be headed slowly back towards a time when people who'd go to the Cradle 
to see even a really good out-of-town indie-rock band wouldn't 
necessarily even consider going to the 506 to see an equally good local 
indie-rock band because they don't think of indie-rock as a 
locally-based tangible interactive phenomenon.

I have a hard time determining the ages of people in general, but 
assuming I'm susceptible to the same perspective skew that most old 
people are, I'd say yeah, there are fewer undergrads at the "local" 
shows, at least, inasmuch as there are fewer kids who look about 15 to 
me, which is what the undergrads have started to look like ;-)

I've gone back & reshuffled these paragraphs too many times, so I think 
this is a bit incoherent, but one thing I'd like to ask of someone who'd 
know (either a Cradle employee or someone who pays more attention than I 
do): are local bands getting fewer opening slots on national touring 
bills than they used to?

Ross

Allen, Richard wrote:
> This may be a good time to raise some questions I have wanted to ask
> from afar:
>
> First, is there overall lower show attendance in CH?
>
> Second, if there is, is a demographic issue to blame?
>
> More specifically, do undergrads go to a lot fewer shows these days?
>
> I know they've never been a consistent show-going audience, because
> they're under 21 and their tastes change like the wind, but when I
> was in school, you could expect a big (non-XYC-staff) undergrad crowd
> at the Cradle for a) the Archers and similarly popular local indie
> rock bands and b) all those Southern-jangle-rock bands that sprang
> from the spirit of the Connells/REM. The common thread between these
> groups was that they were quasi-local and could give you the feeling
> of being part of something cool that people who lived further away
> wouldn't get to experience.
>
> Now it seems like tastes have fragmented (rock is not the default
> music for college kids), the major media machine has penetrated even
> further into the indie world (meaning that college-kid-friendly indie
> rock bands often get major contracts and tour buses very quickly,
> leaving less room for genuinely local rock in kids' brains??), and
> then of course you have the iPod/DVD bubble which allows you to more
> effectively pretend you're at a show without the inconvenience of
> leaving your dorm room.
>
> Is there any evidence for my theories, or am I barking up the wrong
> tree?
>
> (I have theories about older rock fans, too, which may follow if
> anyone's interested.)
>
> RA -- ch-scene: the list that mirrors alt.music.chapel-hill -- 
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/ch-scene