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The Next Big Thing

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Scarychips:
There's something I can't quite understand. How can a "mainstream" band can have sold out shows in fifteen minutes while successful "Indie" bands have trouble to fill a church basement? It's not logic

sandman263:

--- Quote from: tommydski on 30 Dec 2007, 12:39 ---I can actually hear that.

Putting cynicism aside, that song and video combination is further fuel for the point NRB made earlier. Would this band have been signed without the success of Coldplay? Look at the video, it's so clearly aimed at the same audience. It just looks like they have found a spherical peg for their square hole and hammered it until it fit. This is one of the things I find really strange about the mainstream music industry.

--- End quote ---

Interestingly....the song "Run" came from Snow Patrols third album, "Final Straw" - allegedly so named because the band were intent on breaking up after it's release if they didn't make it big. Snow Patrol were releasing albums a full two years before Coldplay, so you can't really say they were signed due to Coldplay's success. However, it is true that Snow Patrol (Snowplay, Cold Patrol?) did make "Final Straw" a lot more accessible than previous albums, and aimed it squarely at the Coldplay generation.

To the point: "they find something that works and they produce variants" - true, but very quickly, and very often, saturation points are reached. Coldplay - Snow Patrol - Keane are just three UK bands following this trend. This week, not a single variant of their music sits in the top 40 singles chart. The winners of the reality television shows such as X-Factor and Pop Idol are the same - while occassionally, some of the winners will make it big for a song or two, the majority now sink without a trace.

Adding in my own background - I'm from rural Ireland, working in the capital now. I've loved music passionately for most of my life, and have spent my entire life with my friends saying I only liked my music as it was different, until they all suddenly realised that I seemed to be ahead of the curve when it came to new bands, and actually had some taste. Now I run my own music blog to keep a lot of my friends (and some people I've never met!) up to date on my music likes & dislikes, and where I can vent about the state of the music industry.

Jackie Blue:
Any time I've seen a "successful" indie band, the show has been packed and a decent-sized venue.  Examples:

Will Oldham
Melt-Banana
Acid Mothers Temple
Animal Collective
Broken Social Scene
The Hold Steady
Trans Am

What successful bands have you seen that couldn't fill a small venue?

KharBevNor:
One thing I've noticed is there's a general lack of 'indie' (as defined by this thread) listeners at the art college I attend. And you would expect an art college to be crawling with indie types. Even the 'hipsters' (defined by dress) seem most likely to be in to a combination of mildly alternative radio-rock (Radiohead, Arctic Monkeys), electronica and nu-rave, and assorted hip oldies such as Joy Division, The Smiths and Kraftwerk. And even they are pretty much outnumbered by pop fans, metalheads, punks, hip-hop types (is there a good name for people who mainly listen to hip-hop? I refuse to use the term 'heads') and people who are mainly into dance music of one sort or another. Also people who are into musical theatre if you know what I mean. Actually, I'd say the majority of folk probably just listen to Radio 1, if they care about music at all.

On the subject of the next big thing, I back the suggestions of drone and post-rock, and also maybe a sideline in 'post' black metal. The love being administered to Wolves in the Throne Room from all quarters in end of year lists is astounding.

Scarychips:
I wasn't really talking about personal experience I didn't attend to a lot of shows but I take, for example what JohnnyC said

--- Quote from: Johnny C on 30 Dec 2007, 11:50 ---Meanwhile in Regina DFA1979 had to switch venues at the last moment due to poor ticket sales.

--- End quote ---

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