Though the topic of the Atlanta Indie/Underground Hip-Hop Scene may seem like a strange and narrow topic to do a whole project on, luckily for me I have some strong ties and associations to the scene. Most of my effective ground work and true “hands-on” ethnological study will likely take place over spring break while I am actually at home, in Atlanta, and I am able to set up interviews with people and attend parties/shows. Until then I thought it may be useful to do something that is one of my favorites past times even beyond this project. I call it “MySpace surfing”. The basic premise behind this is starting off at one music artist/group/ producer/manager’s MySpace, browsing their respective MySpaces a bit until I see another person of interest and then continue the routine on the new page.
Initially, I had planned on doing my normal “surfing” routine and reporting on each individual page I go to but I think it would be more useful to just jot down some common characteristics seen on the MySpaces. On a bit of a sidebar, It is truly amazing what MySpace has done for music. It has allowed virtually anyone who makes music to make it easily accessible through the internet. Before MySpace Music pages, I am not even exactly sure how people who weren’t easily accessible to me or in my particular area or subculture. These characteristics are just a few things I have picked up on while looking at the hundreds of pages I have come across.
Here are a list of key themes & characteristics seen on ATL Indie MySpace Pages:
• Of course everyone has a profile picture with some sort of self promotion
• In addition to the generic MySpace music player that allows them to choose up to 6 songs to post, many have external players that allow them to add many more songs
• Embedded YouTube videos, some of which are just songs with pictures, others are live performances
• “Top Friends” lists are a great indicator of who the artist or group associates with
• “Top Friends” list is generally a culmination of other artists (sometimes major artists), producers, friends, managers, stores, magazines, etc.
• Many comments stating something like “thanks 4 the add” or “Love the Sound”
• Most pages are clearly done by someone who knows that they are doing and not just taken off of a “MySpace page designer” website.
Some random thoughts and questions I would like to answer at some point during this project:
• Since many artists are independent, and thus not signed to a record label, what is there main source of income? Additionally, are they students? Do they have day jobs?
• Is there a stigma attached that promotes separation from the mainstream or is it the artists’ goal to someday “make it big”
• Do the major artists from Atlanta help out the indie artists? If so, how?
• Is the scene unified as a whole or is there tension from artists to artists, clique to clique
I think that myspace is an awesome networking tool, and it has had a huge impact on how people can both listen to and promote music. However, there are huge amounts of alternative promotion tools ranging from press to radio. I would say that if you want to explore this scene more effectively long distance, you should make calls to some Atlanta radio stations that play underground hip hop, whether it is a college station or a more established corporate one - whoever is in charge of promotion or of finding new music would probably be happy to talk to you, and let you know how people in the music business find out about these things.
ReplyDeleteHope that helps,
Gabe
Hey!
ReplyDeleteThis is an exciting topic, especially to a fellow Georgian (I'm not from Atlanta though!). I think Gabe's onto something in saying that it would be interesting to try and talk to radio stations or magazines in Atlanta, even if to ask what they think of the Myspace phenomenon and try to get a sense of the trajectory of the scene--how it was, how it's changed, what they think the future is--and seeing how more mainstream outlets view or interact with underground ones. It would also be interesting to make comments or try to contact artists that you find on Myspace and see if they write back or respond to you when you reach out. I always think it's interesting to see how musicians interact with their listeners, and it could be a good way to build some contacts for interviews.
Exciting times! I can't wait to see more.
Hope that was helpful!
Marianna
I think it's really interesting that you want to understand what's going on more within the artists' lives outside of music--what is their main source of income, how are they supported, etc. That should be a really great aspect to add in terms of understanding the struggle behind trying to become famous. Also, I think it's really important how the Top Friends thing on MySpace comes into play--some artists add each other, and other artists focus on their main sources of inspiration.
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