While there is a lot of local talent around here from acoustic acts to full bands and the music scene here is lacking, there is a lot of local media around here trying to promote local music. The internet is pretty big for local music. There are plenty of online websites dedicated to promoting local music and there are other promoters trying to promote local music on various blogs too. Not only the internet promotes local music… we also have a few radio stations and sometimes TV helps promote local music. Of course, we also have local newspapers/magazines that try to help.

I appreciate that these people are trying to promote local music the best they can and trying to get us recognized as a music scene… but to be honest, I pretty much find most of these local media outlets around here is garbage. I find the local media around here to be a smaller version of Rollingstone and MTV. Journalism around this area can be just as horrible.

There is a couple of things that bother me about local media trying to promote local music:

1. There are too many talented musicians and bands around here struggling to get recognized but local media completely ignores them.
2. So called journalists and radio hosts around here like to make themselves look better and smarter than the artist they’re trying to promote.
3. During interviews… the interviewer can never think of original and interesting questions. I’m sure musicians are getting real tired of getting asked: “When did you start playing music?”, “How did your band form?”, “What is your songwriting process like?”, “What music artist influenced you?”, “What is this song about?” etc. blah blah blah, you get the deal.

So if you’re a music artist or in a band… when you get a write up somewhere online, in the paper, or had an interview on the radio… do you think these guys really care for you? I don’t think they really do ’cause all of these companies care about is money pretty much. The thing is… local media would promote an artist or band only if they created a huge buzz in the scene. If you have a large following and get a buzz going… that’s when the local media will eat that artist/band up. They obsess with bands/artists with a large following or if they got a buzz going ’cause they know that will help sell their newspapers, get more ratings for radio or more views for their websites. That’s all these phonies care about… period. End of story.

It’s not really about how talented they are or how good their music is… it’s about the popularity they obsess with. They ignore the struggling and lesser known musicians ’cause they know that the struggling musicians won’t help sell.

Now somebody will probably come around and call me jealous but I’m not. I’m only speaking from experience about this stuff. I’ve had write-ups in a few newspapers before and I did a radio-interview once–to be honest, I don’t really like how they all came out. You expect the interviews or write-ups to be the way you want it and hoping it will come out good but it’s usually how they want it. The local media is really about promoting themselves and not you. Right? Think about it. When you get a write up or an interview… they are the star and not you.

I don’t do a lot of interviews ’cause nobody really asked me and I don’t really care to do them. If I was ever asked to do an interview… I’d be all for it but it must be worth it. I must warn you, though, if I was ever interviewed for a newspaper or radiostation or whatever… I’m gonna be no different like you see me on here. I’m still gonna be outspoken, honest, tough, and controversial. If you don’t like me on the internet, you probably won’t like me in person. I’m the same guy… on the computer and off.

You see, when I promote artists and bands on my site sometimes… I tend to do tings a little differently. I promote artists and bands not because they have a large following and they got a buzz going. I promote them simply because I dig the music. If their music is good and they got my attention… then it’s worthy for a shout-out on this blog.

I know I started a new thing a while back where I was going to review stuff from bands/artists around this area and the world but I honestly stopped doing the reviews of local acts ’cause too much stuff kept coming in and it got a bit overwhelming for me. I didn’t have time to review every project that was submitted to me…and on top of that… most of the stuff sent to me weren’t that good anyways. I’ll still review local bands/artists and promote their stuff on here but only if I “dig” the music and think it’s worth it.

Back to the topic of local media, I’m not bashing the bands/artists… I’m bashing the journalists and promoters around here. They don’t do it well. They really need to let the artist/bands get a chance to shine instead of jerking themselves off, ya know?

I’m a big local music supporter. I respect all talent… in all levels and all styles. They don’t have to be popular acts either.

Local music shouldn’t be a popularity contest. We’re not celebrities or rock stars and that’s how local media treats musicians around here which is laughable, in my opinion. If you want to promote local music… a true way of supporting the scene… then set your ego aside and support it all. I mean all of it. Stop being so opinionated and respect all talent — even me. In my eyes, there’s no such thing as a “big” and “established” acts. We’re just musicians enjoying what we do. That’s it.

Kev