Themed blogwatch: Pop music and localism

Three men. Three links. Three arguments brought to bear on the idea that rock music should be tied more closely to place.

Nick throws out this Pitchfork interview with the co-foundeds of Sub Pop:

Coming out to Olympia and plugging into KAOS was a huge shift for me, because it gave me a certain focus-- independent American music-- and I started seeing music through a particular lens. At the time, other than a handful of music geeks, people didn't recognize the value of regionalism and independent music. What happened at KAOS gave me a conceptual foundation, the basic premise being that quirkier or more unique visions typically come out of smaller companies that are concerned more about art.

My interest in regionalism goes back earlier than that; as somebody who was hanging out in Chicago and seeing records come out of a city-- you know, the Dadaistics, Epicycle, there were records that were coming out that were being completely ignored. My sense was that every city had an active scene, but because of the lack of media in the U.S., these scenes couldn't really mature. Whereas over in England, the indie scene was really thriving, and that had everything to do with the fact that [they had] weekly music magazines coming out, and you had John Peel doing a nationally broadcast radio show. I just thought that if there was a John Peel-type show in America, where everyone in the U.S. got to hear the latest Epicycle single from Chicago, then the band could actually sell more than 200 45's.

I really obsessed over the fact that every city had its own vibe and talent but that wasn't getting any kind of exposure whatsoever. Certainly not from Rolling Stone, but also from publications like New York Rocker, who were pretty much obsessed with London and New York and were ignoring these secondary cities. When I moved to the Northwest, it was the same thing all over again. There were groups like the Blackouts from Seattle who were being completely ignored, and then from Portland you had Wipers, who to this day I think are one of the greatest rock bands in the history of American music, who were putting out their own records and being completely ignored because they were from Portland. They did not have access to media.

Meanwhile, Adrian cites La Blogothèque as evidence against the supposed cultural decline of Paris. I concur (a song called "Let's Dance to Joy Division" that features a guy playing the banjo; I was as surprised as you are).

Lastly, John points out this video of Tyler Cowen getting his inner rock snob on. Nobody ever said that having a local scene precludes all cross-pollination. (I should warn you that the video includes a Mongolian throat-singing version of "The Levee's Going to Break," and it will probably make you freak out.)