Artists sometimes have trouble making friends with regular people.

Especially if
they’re eccentric artists. This can hurt their potential success, given that a la
rge fan base consists mostly of regular type people. The good news is, artists c
an usually do well at befriending other artists--of greater or lesser eccentrici
ty. When artists become friends with each other and start forming communities, s
cenes, etc., their momentum often leads to artistic movements. What began as loc
al movements ultimately end up influencing global trends and styles in music, fa
shion, film, and the list goes on.
The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The British Invasion was an earl
y example of this in music. Every key British Invasion artist benefited greatly
from their peers’ success in the music industry. Collectively, the British Invasio
n created a cultural explosion throughout Europe and the US. It was, however, an
example of several different music scenes from the UK ultimately banding togeth
er to form a cultural shockwave. Up-and-comers these days need to think smaller
scale.
The Punk scene exploded in the 80s and then the Grunge scene in the 90s. These e
nded up having just as much effect globally as did the British Invasion. The pun
k scene was borne of Washington DC area hardcore bands espousing an original do-
it-yourself ethic. When one band got famous, so did others. Same thing happened
in Grunge a decade later, but this time in Seattle. If we can learn anything fro
m this, it’s that once a scene grows to encompass enough original talent, that sc
ene turns into a movement which then affects trends nationally and so on.
It’s so important to recognize that all you need for a scene to evolve into a move
ment is artists willing to reach out to one another. This means regardless of sc
ene; irrespective of genre; whether or not you live uptown or downtown, all you
have to do is connect enough bubbling talent in your city or region and *boom*.
Cultural explosion. This is where I get the term ‘brand bands together’. Don’t focus o
n just branding yourself like the major labels do for Lady Gaga and Justin Biebe
r. Those kinds of scenes are manufactured and thus usually die out as quickly as
they come up. A lasting movement and, indeed, moment, in art culture happens wh
en dedicated, original talent connects with like-minded people in the formation
of an unstoppable cultural front.

I’m sure that in every city, there are more and more people realizing that if only
each music scene quit being so cliquey, they could collectively become a much m
ore potent cultural force. That doesn’t mean metal needs to stop being so metally
and hip-hop so hippy-hoppy. It just means a couple innovators from each scene ne
ed to come together and cross-genre boundaries and single-handedly forge the nex
t era of music. It is happening. Slowly. But we need to encourage the connecting
of key players in every scene to speed it along. We also need to discourage it
from getting caught up in the old industry mentality. That will just breed a new
era of Limp Bizkits and Linkin Parks, this time targeting even younger audience
s.
Vancouver’s music scene feels that way to me. Each scene, be it metal, hardcore, i
ndie, urban, seems to be so closed in upon itself. Whenever that starts happenin
g, you know that we are on the brink of a new musical era--an evolution of music
as we know it. Will it be as cool as the Psychedelic era was? Who knows. But if
any city is ready to start building the foundation for this new era in music, i
t’s this one. We just need to mix our connectors and mavens together until somethi
ng fruitful comes of it, and then mix some more.
***