Ultimate Guide to Independent Record
Labels & Artists
(The Intro)
This
book is a treasure map. It will take you to independent record labels.
It will take you to haunting rhythms, cherished melodies, warm harmonies
and exotic blends.
You'll find
familiar artists. Some have older recordings that indies rescued from
exile. Others keep their juices hot while between major contracts.
Still, others prefer life in the independent lane. You'll find
performers that you never heard of; but I guarantee you'll wish you had.
What is an
independent label? The easiest definition is that it is not a major
label -- one of the six international megacorps that control
approximately 85% of the record market.
The majors
are: BMG, MCA, Polygram, Sony, ThornEMI and WEA
Nearly 9 out
of every 10 dollars spent on records goes for product recorded,
manufactured and distributed by one of those six corporations. The
well-financed majors dominate broadcast time and print space, as well as
rack space in most record stores.
People at the
majors are not bad human beings. They love their dogs, families and
shrinks. They certainly love music or they wouldn't be in the record
business.
Still, the
sheer size and wealth of these global corporate giants creates two
monstrous dynamics. Their massive overheads discourage release of
records that will not "sell well." (i.e. They will not reach sales of
hundreds of thousands in a relatively short time.) This condemns
countless worthy projects to silence.
Secondly, the
majors use powerful promotion machines to advance a flood of product
performed by artists with mass market name recognition. The virtual
control of airwaves and print enforces a kind of Gresham's Law where bad
music drives out the good. Or, if a tree fell in a forest and no one was
there to hear it, the chances are that the tree was not on a major
label.
Why do
independent label people even bother to compete with the majors? They
can't help it.
Unlike the
majors, each independent label stands for something. So many record
companies listed in this book jumped into being because an individual
believed a band should be recorded; a musical genre should be shared; a
heritage should be preserved; or a region should be honored.
Pause for a
moment and say a prayer for independent record companies. They are to
music what Ben & Jerry are to rain forests; what Tom & Jerry are to
violence; and what Dean & Jerry were to comedy. They respect it. They
enrich it.
So much
happens first on independent labels. For example, indies have been
releasing marvelous recordings of Louisiana music (Cajun, New Orleans
Rhythm & Blues, Zydeco) for years. These efforts helped nudge the music
into the mainstream consciousness.
So much
happens last on independent labels. That too is important. The labels
rescue historically significant, musically potent recordings from limbo.
These range from piano rolls to last year's cut-out albums.
While writing
this book, I spoke with so many of the impromptu entrepreneurs whose
vision, hope, despair, and outright bad attitude has helped nourish
quality music.
It was an
education, particularly in the arena of categories.
I long had
distinguished between the "music fan" and the "music lover." The fan
always applies tests. Who's better than whom? Who's the original? Who's
the copycat? What type of music embodies the only path to a better life?
Which music is by its nature unclean? The fan loves and hates; embraces
as true, and condemns as impure.
The lover
listens. I learned this distinction by talking with musicians during my
years as a journalist. I found that the better musicians enjoyed
exposure to more kinds of music and had greater appreciation for
musicians working in different genres. (By "better" I mean those with
superior skills and a more substantial approach to interpretation and/or
improvisation.) The phrase "music is music" repeatedly floated to the
surface.
Both fan and
lover are styles of passion; but I liked to think of myself as a music
lover. It seems I was a fan. Categories were more important to me than I
had realized. I had ruled out sprawling land masses of music because I
did not listen. Meeting the heart and soul in so many different kinds of
music depleted my supply of myopia. Polka? Fine! Mantovani? Cool! Opera?
Not so fast!
Dealing with
genres was one of the trickiest portions of this project. I need
categories to direct you to music you love; but my cookie cutters were
stalled. Are all singer-songwriters folk artists? Should the one with an
Arkansas drawl be put in the country and Western camp? When the music
has a beat is it folk-rock, country-rock or rock or country or folk?
Then there's the music that has no respect for the provinciality of
borders. Rock and rollers jam with African tribal drummers. Irish
fiddlers play counterpoint to Yiddish clarinetists. An Indian sitarist
adds a drum machine.
No wonder I
was singing "I can't get no nomenclature."
You'd think
people running these labels could settle matters. For many of them "what
types of music do you do "was a thoughtless if not downright painful
question. After all, if they had wanted to be enslaved by conventional
categories, they could just as well have gone to work for the majors.
I felt as if
I were a waiter at the United Nations dining room. Each table spoke a
different language. And then there were the dialects. It was my job to
serve and respect each of them. The categories you'll find here reflect,
as much as possible, what people told me. They are included more for
convenience than scholarship. Use them to be a music fan. Jump to the
listings that are in tune with your passions. Use the categories to be a
music lover. Grab your passport, leap across all borders, and explore.
Music is music.
Research
proved that music with meaning doesn't just come from a few square
blocks in New York and Los Angeles. It also comes from places like
Shallowater (TX), Sedro Wooley (WA), Galax (VA) and Hackensasck (NJ).
Just as people from all over the country love to listen to music, so do
people from every imaginable zip code make and share music.
And I lost a
sweet illusion. It is fun to think of the people who run the labels as
monkish keepers of the sacred word, dedicated shunners of fashion. And
there is some evidence of that. Still, in their own starry ways, they
are quite an astute lot. Many have a better grasp of successful
marketing techniques than the mighty major labels. They have fashioned
highly individual strategies for doing business. Some even have dollar
signs where eyeballs ought to be. And yes some are, as Leonard Cohen
would put it, "beautiful losers." All keep music alive because they're
earthly enough to act.
Don't tell
them about Don Quixote. They're like Cyrano when he was advised to
consider Quixote's example.
"Tilting
against windmills," Cyrano was told, "will knock you down into the mud."
"Or," Cyrano
replied, "fling me up into the stars."
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