DJ DiCola
Enc2135
Matt Wenzel
Project 2
The community that most piques my interest is local music scenes and independent music. I have always had a deep interest for music growing up and taught myself how to play bass during high school. Growing up there was no real music scene in my area to be involved in due to the older population of the area, meaning the only local bands ended up being Journey cover bands. However, when I first came up to Florida State, I noticed posters up all over promoting live music and events. The majority of said events/ live shows were run by Club Down Under, a club here at Florida State that organizes events free for students. Alongside Club Down Under in providing local events within the music scene is Cat Family Records, a local record company mainly focused on artists from the Tallahassee area. Often times the two organizations work in tandem with each other providing free shows to Florida State students. There are many local musicians who are involved in both groups and there are often times lots of overlap in the groups. Club Down Under mainly spreads their information on events through flyers posted around campus as well as weekly Instagram posts listing events and showing the flyers. Cat Family Records also hosts a podcast which I will be analyzing in this essay.
Analyzing the Instagram posts from Club Down Under they tend to follow a pattern of a cover photo for each week and then afterwards multiple photos of flyers for the upcoming events that week. Each week’s posts have a variation of “This week at Club Down Under” (Club Down Under Instagram) written on its cover page followed by the flyers which all include information on what band will be playing, where, and when. Their Instagram is also home to more typical Instagram posts with pictures highlighting the events they put on. Often times Club Down Under will have musicians from outside the local scene come free of charge for students. Through events like this I was able to see artists such as Cuco, and Remo Drive. Both of these artists vary greatly in their style but were both at events put on by Club Down Under showcasing their diversity in music tastes within the organization. Diversity not just in terms of music taste seems to be a big part of the music scene here in Tallahassee. Every event I’ve been to within the Tallahassee music scene has been extremely accepting of people of all races, sexual orientations, gender, and any differences in general. This seems to be something they pride themselves on as it was also mentioned in my interview with Kaylee, a local musician and intern at Cat Family Records. (Interview). At all of the events I’ve attended so far within the local music scene everyone I’ve interacted with has been extremely kindhearted and accepting of all.
Another purpose of the Club Down Under Instagram account is that it allows for discussion of events. There are often polls on their Instagram story asking which events people are most excited for. Comments also allow for discussion of events and other things allowing for people to tag friends and make plans like any other Instagram page. This allows for community building within the app and for people to further interact with each other building anticipation for upcoming events. Although this is not specific to the Club Down Under Instagram it is a very helpful feature of Instagram and the genre of Instagram posts as a whole. The level of interaction provided by posting flyers to social media creates a greater sense of community and greatly helps to keep people informed as Instagram is an app they typically would be checking anyways.
Another text within the community of local music is the Cat Family Records podcast. Each podcast opens up with a musical intro before introducing the guests for that podcast. They are sponsored by The Wilbury a local venue where they often hold events. Often times their guests are local musicians, but have also had on spoken word artists, photographers, and public speakers creating a variety in their content compared to just interviewing a band for each podcast. They often discuss the meaning behind the art that their guests create. For example, in episode 5 of the podcast they discuss the meaning of the band “Epic Ganesh’s” title and their song writing process, as well as their musical style. These podcasts act as a way for people in the Tallahassee area to better get to know local artists they would with larger acts through more mainstream media outlets would. This allows for artists to further spread the message of their art and allow for an insurance that arts message won’t be misunderstood. The podcast also allows for artists to promote other bands they find interesting and for them to make announcements about things like show dates and other events. Artists are given a platform to announce whatever they want to their fans or the general local public that they may not have otherwise.
One struggle local music scene throughout the country are facing is the corporatization of music festivals and concerts. Often times local music scenes and venues can be overtaken and put out of business by large festivals. “The presence of the festival diminishes the ability for smaller firms that are affected by the festivals to attract enough popular bands to fill their schedule, perhaps leading to closure or deterring entry” (Exclusive Dealing and Its Effects: The Impact of Large Music Festivals on Local Music Venues) This has not happened in Tallahassee as the majority of festivals take place in Atlanta or Orlando, with many of the larger musical acts coming to town through Club Down under or performing at clubs on the Strip. Another being the increase in streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music, which can be hard for smaller artists to be able to get access to without the help of a record company. Spotify tried to solve this problem earlier this year by allowing users to upload their own music to their service in a similar way to how SoundCloud does but faced legal issues after record companies complained about people uploading unreleased music from their signed artists. Often times artists are unable to access these major music streaming platforms, however that’s where local record companies such as Cat Family Records come in. They make it easier for artists to distribute and promote their music than if artists were purely independent. Although not impossible to get your music uploaded to Spotify and apple music as an independent artist there is the hassle of having to pay a third party to get it uploaded. Soundcloud as mentioned earlier has been a haven for independent artists and different local music scenes throughout the country. One example of this is with Miami’s rap scene which exploded on the site in the past few years featuring some of the top rap artists in the world such as XXXTentacion, Ski the Slump God, Lil Pump, Lil Peep, and many more. Although not exactly the same and not a distribution company Club Down Under does a similar service to SoundCloud in that it allows for upcoming artists to be given the spotlight to Tallahassee locals and students.
Local music scenes throughout the country allow for personal growth and expression, furthering humanity and bringing people together. During my first week here in Tallahassee I went to a concert put on by club down under and met some of my friends who I am now very close with. My main friend group here in Tallahassee formed after me and my friend Jackson met our friend Amanda at a Remo Drive concert then went back to meet some of their friends and other people we knew. As someone who has experienced first-hand, I can say that music has a great capability of bringing people together. Local music has the capability of strengthening communities and Club Down Under does just that through their events. With the majority if not all of their events being free to Florida State students, they create a great environment to meet new people or to simply bond more with people you already know.
An issue that arises in all forms of culture is influence from the outside. As the world leans more and more into globalization of culture its small independent local communities such as music scenes which keep local culture alive. This can be seen in some of the artists mentioned before which have very distinct sounds often associated with the area they rose to fame in, for example XXXTentacion and Ski Mask both have very distinct sounds associated with the Miami scene they came from. From their lo-fi production, to their heavily distorted bass heavy beats they created a distinctly South Floridian/ Miami sound which rose in popularity throughout the world. Local music has the ability to empower artists and to shape the sounds of popular music, however you can also say that popular music has the ability to shape the sound of local music as well. With tools like SoundCloud and other music sharing online platforms comes the degradation of “local sounds” as there is more influence from the outside world on local communities making music. Gone are the days where the only musicians you get from certain areas all fitting the same genre. A good example of this being the band Brock Hampton, a collective of artists who met online before moving to Texas together to work on music. Now typically when you think of music coming out of Texas you think conservative country music, however with Brock Hampton they create rap music focused on the different backgrounds, sexualities, race, and educational levels within the group, further breaking down stereotypes for music typical to their area. Although it can be argued that such influence of the outside world could be a negative for local music scenes, they seem to embrace them and allow for new kinds of music and people to flourish within their communities.
Another interesting thing I found when researching the local music community is their charity work. Cat Family Records has worked with local adoption shelters and put on Cat Fest four times so far with their fourth annual Cat Fest taking place this past October. It was free and promoted adoption of animals from Black Cats and Old Dogs, and Meow or Never. All the revenue from the event went into supporting those adoption agencies and towards funding Cat Fest 5 next year. Cat family records and its close ties to nonprofits helps to bring the music community together with other communities within the area further building connections for those involved. They work to further not only the local music community, but they also have shown that they have worked to better the community as a whole. They have consistently over the past years provided aid to local nonprofits through their cat fest festival and brought together these two communities of nonprofits and musicians in order to better both as a whole. This work is not only important for the specific contributions it makes to the charities but also in regard to that it influences other local artists and organizations to do the same and contribute to local nonprofits, leading by example.
A topic I have yet to discuss yet is the entertainment value of local music. With so many interesting unique takes on different genres of music there is something for everyone. The creativity that flourishes in this community allows for artists to support each other and collaborate to create innovative art. There’s a good chance that whatever kind of music you like there is someone in your local area making that kind of music. The fact that they are local means you are able to go out and see them play shows live where you may not be able to do that with more mainstream bands who may not come to your area on a tour. This entertainment is often times way cheaper, and in the case of Club Down Under its free for Florida State students, as well compared to larger acts allowing for more people to enjoy a night out and enjoy themselves. This allows for more people from more walks of life to come together as mentioned later.
Local music scenes have continuously provided innovation to music as they accept change and better allow for experimentation than most mainstream music. With less pressure and financial worries that comes from fame, local music scenes are often the frontlines for musical and creative innovation. This has shown throughout the decades with local music scenes being the inspiration for multiple genres including grunge, and Indie Rock. This innovation provided by these solitudes of a creativity influence pop culture as a whole. Local music allows for artists to find their sound and to establish themselves as serious musicians. This is exemplified in the Cat Family Records podcast where artists are given a platform to provide an image to their audiences of their work. The innovation for art which local music provides is unparalleled as musicians often are forced within boundaries to create art, introducing new creative ideas within previously developed concepts. This innovation is often times stifled at the higher publicized levels of the music industry as it is seen as a straying from formulas that have shown to work and to many large corporate record companies is seen as a risk to their profits.
Local music has continued to promote inclusivity and acceptance of others with a wider array of people from different background. As anyone is able to pick up an instrument and join into their local music scene it allows for the collaboration of people who may come from different cultures, races, sexualities, genders, etc., further bringing together communities. This clashing of different upbringings allows for the sharing of culture and further empathy and acceptance of others from people who may not have been able to see the view of others. This inclusivity has immense effects on the area as a whole, as when people are more understanding of different cultures it leads to further collaboration outside of music and into things that can help to better the community as a whole. This is shown at Cat Family Records where there is a diverse group of people working together to try and further their artists careers whilst simultaneously promoting charity and good doing in the local community through their cat fest series. The generosity, support, and kindness that the local music scene provides allows for artists to freely create whatever works of art they wish to without fear of judgement and with a great support system. This support system is very important as within art there’s the typical stereotype of the struggling artist but within a music community people are willing to support each other and help make sure their fellow artists are doing alright.
Another influence local music has is its ability to create change. Often times political messages in music won’t reach the masses within mainstream music as the views may be too polarizing but with local music artists are able to freely discuss their views and what they view as right. This was the case in the early 90s when the riot girl feminist movement was on the rise. Although they didn’t have the largest following in music at that time, they were able to use their music to organize things like protests and garner support for their political messages of equality and fair treatment of women. With local music being able to be political you also have the benefit of being able to spread the message of local issues to a greater population and create more interest and support for the problems plaguing their communities. This was evident in the rap scene of Compton California with artists like Kendrick Lamar often times writing on the socio-economic issues of black people in the area and their ever-growing influence and threat of gang violence. This message coming from a kid from Compton has reached the masses and allowed for a broader discussion of police brutality and gang violence as a whole. Kendrick Lamar is a great example of how local problems are often similar throughout the world/ country and how discussion of local problems can lead to the betterment of society as a whole.
Overall, after my research I found that local music is extremely vital to pop culture and music as a whole as well as being a great community in which to find friends, and express yourself, or to support others doing so. They tend to be accepting and allow for innovation and experimentation, allowing for unique takes on all kinds of genres of music. I also learned that within the Tallahassee community things are run mainly by Club Down Under which uses flyers and Instagram as its main form of communication. As well as the use of the Podcast run by Family Records to promote and allow for local artists to have a voice to the public. Both of these texts provide artists with a platform and encourage the creativity of local artists looking to further exposure to their works. The local music scene of Tallahassee works to bring together people whilst creating art and providing support for local nonprofits, which overall is a great contribution and leads by example for the future generations of musicians. Local music communities tend to be places of acceptance and support for those who want to create art and express themselves allowing for innovation and creativity to flourish bettering art throughout the world.
Work Cited
1.“Kaylee, intern at Cat Family Records, Interview in person, October 2019”
2. Hiller, R. Scott. “Exclusive Dealing and Its Effects: The Impact of Large Music Festivals on Local Music Venues.” www.jstor.org/stable/43550481.
3.Club Down Under Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/clubdownunder/
4. Garcia, Ahiza. “Spotify Will No Longer Let Artists Upload Their Own Music.” www.cnn.com/2019/07/01/tech/spotify-independent-artists-upload-music/index.html
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