Putting S'pore's Alternate Pop/Rock Music On The World Stage

[HeartRockSingapore]

Just hoping to a a little something for our bands here with a public forum that will probably include major media players, government agencies, record companies and investors as panel members. Some of the issues we hope to address are listed below but please feel free to add on.

Do Singappore's alternate pop/rock bands have what it takes to make it to the global stage?

Is there a market for them domestically and overseas?

Who are the Singaporean alternat pop/rock musicians who made it in the global market?

Do you think Singapore should focus on marketing the works of our musicians or the musicians themselves?

 

[Darren]

toughie

I dont know man... all those are tough questions.

But one thing for sure is learn ur instrument. Doesnt matter if you make it big or not, you learn cos u like what u play and wanna get good at it. Not for screaming girls or boys sake, not for showing off, just because man.

We are coming up with pretty darn good shit, but somehow it lacks originality (yes i assume i already pissed some off). Music is rehash but delivery and arrangment is not. Even production can make a huge difference in a genre of music.

One example is Sigur Ros, small country based band got international. Most of us cant even understand what he is singing but we dig it.

A good song with an equally good production can go somewhere. Too bad MIM is killing some artists here.

 

[madmonkeykungfu]

my $.02

Honestly I don't care.

When we are good enough, the world will notice us. The most powerful publicity/marketing tool is through word of mouth. That hasn't changed abit imho.


But of course if you wanna make music as a business, thats a whole different thing. Because more than often, business marketing aims to make consumers believe that the product is better than it actually is.

I think ronin and electrico's main target audience are the below 21s (the Empty V audience). So far I think they are quite successful in that marketing area.

I forgot what else I wanna say, I think I'll go drink some kopi now.

 

[JoshuaG]

Just some thoughts of the top of my head....

Just what is your definition of alternate pop/rock bands? Alternate is a commonly mis-used word in my opinion. A screamo band may be considered as alternative rock. It just seems an area that isn’t too defined and yet I believe it points to only a particular kind of music. That being said, then I guess you would have to define who do we intend to direct this alternative music at, in terms of a market or audience…

Do Singappore's alternate pop/rock bands have what it takes to make it to the global stage?

Again a definition is required here…what does the term made it mean? What does it allude to? And what kind of attributes are we looking at that would make up a list of “what it takes”[/quote]

Is there a market for them domestically and overseas?

Again this I would say this depends on the musical genre on subgenre and its subsequent audience or market we are trying to get into…then again this would be different from creating demand for Singaporean artistes…

Who are the Singaporean alternat pop/rock musicians who made it in the global market?

Again a definition of “made it” is required. Are we talking sales figures? Are we talking critically acclaimed?

Do you think Singapore should focus on marketing the works of our musicians or the musicians themselves?

Yet another definition required, just what is this idea of marketing and what would it entail for a local band on a global scale….then perhaps we can decide…In my opinion this is a two parter meaning it takes two hands to clap…local musicians have certain avenues to market…which has a certain reach but is still limiting…the big boys have access to certain areas such as programming, media coverage on a larger scale…

 

[HeartRockSingapore]

Sorry for using shortcut terms, but from a broad business term, we could probably divide music into three broad category... the classical, contemprory pop and alternate pop (rock, metal, punk etc etc). And if we pursue a broad business plan, we would invariably bring on genre that are not typically classical nor contemproray pop. I cannot define these as indie either as the exact term indie means non-signed, and of course the word alternate is too mis-used.

Within a broad discussion premise, the questions hence are opened to varying interpretations and definitions. Whether "made it" means critically acclaimed or having reached phenomenal sales are both good materials for discussion and understanding, and too...marketing should entails all aspects of marketing, whichever course of action is appropriate.

But what needs to be clarified all the more is the last part where the questions seeks understanding of the differentaition between the musician's works and the musician, and not in comparison with any big boys. Pardon me if the questions misleads. What I try to bring across is for example some of us here are very good songwriters but they don't have a voice, of some with superb vox but doesn't play an instrument. Is is also one more way to go when people starts writing songs for other bands, or bands composing music for some great vocals?

Just some thoughts that might help.

From the two previous posts by Darren and MadMonkeyKunfu, who I guess are coming from the point of purely for the love of music and having less interest in the business of it. And this is also a point we hope to address. Does Singapore has enough musicians who are serious enough to want to make a living out of music? If one goes pro on music, does it means a sell out to a pure spiritual pursuit as some claims it? Do we have the critical mass to make the alternate pop scene even more vibrant and growing?

:lol: My comments are with well intentions and not to be misconstrued.

 

[khai_stereotype]

for me,

i think us musicians have to prove ourselves first.
we do have alot of talents and great bands.
but usually gigs doesnt have alot of media attention/coverage. except certain ones. maybe with great bands,we can reel in media people during gigs.

 

[khai_stereotype]

for me,

i think us musicians have to prove ourselves first.
we do have alot of talents and great bands.
but usually gigs doesnt have alot of media attention/coverage. except certain ones. maybe with bigger shows, awesome bands then we reel in media people during gigs, then perhaps there'll be more attention then it is now.

public music forums will enhance the media dramatically. good idea subversion.

 

[khai_stereotype]

for me,

i think us musicians have to prove ourselves first.
we do have alot of talents and great bands.
but usually gigs doesnt have alot of media attention/coverage. except certain ones. maybe with bigger shows, awesome bands then we reel in media people during gigs, then perhaps there'll be more attention then it is now.

as for the world,
maybe we have to do well in our country first.
then slowly our neighbouring countries will listen to our music and the maybe the world.

public music forums will enhance the media dramatically. good idea subversion.

 

[Mobius]

The Local market for music is dictated by what is "cool" internationally, i.e we are like a bunch of sheep following the trends overseas. This is largely due to the media and of cos our small market. Our small market makes the company play it safe and don wanna "take risks". Their thinking is that since watever international act is famous, it should also garner some attention here as well.

Record companies are ultimately business entities, they think about the profits, and u cant blame them for that. So whoever they sign on and promote, it must make business sense ($$$) to them otherwise they wont invest. Right now, sad to say, there isn't much confidence in local music.

In fact if u looked at the local chinese popstars who made it, u can see that the record companies also don have much confidence in the local market as well. Sun Yanzi, A Do, JJ and so forth were promoted in the Taiwanese market before they were promoted here. This speaks volumes, meaning that the companies feel that the local audience only listen to music that is popular overseas.

As for the alternative/rock band thing, both these genres are in the first place not ur mainstream type of music, so the audience of cos will be very little, and as mentioned above, the companies are unlikely to invest anything in them.

I have a discussion recently with my friend about the amount of talented musicians we have in this forum and yet none of them have made it big. And my friends' reply was that "The music that they play (metal,rock, alt rock or etc) have no market here". Sad but true.

So if there is no market here, it doesnt mean its the end, go overseas if u really are very passionate about ur music.

As for the forum idea, its a good way to promote awarness. But it must be sustained, ie have it anually or every 6 months or etc, in order to have a better and long lasting impact.

 

[Fruitwine]

hmm. honestly, i think singaporeans have the ability to make it, if they choose to. essentially, its up to them(us) to carve that niche in the global industry if we want to, no one is going to give it to us just coz we ask for it(or in some cases, whine)

1. definately. if there are alternate pop/rock bands from all over the places making it big, what makes them better than us? its just the willingness of us singaporeans, both the musicians and the producers/whatevers to choose to take that chance and hantam.

2. domestically, eventually. as mentioned above, singaporeans tend to follow the "cool" ( or in some cases, "kewl" ), which is mostly defined by the bigger overseas powers. so, why not let singaporeans get to that standard, and market em there first? of course, CDs and such can be released, but essentially, radio stations play mostly stuff from overseas, so why not go overseas first?

3. i have no idea.

4. i think its more important to market the works of the musicians, first and foremost. if a musician churns out crappy music, he wont make it big, period. most artistes overseas, i feel, tend to have a few hit singles, and more or less, ta-da, they're there. so, get the hit singles going first, and i suppose its all set.

my humble view straight from highly damaged brain to you. take it with a pinch of salt :wink:

 

[MichaelAngelo]

talent wise, technical skills wise, song catchiness(appeal) wise, our local bands are sometimes at world class level. I mean, u see, bands like Blink 182 broke huge with the "whiny" voice and the 3chord guitars, why? because their society is willing to promote ANYTHING that sounds nice! Blink may not be technically pro, but their songs are indeed catchy.

Now, in Singapore's case, Ronin is somewhere up there too...they sound like Guns n Roses(guitars), and the voice is very unique too! But why arent their CDs found all over the world, why arent they making tours all over the world(as in US, UK, etc.)? Because the local divisions of companies(Universal, Warner...etc.etc.) who have the power to take them far LOOK DOWN on their own people! They have a stupid, old, outdated mentality that local bands are unappealing, wont make money, so they dun even dare to touch them, lest they lose money.

 

[serialninja]

no, it's because Universal just deals with distribution for the most part. Universal isn't going to sell these bands overseas unless there's a demand.

so if Ronin, for example, decides to go to Vietnam and tour a number of times, and they become popular and there's a demand for their album, Universal will begin to distribute there. but Universal's not gonna try and distribute them in a place where there's no demand already. i think they're basically just testing the waters to see if singapore bands are commercially viable to begin with.

in the case of american bands/singers, they get distributed and promoted heavily in the US and then in Europe, and subsequently the rest of the world catches on, interntional demand rises, and bands get distributed internationally.

singapore bands probably won't be responsible for any major changes in international taste in music because even a groundbreaking band local band that captures all of singapore is only dealing with a market of 4 million people (assuming EVERYONE in singapore buys the album, which is highly unlikely)

in order to be groundbreaking enough for a label to want to distribute internationally and promote heavily, the band must be groundbreaking musically, AND be commercially viable throughout a huge market like Asia before it will be taken seriously. genre-busting bands like Incubus were commercially viable throughout the US market, which is huge, before they got distributed and promoted internationally.

 

[HeartRockSingapore]

So is it about time some of us go out there and sell our bands, or their CDs?

 

[soft]

i would love to attend the forum. we got to hear it from the horse's mouth.

 

[rottenramone]

..

of course must go out.

touring's the main thing for selling your material/merchandise

 

[serialninja]

well in a sense, to sell the CDs you have to sell the bands. the band must make music that appeals to people, because generally speaking, people don't buy things that they dislike.

to be commercially successful, at least.

from a personal perspective, i write music that i like, and i'm happy when others like it. if enough people like it, it's possible that it could be commercially successful, but commercial success isn't the starting point or the end goal.

 

[HeartRockSingapore]

I guess our musicians here are a blessed lot . The good life has given us the freedom to choose what we like to do. Can we get people to like what we like? If you think this is negatively toned you are wrong. Yes, why can't we get people to like what we like? But of course you got to be honest in delivering what you like in its best possible form. Right?

The tricky part of things here is, do we wait for people to notice us or do we get our stuff out to every possible person out there?