The problem with local music

[Maidendroogie]

"hey you should listen to this LOCAL band called (xx)"

Now, the way it should be:

"hey you should listen to this band called (xx)"



Band and music first,
where they're from comes later.

Who agrees?

 

[jumpingflea]

I!

they need to listen to them first before they judge.

 

[meekahsoh]

Why care so much about where's the band from? Let their music speak.

 

[vickomaniac]

mostly i do this.

"eh listen to this song. pretty good right?"
"yeah what's the band name?"
"xxx, they're local you know"
"wah serious? cool!"

 

[Godspeed64]

mostly i do this.

"eh listen to this song. pretty good right?"
"yeah what's the band name?"
"xxx, they're local you know"
"wah serious? cool!"

I do that too! Funny how people go like "Serious?!"
Hahaha.. As if local bands cannot make it in the first place..

 

[rottenramone]

shall we ask 20 ppl that qn then record their replies?

 

[biopromax]

LOL. Agree with vicko. LOL.

I like to see the response.

 

[EugeneSmasher]

I'd like to see the response, too.

I hold our indie rock scene in very high regard because they play great music and perform great shows. And they display more creativity and innovation than a good number of the world's most popular bands.

Other than indie rock, Ossuary has taught me that our metal scene isn't far behind, just not covered as much since metal, being extreme music, doesn't have as much widespread appeal as rock.

 

[Hydrofly]

I've said this before. No local speed metal bands, so nothing much here that really floats my boat. That being said, the local extreme metal acts here, are world class

 

[XLayaR]

Who cares!

Music is universal, I could be an alien with 5 *ahem ahems* and I'd still know what music I like.

 

[visa]

that's because for every good band we have, we also have lots of crap bands as well.

 

[blank]

I am one of those people who would be surprised if I found an SG band I liked, by this I mean I actually like more than 1 or 2 of their songs, even then those bands are not common.
I'm talking specifically about the self-proclaimed indie/alternative scene, the one which most people probably talk about when talking about local music.
For one, I dislike the fact that most of them call themselves indie/alternative when their just pop-rock for the most part. But who cares about that right, if the music is good it's good. Thing is, most of it isn't good. Their just poor emulations mostly. That's what I feel anyway.

I'm not saying all local music is bad by default, I want it to be good, whenever I hear a local band for the first time I put them in a positive perspective, something I don't with overseas bands. Because, I guess I just desperately want to hear what I think is good local music.

I find there are two types of people for the most part.
One of them is the mindless lover of local music, they love all music local, even if it sucks they will find some way to love it, they will constantly praise the scene for being amazing when it really isn't. They will also defend local music with a "what are YOU doing for local music" mentality. Which I think is really stupid because do you really have to be in a band making music to have an opinion on local music? Usually they are involved in the music scene themselves.
Second is the anti local music person. They don't really listen to much local music, and immediately assume that a local band is going to suck right before they hear them for the first time and they tear local music apart at every chance they get.

Anyway, I've sort of gone slightly off-topic. Basically I don't think there's anything wrong, people generally expect less from local music because well, local music for the most part is pretty damn bad, to put it bluntly, and I'm someone who tries as hard as I can to love local music. On a more positive note, I think Allura is a good band.

 

[jumpingflea]

Hey there, you've raised alot of stuffs that I would agree to actually, except maybe I would like to say indie is basically anything not on a major label, so technically, local bands can call themselves indie.

However over time, indie has developed its own sound/music such that it doesn't merely mean independent label anymore. And so, we tend to classify if a band is indie or not based on the music they produce. If going by that meaning/definition, then I agree that most local bands are not indie.

The ironic thing is that, our local music industry needs more coverage and appeal to the locals. The indie community is significantly smaller than the mainstream here. And so, if local bands want to survive long enough, they have to branch into mainstream, like Electrico which sounds radio-friendly yet alternative, but not too indie to me. If they remain indie-sounding, they become even more obscure in an obscure community, which doesn't help the situation.

I think basically, if a band wants to succeed, they have to stand out, and not sound like everybody else, which I feel is the current situation in Singapore. And if you noticed, for overseas indie bands, they also incorporate an interesting variety of musical instruments, something which you don't see in the local indie scene. Hence, the lack of an "indie sound".

 

[visa]

Funny, I haven't met these people who "love all local bands regardless of quality". Find me such a person and I can find you a local band that they won't like.

 

[AEnimic]

Sometimes people confuse the band to be of foreign origin. By saying local doesn't mean bad, it is a way of them saying the music belongs to local and that it's not an international band y'know?

LOCAL = is not a vulgarity. It's better to be called a local band than a joke. It all depends on how the person says it and how you accept it.

 

[blank]

To visa: It was an exaggeration. I was trying to put across that there are a lot of mindless scene supporters.

Hey there, you've raised alot of stuffs that I would agree to actually, except maybe I would like to say indie is basically anything not on a major label, so technically, local bands can call themselves indie.

However over time, indie has developed its own sound/music such that it doesn't merely mean independent label anymore. And so, we tend to classify if a band is indie or not based on the music they produce. If going by that meaning/definition, then I agree that most local bands are not indie.

The ironic thing is that, our local music industry needs more coverage and appeal to the locals. The indie community is significantly smaller than the mainstream here. And so, if local bands want to survive long enough, they have to branch into mainstream, like Electrico which sounds radio-friendly yet alternative, but not too indie to me. If they remain indie-sounding, they become even more obscure in an obscure community, which doesn't help the situation.

I think basically, if a band wants to succeed, they have to stand out, and not sound like everybody else, which I feel is the current situation in Singapore. And if you noticed, for overseas indie bands, they also incorporate an interesting variety of musical instruments, something which you don't see in the local indie scene. Hence, the lack of an "indie sound".

Yes I agree with you, I just didn't feel like explaining it out as I feel it's generally established that the term "indie" is now a sound. But thanks for clearing that up I'm too lazy haha.
The 'indie community' here is really non-existent. Practically all music termed 'indie' here is mainstream, go listen, pretty much all of them have accessible melodies and structures that will appeal to a mainstream audience. It's just not done very well. I agree with you on Electrico. I think they do what they do well.

I kind of disagree with you on the lack of variety in musical instruments part. I know what you're getting at though. I feel it's more of the bands that influenced most of our local bands. Singaporeans aren't exposed to much variety of music, which explains the lack of variety between bands. The worst are bands who are obsessed with one band, and their songs are basically bad rip-offs. Oh, and bands that just plain suck are all over the place too.

Personally I think if a band wants to actually make a living they should go overseas and make it over there first.

ah im tired i might say some stuff wrong oh well

 

[biopromax]

We need more festivals. Music Festival.

 

[PatheinRaindropMoe]

we, are the problems.

 

[emptyspaces]

we, are the problems.

well said.

 

[AgingYouth]

We need more festivals. Music Festival.

Why? Pray share...