This is my first blog post. I wanted to take this opportunity to introduce myself. I am a musician. I'm a fighter. I am a survivor. I am an artist. These are all words you have to have in your vocabulary nowadays. Music has never been so available and more threatened than ever before. What I mean is music is art, art is subjective. Yet you wouldn't see my kids fingerprinting next to a Monet. Don't tell my kids that. Yes, I realize that kids are untrained and lack the experience a seasoned painter has, but you get my point. There has always been bad music and good music, some people like good music and hate bad music others the opposite is true again it's subjective. But where do we draw the line? Is all art acceptable? Do you no longer need any raw talent to make music?
I recently tried to get on a well-known "Americana/Alt-Country" playlist and was rejected for my song "Let it Ride"(Produced by a Grammy winner). I'm used to rejection that's not what bothered me. What bothered me was that I went and listened to this playlist for 2 hours. It was garbage. I submitted to it because it was popular not because it was good (my mistake). The playlist was far from what it advertised to be. It made me sad because there are not a ton of places like this online for Alt-Country, Americana, Blues, etc. Not the traditional great music, or even a twist on great music. It's a hard market. You have pop-country (Awful) Indie Folk/Rock (hit and miss) but no real playlists that cater to the craft of up-and-coming alt-country artists. There are so many influencers and bloggers that don't even know what roots music is and they flood the online scene with a plethora of bands and artists that should stay in their garage. We all start somewhere but I'm from the old school attitude that you earn your place in this business like any job. I appreciate someone trying to pour their hearts out in song and everyone should have that right but not everyone should make music and flood it into Spotify. There are a lot of very talented musicians that never get the attention they deserve because they are silenced by the vast pool of less talented people. You know the people that copy, paste, use pre-made beats, autotune all the vocals, and have no actual lyric content to the song? Yes, they probably are more popular than my music and may have twice as many online followers. But it's a trend, not a long-lasting solid musical style in my opinion. We need real players to push the musical boundaries. That's why I made this blog to share my love of what I find amazing music from new artists. So send me your stuff, I'll feature it on here and with my social media following. Take care of yourself, for the love of music.
-S