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| From | "Michael Bennett" <mrhonorama@hotmail.com> |
| Subject | Post-poll thoughts (RE: Admin Questions) |
| Date | Sat, 24 Jan 2004 10:15:14 -0600 |
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Dan --
This year, 173 Auditeers submitted votes. Two years ago, 179 folks voted,
the highest total in seven years of the poll.
Jason observed that majors had a larger presence than before, and I checked
the past results, and, of course, he's right! There have been years where
only a handful of major label discs made the list.
There are two things that may explain this --
1. It just so happens that a lot of artists with Audities appeal happened
to be on majors. Looking past the majors, a few of the 11 indies are not
too far from majors, in that you can walk into any store and get something
on Rykodisc (Josh Rouse) or V2 (The White Stripes, Grandaddy). The
distinction means less.
2. If you look at the indie artists on the top 20, they have something in
common -- they all are, to one extent or another, established artists. IKE
is the only debut record, but with the John Faye connection, it's still not
like a total rookie. The highest placing debut on an indie, other than IKE,
was The Singles at #25. Meanwhile, Rooney, The Thrills and Jet all placed
debut records in the top 20 (my theory about IKE applies much more so to
'supergroup' The Thorns).
I think indie artists need a bit more time to permeate a wider audience,
even one that's as keen (I mean, of course, both keen in the sense of
demanding and acute, and the sense of being, you know, keen) as the Audities
list. For example, The Shins and The New Pornographers did not make the Top
20 with their debut albums. And word of mouth rippled, so that by the time
album two came out, they had a much larger audience. (Ex. -- The NPs first
show on ELECTRIC VERSION in Chicago at 1,000 seat venue, The Shins on CHUTES
TOO NARROW at 1,200 seater).
This effect may be somewhat exacerbated when we have a larger number of
voters, because when there's a larger pool of voters, there are probably
more voters who buy a limited number of discs -- and their purchases are
likely to skew to the titles that are more commonly known and available.
This is totally a theory.
And one more thought --
3. When I joined the Audities group in 1997, I joined at a very exciting
time. There was an explosion in the power pop and pop world. A convergence
of factors (cheaper recordings costs, the Internet, labels like Not Lame and
Jam and, at the time, Big Deal) suddenly gave an outlet to a lot of artists
with a general common pop sensibility. Throw in Poptopia and then IPO, and
these artists not only could sell their records, they had a place where they
could play and get the type of validation that folks playing pop and power
pop in the early '90s couldn't have dreamed of.
While this was going on, melodic pop was also finding vogue with a younger
constituency. Whether it was Belle & Sebastian or Elephant 6 or Pernice
Brothers, melodic pop also hit. And of course, in Sweden, just as one
example, you had power pop bands, bands taking a Cardigans/Saint Etienne
path and lots of other '60s influenced acts.
So, just 6 or 7 years ago, I think there was this intense focus. If you
were a big power pop fan or '60s pop fan or (name subgenre), you could learn
about a bunch of bands and explore them. I think that this focus has
diminished, in part because it's really danged hard to keep it up, and in
part, because the newness has worn off. It's not that there aren't plenty
of good pop and power pop records coming out -- it's that there are so many.
It's weird. What we call pop is not popular, chartwise (with a few
exceptions). And yet, more artists seem to be playing in these pop styles
than ever. Which actually makes it harder for them to break through or
develop a larger following. Thus, the pop artist who ends up on a major or
a bettern known indie has a tremendous advantage.
Enough rambling --
Mike Bennett
NP: Don Rich and The Buckaroos -- COUNTRY PICKIN' (The Don Rich Anthology)
Record reviews and more at http://fufkin.com
>From: "Franke, Dan" <DFranke@proficientdata.com>
>Reply-To: audities@smoe.org
>To: "'audities@smoe.org'" <audities@smoe.org>
>Subject: Admin Questions
>Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 15:10:18 -0600
>
>Out of curiosity...
>
>Michael Coxe -
>Do you have a tally of the total number of list members?
>
>Michael Bennett -
>You said that it was the second largest voter turn out.
>How many people voted this year & what's the record?
>
>Thanks
>
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