Slater-Kinney - You're No Rock N Roll Fun: youtube.com/watch?v=kku7zb4unog
Do music fans still exist? Remember how there used to be fan clubs and band zines and show posters? I barely remember them at all, I think I was on the cusp of the end of the band fan.
People can't be fans anymore. If you're not a musician you're a blogger or an organizer or a photographer or a friend of the band. And if you're none of these things you likely download your favorite bands music or ripped it from your friends computer. And do people have favorite bands anymore? There is so much music available and becoming that to have one favorite band is to be limited. We've moved from being passive music listeners to being active participants in music culture.
I starting buying albums seriously at about the same time downloading became a form. I started playing shows about the same time myspace came out and press kits became irrelevant (were they relevant or necessary before?). I started recording when programs like garage band and cubase became accessible. But with this convenience, have we become lazy as musicians? Do friends still get together to make show posters and CD cases and t-shirts for their favorite bands? If you can just record something in your bedroom and send it off to whoever you want, what happens to the community?
I have noticed lately that people at shows are most often members of the music community, but fans are under-represented. What happened that we've excluded them? Has it become too hard to be a fan in this environment?
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