Is is possible for a music scene to exist without being overexposed and overhyped?

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With the invention of the internet, people know everything about all music everywhere, so there really cant be any insular scene anywhere that can thrive for a long period of time, because people find out about it, then magazines do, then magazines hype it, and then everone gets sick of it.

Can/does a scene exist?

David Allen, Tuesday, 1 April 2003 18:03 (twenty-one years ago) link

This quesiton is so meta and irrelevent it makes me want
to url.

Squirrel_Police (Squirrel_Police), Tuesday, 1 April 2003 18:08 (twenty-one years ago) link

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 1 April 2003 18:09 (twenty-one years ago) link

Yes everyone I know is sick of New Orleans brass bands because of the overexposure and hype.

Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 1 April 2003 18:11 (twenty-one years ago) link

Related thread:
Death to the Underground

I say yes, a scene can exist without being hyped & picked up on .. but only out of lack of interest - not because the scene is too accesible.

dave225 (Dave225), Tuesday, 1 April 2003 18:16 (twenty-one years ago) link

Spin Magazine has already covered that
Next.....

brg30 (brg30), Tuesday, 1 April 2003 18:21 (twenty-one years ago) link

define "scene".

Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 1 April 2003 18:26 (twenty-one years ago) link

Exposure and hype is what defines scenes; until these thigns happen it's just some friends hanging out.

Mark (MarkR), Tuesday, 1 April 2003 18:37 (twenty-one years ago) link

that's about what I thought, too, which renders the original question pointless.

Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 1 April 2003 18:52 (twenty-one years ago) link

Achrers of Loaf to thread!

Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Tuesday, 1 April 2003 19:02 (twenty-one years ago) link

I'd also like to mention that I'm going to kill you all.

Thank you.

David Allen, Tuesday, 1 April 2003 19:33 (twenty-one years ago) link

Music? yes
a Scene? no

felicity (felicity), Tuesday, 1 April 2003 19:34 (twenty-one years ago) link

No, but it's the scene's own fault. No one can stand to have something good unless they can brag to other people and make them feel bad for not having that thing. So people publicize and overhype themselves. It's a human weakness.

Nick A. (Nick A.), Tuesday, 1 April 2003 19:42 (twenty-one years ago) link

Sure it can.

I don't think anyone's over-exposing and over-hyping the Bulgarian Folk Music Revival scene (if one exists, and I imagine it does.) Here you're just going to get people arguing semantics; what does "scene" mean, and at what time does something become "overhyped"?

Anything can exist whether people know about it or not; I'd argue that "some friends hanging out" is as equal to "a scene" as anything else is.

Ian Johnson (orion), Tuesday, 1 April 2003 19:47 (twenty-one years ago) link

as long as Sonic Youth or David Bowie don't hear about it.

Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, 1 April 2003 19:50 (twenty-one years ago) link

A scene is only a scene if music critics are overhyping it, DUH.

oops (Oops), Tuesday, 1 April 2003 19:50 (twenty-one years ago) link

define "is"

ddd, Tuesday, 1 April 2003 20:09 (twenty-one years ago) link

define 'define'

oops (Oops), Tuesday, 1 April 2003 20:12 (twenty-one years ago) link

I'll use it in a sentence="define bitch just wants my ducats"

SplendidMullet (iamamonkey), Tuesday, 1 April 2003 22:17 (twenty-one years ago) link

What fun would ILM be without hype?
Without hype there would be no British music press.

Kate Silver (Kate Silver), Tuesday, 1 April 2003 22:54 (twenty-one years ago) link

Personally I think scenes are self-devouring and pointless anyway. It's better to take what you can musically from a scene and quietly back away. Example-- I like a great deal of current indie rock and even some electroclash but would not want to associate with the scene (this is assuming that I'm attractive enough to do so, which I'm not.) Certainly in the halcyon days before the Internet scenes were able to stay local, integrated and ethically purer for longer amounts of time, but as Max Weber has told us, there's no escaping the march of "progress". Scenes these days have an increasingly low shelf-life from exuberant beginnings to corporate co-optation and mass market homogenization, and it seems like staying out of them altogether is the most attractive possible option.

justin s., Tuesday, 1 April 2003 23:31 (twenty-one years ago) link

The more I think about it, the idea of a scene is rather utopian. Before a scene gets discovered it's just a few friends attending each others' shows, re: Seattle in the early 90s, Williamsburg in the late 90s. But there will always be people who aren't satisfied with the low-voltage spotlight of local zines and coffeehouse advertising. The local scene gets pushed to its discernable limits, and insane amounts of hype ensue. Seattle died HARD, and Williamsburg, to my mind, was dead long before the publication of the "Hipster Handbook" (which officially drove the nails into the coffin.) As I said earlier, it's self-defeating, because to maintain a scene involves a conflict of drives: the drive to succeed and to be heard and to prosper, and the drive to keep things small and local and somewhat contained. Because these drives cannot properly co-exist, any scene is doomed to the eternal cycle of a small beginning, a rapidly bursting middle, and a disappointingly homogenized and corporately predictable end. A sad but true story indeed.

justin s., Tuesday, 1 April 2003 23:36 (twenty-one years ago) link

i must know more about this Bulgarian Folk Music Revival scene!!!

JasonD (JasonD), Wednesday, 2 April 2003 00:27 (twenty-one years ago) link

Seattle still has a scene - just that none of the band s are as good as 1990

Manchester (UK) is not as strong musically as 1989, but there is scene.

Nothing happens by accident and any hype or emerging scene has to have a v good leading light to be a catalyst who bring a load of sub-versions with them.

For some reason - short of feature ideas usually - journalists mistaken musical gene pools in geographical terms. Ask yourself this - Who do bands know? Other bands dummy. So blow me when they are interviewed and they drop their friends band in the conversation. A new scene is born.

See Elbow wearing Moco t-shirts. Moldy Peaches mentioning everybody whoever played in the Side Walk Cafe. Detroit bands who know or a tipped by Jack White and so on and so on.

sonicred (sonicred), Wednesday, 2 April 2003 20:45 (twenty-one years ago) link

With the invention of the internet, people know everything about all music everywhere, so there really cant be any insular scene anywhere that can thrive for a long period of time, because people find out about it, then magazines do, then magazines hype it, and then everone gets sick of it.
Tuvan Throat Singing Scene!
Its uber-hyped and has even had a movie made out of it, but still only LOCALS show up for shows at the Viper Yurt!

Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Wednesday, 2 April 2003 20:49 (twenty-one years ago) link


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