Support Your Local Music

The time was the early 90’s. The place was Seattle, Washington. The movement was Grunge. The focus and growth of this music revolution stemmed from a desire to be as much like the Seattle’s local music scene as possible. A record label called, SubPop Records, exploited this idea. During this time, millions throughout the world imitated the Seattle music scene’s music, clothing, speech, and hair. 

Following the grunge explosion, the entire country's local scenes made it their mission to push their local bands to extremes, in an attempt to recreate what was taking place in Seattle. In many cities such as Athens, Georgia and a band called REM, it worked. 

Many criticized this movement as ,lacking authenticity and not a true music revolution. Despite the merits of these arguments, one thing was for sure and that was local bands were given stages to play. Local bands were encouraged to create music and the clubs were packed with eager audiences. 

The birth of the download caused the death of local music. Record sales have diminished to such an extent that the industry needs to compensate with alternative revenue generators. One of these moneymaking schemes is to double ticket sales and merchandising at live shows.

The only way to increase the door sales at local clubs and boost merchandising sales is to knock what was once the place of local band as opening act and replace with two headlining acts on the same night. The same principal applies to major tours. Gone are the days where a band has a friend in another band that gets to open for the headliner. The end result is a stifling of diverse and innovative music and more of the same homogenized corporate sludge.