Culturebroker MusicCast #1: New Music Discovery One City at a Time

by Michael Bridgett · January 26, 2016

Discovery, whether dolphins or new music, is always exciting.

According to an online study released earlier this year on Skynet and Ebert, people just stop caring about any music they don’t already know about once they hit 33. As a music lover and musician myself, I found this particularly disconcerting. Mostly because I don’t often enjoy watching cover bands, but also because of the difficulty in making a living writing and playing new music.

New Music

Barring any notion that the study incorrect or relied too strongly on Spotify for its data sampling, the conclusion reached still leaves us with only 2 options for true music lovers and society at large:

People under 33 need to listen to as much music as possible before they start hating everything made by someone younger.
People over 33 need to do a better job finding new artists to enjoy.

I believe that this trend of stalling interest in musical discovery is just that – a trend. This is not some sort of immutable truth. It just happens to be where our culture is currently. Rather than using this as an excuse to fall back into nothing but 90’s Spotify playlists, Bon Jovi concerts, and barber shop arguments about rappers who have been dead for over a decade, we can use this as an an opportunity to demand more from ourselves and the art we ingest. This is our chance to push ourselves to connect music in a more meaningful way and rekindle our love of the new and different rather than close ourselves off to it.

Because it isn’t just the data that spells a disconnection from music and the special way it connects a culture or various subcultures. When we refused to support new or local music, we are complicit in allowing corporate entities shape our artistic identity. We allow ourselves to purchase and promote whatever agenda the Company with the most money deems lucrative. What’s good or useful to society is a distant second to whether or not something is profitable, lest we forget “Fancy” by Iggy Azalea and Charli XCX is our Billboard Music “Best Rap Song” award winner of 2015.

With our dollars, shares and attention, we can put the little guy on. We can push messages that matter to us and celebrate people making great things rather than complaining about how much better music used to be. Because we are out here making amazing things for your enjoyment. The media we consume does affect us. It affects us greatly. If it didn’t, you wouldn’t need over a million dollars to air a 30 second spot during the Super Bowl. It doesn’t matter if you’re 17 or 70, somebody is out there making music just for you, and since most of us can’t turn our ears off; why not listen to something novel that we love.

For our part, fellow Austin musician Andrew Molever and I will each choose recent music from different locations to showcase the interesting sounds the world is making. Your town. Your scene. Your music. Hopefully, a sonic guidebook will help get more artists and songs heard and enjoyed. You’re busy. You’re busy. Let us help you track the tracks.

This week, on the Culturebroker MusicCast we talk music and drop a little history as we explore sounds from Austin, Brooklyn and Baltimore. There’s a little Jazz, a little Punk, and lots of Hip Hop to get us started.