Robin Rimbaud aka Scanner hails the new community spirit of social networking sites that encourage direct communications between artists and listeners.
When British pop singer John Miles trilled,
“Music was my first love and it will be my last/Music of the future and music of the past”, he could well have been celebrating the role music still plays in many of our lives today, despite the transformative impact digital technologies have had upon the means of both listening and production.
The conversation regarding the digital economy of music tends to bypass many of the more constructive aspects that have been born from this radical reworking of the traditional models. The fiery debates continue to burn, so let’s sidestep those for a moment, look forwards not backwards, and explore the possibilities of engaging with these systems – colluding rather than quarrelling.
I have been professionally engaged in producing and performing music for the last 20 years, though my enthusiasm for all types of music stems from a much earlier age, having been exposed to both John Cage and Suzi Quatro at the very same time: one at school, one at home – no prizes for guessing which one had more influence upon me. (I don’t live on Devil Gate Drive.) Very early on, I was conscious that music has always centred on a social engagement, commonly in performance, and quite unlike the solitary pursuits of writers or visual artists, working independently in their studios to create unique objects.
However, there has always remained a distance between listeners and the musicians themselves, often maintained via bombastic management companies and unresponsive record labels. But nowadays artists can mediate the experience themselves using networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Ping and (in dwindling cases) MySpace. Social networking has erased some of these boundaries controlled by the music industry, enabling fans, consumers and the artists themselves to develop an emotional relationship.
It’s impossible to underestimate the value and impact of this direct line of communication, and personally I’ve felt more of a connection than ever with people who follow my work, or those with whom I’ve collaborated or respected. Indeed, countless times I’ve written ‘fan’ emails to musicians I’ve heard on
The Wire Tapper CDs, for example, and receiving a personal response still gives me a thrill. Which is why I still try to respond to every email I receive, whether it’s from commissioners of new work or a curious student asking a technical question, or a request for yet another signed photo (but that’s inevitably my mum asking for those)...
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