Making musical connections

The Jakarta Post | Wed, 01/23/2008 4:02 PM | Sound Check

Myspace music is making serious Internet geeks out of the nation's rock'n'rollers, rappers and divas and may even change the way we listen to music. Chris Holm is sucked into cyberspace to discover the attraction of the online music scene.

When a little-known New Zealand punk band made an unlikely, whistle-stop tour of Java earlier this year, there was one piece of technology that helped introduce the group to hundreds of new pogo-dancing, mohawked fans.

The venue was the Internet, and the instrument Myspace music. This year's latest discovery in the ever-mutating world of the Internet, Myspace has grown since its initial startup in 2003 to welcome its 100th million user in September this year. And the entertainment arm of the hugely popular social networking site is connecting bands and DJs the same way it is linking people, and is threatening to forever change the music industry in the process.

With the ability to blog and upload music, pictures and graphics, the site gives everyone the chance to create their own, personalized versions of themselves online, and then form gangs of like-minded mates to hang out with virtually, perhaps at some point even meeting in the flesh, or "meatspace", as one user puts it.

All these bells and whistles make the site particularly appealing in the tribal, fashion-conscious world of music, where artists and fans are rejecting the one-way traffic of Britney and bling-bing for something a little more interactive, and real. All this, despite Myspace being owned by someone decidedly "uncool" to most of the entertainment world, Fox News founder and media tycoon Rupert Murdoch.

"Never mind the money or the politics behind it;" says Marcel Thee, the front-man of popular Jakarta indie band Sajama Cut.

"(Myspace's) simplicity and accessibility make it like a modern version of all fundamental art movements - it allows communities to trade personal, independent thoughts and art. It represents almost the epitome of independent music … a kind of global underground," he says.

Marcel's band has been on Myspace for almost two years. While Sajama Cut's latest album is being distributed by major label Universal, the group also offer their songs on the site along with personalized cell phone ring-tones and T-shirts. They've had more than 13,000 views since their Myspace went up.

The singer says the main reason most groups use Myspace is to tell people about their gigs: "The promotional aspect of music," he says, "has certainly changed with the efficiency of online promotion, along with the decline of the 'posting up flyers all over town' mentality".

Because of its design, and the fact that it's free, the site puts fans and bands, however famous, on an equal footing, he says. This means John Doe's band has the same space as John Lennon's and everyone has a chance to get their 15 seconds of fame.

It also becomes a good place for musicians to discover new music. Artists can often download tracks for free, send each other messages, and generally do in cyberspace all the flattering, posing and bitching they do in real life.

But as trip-hop/jazz diva and Asian MTV artist Tika says, "It's not a community of just bands and musicians indulged in mutual masturbation."

"It also allows musicians and fans to interact, without having to know each other in person, which could be hard for some people who're shy and don't go out."

Tika, whose album Frozen Love Songs is released by local label Aksara, says the site comes in useful when trying out new songs on her audience: "It helps me to know people's opinion of my music, knowing who my market is, knowing what people think of my performances, all through their messages and comments," she says.

And just being online doesn't make the thousands of unknown bands on any good, Marcel reckons.

"It also opens doors for awful American idol/Indonesian idol wannabies and other terrible sorts of armchair musicians believing they are the next big thing, but shifting through bad records to find a goldmine was always part of the art of record hunting anyway."

But despite its thousands of unknowns, Myspace has also been credited for its fair share of successes. English group the Artic Monkeys, reportedly came to the attention of record company scouts in late 2004 after their site started receiving millions of hits. Their debut album sold millions of copies worldwide last year.

Then there are the acts that, while they may be too edgy for the mainstream record companies, are being writ large online. One of these "webstars" is a 20-year-old Californian rapper Jeffree Star. Flamboyantly gay, the cross-dressing former model, makeup artist and self-proclaimed "Queen of the Beautiful" has become hugely popular among American teenagers and has one of the most-added pages on MySpace -- his profile has been viewed and music listened to about 10 million times in the past year alone.

All this was done, Star says on his site, with a lot of online promotion, and the live touring to back it up.

While there are as yet no webstars of such magnitude in Indonesia -- unless you count unwilling ones like Golkar politician Yahya Zaini and dangdut singer Maria Eva -- bands here also know the value of networking, and are using Myspace to connect with other musicians not in their immediate social scene.

Apart from using it to help plan his band's tour of neighboring Malaysia, Marcel through the site has met a Japanese dance producer who wants to do a remix of one of the band's songs.

He's also been talking to record labels in the Tokyo and London about distributing the band's next album although "nothing has come of that yet".

The social reach of Myspace is also important to Bandung rapper Ucok, the man behind cutting-edge hip-hop group Homicide.

Passionate about political causes, his group's site has become a center for activists promoting land reform in Indonesia and fair trade; it also takes a stand against other issues like religious fundamentalism, the Palestinian conflict and Munir's murder.

Musically things are going well too, Ucok says. Being on Myspace has enabled him to contact hip-hop legends Public Enemy in the United States to ask them to add some raps to his songs.

"We're also recording new material for a split album with French Anarcho hip-hop group the Mary Read Collective, which will be released on vinyl in France by a hard core label, Fight For Your Mind Records," he says.

Tika's Myspace dealings, meanwhile, have not been so successful.

"I met a booking agent on Myspace who booked me for a show in Singapore and Vienna," she says.

"I didn't believe her at first until she actually got on a plane to Jakarta and met me. But both gigs got cancelled last minute. It was just my bad luck I guess."

While Myspace may be the site of the moment, in the internet world things can change quickly, with users able to easily migrate to a newer platform that does the job better. And while they are enjoying the technology, neither Ucok or Tika are overwhelmed by it.

In the end, they say, music is still about performing and recording, not surfing.

The site can even be dangerous because "it tends to get you hooked," Tika writes in a email from her Myspace web-page.

"Don't get carried away by the flattering comments you get from people and log in every 20 minutes."

"Because, 1. You don't know if those people are really sincere, and 2. You have a real life."

Artists with Myspace sites featured in this story include: http://www.myspace.com/sajamacut, http://www.myspace.com/tikamusic, http://www.myspace.com/homicidebdg, http://www.myspace.com/jeffreestar

Comments (0) | Post comment

A | A | A |