I hate to say it mate, but in a consumer society if people don't buy the
stuff then it don't get played on radio. C'est la vie. Acid-Jazz has taken
off on our side of the pond. We have a music buying public with varied music
taste whereas in the US I suspect there are a lot of people who want to
listen to the rubbish put out by the stations there. On the one hand I wish
AJ would take off in America and get the recognition it deserves but on the
other hand, while it remains 'underground' (what even BNH!!??) you've got
something special. You have to play the stuff to your friends, get them to
play it to their friends, go to the gigs, and the record companies have to
get the bands touring out there. Led Zeppelin (a very bad example to use but
as a fan one I'm familiar with) didn't really take off in England and spent
most of their time touring the US and drawing thousands to their gigs. They
never released a single (the record company occasionally did and the band
would sue them to get it withdrawn) - they were an albums band and
popularity spread largely by word of mouth - in a tight-knit music scene
this is the best way, just look at us on this list.
What I'm saying is, AJ needs to be hyped and lets face it it's probably the
only music around at the moment which could live up to it's own hype. It
also needs to be distributed properly - if it was then why am I reading
mailings on here of, "the record store had posters up advertising it but
they had to put it on order as they didn't have it in stock"? What cack! And
then the record companies wonder why the bands aren't as popular as they
ought to be.
elevenisms
Simon Brown
s.j.brown@ucl.ac.uk
UCL Geology (2nd year)