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October 25, 2005
With a bullet
Adam Radwanski is confused (fourth item for October 24):
I’m having a lot of trouble wrapping my mind around Broken Social Scene’s disc topping the Toronto sales charts.
On one hand, it should be cause for celebration – much as I’m not in love with the album myself, it says a lot about the appetite for quality music that the least accessible indie band imaginable is besting Nickelback.
But the inaccessibility is the thing. I get why, say, the Arcade Fire is enjoying mainstream success. But to enjoy the BSS album, you have to be enough of a music geek to listen to it many, many times over – something that takes a lot of time, patience and commitment...
Well, here's my theory. EMI is a record label. They sign artists according to a formula that music geeks don't understand and, thanks to big-bucks marketing, payola and our decrepit education system, they are free to catapult Nickelback to fame and fortune. It would be an overstatement to say that the big labels can foist absolutely anything on the public, but Linkin Park, Hoobastank and the aforementioned shame of Edmonton Alberta make a pretty compelling case that they can sell absolutely anything that involves screaming and/or reminds listeners in some way of Ten.
Arts & Crafts is a record label. They sign far fewer bands than EMI, of course, but they do so according to a formula music geeks like me and Adam Radwanski can understand. In some cases I like the bands and in some cases I don't, but in no case do I absolutely loathe them. I feel some affinity towards a band like BSS even though I'm not totally sold on them — hell, I feel some affinity towards Apostle of Hustle and I've never even heard them — simply because at some level I think of myself as a patriotic indie-rock guy.
There are a lot of people out there who take that mindset to the level of obsession. They're driving up the numbers. And there are a lot of people out there who like the idea of independent Canadian music but make too much money to have the time to really investigate it, so they pick up the titles that they read about in Time and hear about, once a day, on The Edge 102.1. They're really driving up the numbers.
I'm not trying to be cynical — it is definitely cause for celebration — but I don't think it's any great mystery. The indie labels are simply doing to their market what the RIAA mainstays have done to theirs, which is to sell them on the brand rather than the music. We should be happy when the music's good.
Posted by Chris Selley at October 25, 2005 12:31 AM
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Comments
The shame of what now?? Nickelback is from Hanna.
Posted by: Colby Cosh at October 24, 2005 11:50 PM
Ha, I had a feeling Cosh wouldn't let that one stand!
But yeah, that sounds about right. It's been a weird but very pleasent experience for me to have discovered at least three spectacular artists/bands in the past year only to see them suddenly blow up less than a year later (Arcade Fire, BSS, and Sufjan Stevens). I was depressed about the quality of music on the radio a couple of years ago, but maybe there is hope after all.
Posted by: Matt McIntosh at October 25, 2005 12:44 AM
Are they actually getting airplay? I may have to start turning my radio on every so often if they are...
(And a little plug: I'm giving the BSS album away this week on my site, so for those people who like the idea of Canadian indie but are too cheap to buy it, feel free to enter.)
Posted by: matthew at October 25, 2005 01:59 AM
If anyone's going to be the Shame of Edmonton, dammit, it should be me.
Posted by: Colby Cosh at October 25, 2005 03:18 AM
I believe the role of "Shame of Edmonton" is filled right now.
That was too easy.
Posted by: Matt at October 25, 2005 11:37 AM
You know, I was pretty sure they were from Edmonton, but I did think about looking it up before I posted it. But then I thought, well, it'll be fun anyway if they're not. Shame of Alberta it is.
Posted by: Chris Selley at October 25, 2005 05:04 PM
I don't know, I think their shamefulness is big enough that it could cover pretty much every city in North America, and several in Asia, Europe and Latin America, too.
Posted by: matthew at October 25, 2005 06:08 PM
Shame of Alberta works for me, too. Oh, are we still talking about Nickelback?
Posted by: Matt at October 25, 2005 06:13 PM
Shame of Alberta or not, that new Photograph song is one catchy number. "Goodbye e, Goodbye e"!
And for those of you who want to support incredible Canadian indie music & expand your musical palette, Venetian Snares is arguably the most important electronic musician of the last 5 years.
Posted by: Brian Ivanovick at October 25, 2005 07:14 PM
That new photograph song is driving me insane. I feel like it has been tatooed on my frontal lobe.
In the Toronto market 102.1 has it on heavier rotation than Q107 has Led Zep album 4, which for those who know, is a pretty hard feat to accomplish.
The funny thing about Radwanski's comment is the new BSS album is much more market-friendly than their last, and is much less interesting.
Chris Shelly is right, people are buying the brand.
Posted by: wsam at October 26, 2005 10:19 AM
It's impressive, considering that BSS has the most instantly forgettable name in the annals of rock music. I bet Social Distortion is enjoying the extra sales from baffled teenyboppers.
Posted by: Colby Cosh at October 26, 2005 11:29 AM
I figure two reasons for the BSS disc topping the Toronto charts. One, the agonizingly precious Canadian indie music media herd has finally figured out what their English confreres learned years ago: if we all talk about one band being the greatestbandinthehistoryoftheuniverse at the exact same time, enough people will fall for it that it'll seem like we've stumbled across some actual news for once. Media saturation, especially in a "media" as closeknit as the indie music world, works wonders. I can't open up eye or NOW or Exclaim without BSS' awesomeness popping up, apropos of nothing, in every friggin' article or review. They too shall pass. Second, CD sales (as distinct from DVD sales) have likely become so withered (especially at HMV-type stores that keep "charts") that marginal increases in the number of units moved will vault a disc to the top of the charts in short order. [/grump]
Posted by: Bob Tarantino at October 28, 2005 09:42 AM
reading your content just made my day. keep the good work. black girls on their mission: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/info/history/build.html , Beautiful Gnome Compute or not thins that excited you at 14 , Boy will Boy unconditionally my parents didnt told me about it
Posted by: jeffrey davis at November 17, 2005 07:17 PM