Hello Inhabitants ! I have been a musician and artist for some time, and a radio DJ more recently in this "Electronic Music Community". The community is diverse and prolific and very dynamic - and most importantly pumping out amazing music including what I would decribe as HITS from time to time. However, I see that the community often describes most music as RETRO or SYNTHWAVE. I like to make some statements/arguments below in the spirit of helping us find more NEW EXTERNAL fans and not just fans of each other. I just wonder if the brand is part of the issue. Look at this Internet Radio summary below of the most popular sites to listen to. I have "circled" the genres that are related to pure electronic music. Interestingly - the genre ELECTRONIC listed here - are (at first glance) Dance/Trance/EDM stations and not the music in our own electronic music community. I don't see words "SYNTHWAVE" or "SYNTHPOP" or other endeared genre names we banter around on our radio shows.
To me, there seems to be an opportunity to shift more attention to our community and get more streams/plays/interviews/sync deals/record deals etc.! Everything this community is striving for..
I think this way:
1. Lets talk about the electronic music we love(d) from the 80s and early 90s (Depeche Mode, Erasure, Human League, Gary Numan, Howard Jones, etc...) Did you know this was mostly called ALTERNATIVE music back then?????? Even if they were signed to a decent record deal (many were not....)
2. The term INDIE or UNDERGROUND or ALTERNATIVE has usually implied "UNSIGNED TALENT" in the music community. Most or all of us are in this situation. On the Satellite Radio Station, Sirius XM, they use word ALT and INDIE... In fact for the new and up and coming ROCK music - there is a channel called ALT NATION. This is Alternative Rock. I may be limited and biased on this - but UNDERGROUND to me implies HIP HOP, not yet discovered. And there is a new Indian restaurant here in my town called INDIE... INDIE I just do not prefer as has too much use. In conclusion I like ALTERNATIVE or ALT.
3. Electronic music definitely covers all genres in our community - so we ARE ELECTRONIC... There is not much acoustic in our songs. And if they are and its a ballad - well that's Singer Songwriter stuff for the COFFEE HOUSE.... Anyways - there are no hard boundaries but we generally seem to agree what genres we have in our Electronic Music World.
4. **Genres excluded** - As EDM/Trance/House/Prog House seem to be more MAINSTREAM (see figure above) Even CHILL/CHILLOUT is more mainstream. These genres have 3 channels on Sirius XM Satellite radio.
5. We are a unique community of Labels, influencers, and artists. We are located all over the world. I prefer to call us a special community of talent - and with ALT and ELECTRONIC - I think NATION packs a lot more punch than Community or City.
6. For the SYNTHWAVE/SYNTHPOP/RETROWAVE nomenclature enthusiasts, we will always keep this visible. The ALT ELECTRONIC NATION includes these sub-genres as well as many many others.
7. ALT ELECTRONIC NATION - implies an unsigned, non-mainstream community of labels, artists, influencers, and existing fans that listen to our genres of Electronic music.
***That is my take on the "Brand" of this community and my own radio show name now reflects that. 'ALT ELECTRONIC NATION w/Coolmowee on Radio Dark Tunnel.
My name is Maurice and my artist name COOLMOWEE - please contact me anytime for feedback at coolmoweemusic@gmail.com
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