Staff Blog: Brandon Jones June 17^th

^{“Changing the Channel”}

The purpose of my blog today is to talk a little and inspire thoughtful discussion on the current state of the Christian Market. I have grown increasingly disconnected from the Christian market in recent years even though I very visibly run a “Christian” oriented webzine. Sure I talk about as many independent bands as I can find, the true state of my opinion is that I am largely turned off by it all. That is sort of, well part of, the reason I don’t write reviews much any more. One, because I have a hard time writing about bands where I might know a few members, or have been acquainted with a few members. Two, because I find it to be useless to write a truly negative review. Well there are three reasons with the third being my slight writer’s block ;) Anyway, my dissatisfaction has grown a lot in the last few years of my life, probably even more so since I entered my 30′s. I attribute this lack of interest mostly to age and a lot to a simple oversaturation of the marketplace with cookie cutter, cluttered, sound alike nonsense. For every band that hits the mainstream like Stryper in the 80s, Mxpx, Jars Of Clay, and The OC Supertones in the 90s, P.O.D and Underoath in the 00s, and probably The Devil Wears Prada in the 01′s etc., there is inevitably a sound alike (what we term ‘rip off’) band. I wont go into details about which band or artist sound like their genre defining counterpart but I think you can easily point out who is who. So who is responsible for this utter lack of creativity? Who steers the market place? Well it’s you and I of course. The consumer dictates what product reaches who’s hands and why. Supply and demand, simple economics. There wouldn’t be clones if it weren’t for the consumers eating this stuff up like hotcakes on a Saturday morning. So I blame you society, for this crap (kidding, of course, or am I?). The reason behind me posting this blog was partly inspired by Tyler’s quest to find talented punk rock bands of Christians. I just realized one day after he posted his intentions for a future compilation (oops, did I give it away?), that Christian punk bands (or whatever variation of the term you want to use to describe ‘Christians’ and ‘Punk Rock’ music) were probably limited to the ten fingers between my two hands. Seriously, how many Christians can you count that play Punk Rock or Ska music? Lol, I bet you’ll sit there for 10 minutes thinking long and hard about what bands you’ve heard of in the last couple of years that play the style. Sure you’re going to respond to this blog about ALL THE BANDS you know that are unsigned playing that style, but do you truly own any of their music? How many cds from Christian Punk Rock performers do you own that were put out in the past 2 years? I bet it’s less than 5, and that number is substantially lower when you figure in the number of bands who hate the term “punk rock” or are slightly riding the line between pop and punk. So you see my (and Tyler’s) dilemma. What I want to know despite your opinions on why you think Punk Rock is so 10 years ago, is why we got to this place in our market? What drove us to this point where all we cling to is Metalcore, Screamo, and Indie Rock? Why is it that all the genre defining bands playing styles not clearly represented in the Christian marketplace, are successful and why Christians have turned their back on being definitive artists? You 16 year olds are going to complain that “I am out of touch” or the dreaded “You’re too old” or even “You don’t know what ‘cool’ is if it hit you in the face!!” Ouch! I’m not one to brag or bring up my past musical involvements but this isn’t a simple walk in the park for me, I’ve been an active part of the music industry since I was 18 years old and booking shows for several local venues in Orange County, CA. starting back in 1996. I’ve done my fair share of research and this is what I’ve come to.

Christians aren’t capitalizing on their God given talents or trying to push the boundaries of what is considered “Cool” or “Catchy” or “Genre defining”. Instead, Christians are content to sit in their comfortable boxes, churning out the same dreaded rehashed garbage that floods our airwaves. No one is really pushing the envelope for quality music. Sure there are bands like Me Without You, As Cities Burn, Anberlin, House of Heroes, but honestly one of them is unlistenable music quality wise, one is a bit too quirky, and the other two are churning out radio friendly rock. Is that a bad thing for the two pushing radio rock on us? Of course not, I love Anberlin and House of Heroes, they are great people and musicians and I listen to them frequently. This blog isn’t about them it’s about all the independent, unsigned, soon to be signed, and indie label guilty pleasures that are just passing off as clones of another clone who happen to make a killing cloning the cloned band. Get my drift? What happened to being original, or choosing to play music because you enjoy it rather than the style being pushed on you by your label rep and/or market constraints? If you still don’t understand what I’m getting at, then please tell me why the following bands are still playing music in the General market place and why there are no Christian bands doing the same: Blink 182, Green Day,Social Distortion, No Use for a Name, Face to Face, Offspring, Rise Against, Ignite, Lagwagon, Nofx, Milencollin, AFI, Craig’s Brother, Hey Mike, Yellowcard, The Ataris(who incidentally chose to go back to their ‘pop punk’ roots after fans hated on them for changing styles), Anti Flag, Gaslight Anthem, Bouncing Souls, Authority Zero, Teenage Bottlerocket, Riverboat Gamblers, Less Than Jake, Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Streetlight Mannifesto, Chase Long Beach, Aggrolites, 311, heck even No Doubt. Why aren’t Christians playing these styles of music? What happened to the “Punk Rock” aesthetic? Punk Rock is all about going against the norm and doing things yourself the own way you see fit, DIY lifestyle. It’s certainly no DIY lifestyle when you’re ripping off other bands and riding the coattails of a popular artist (See: Underoath for example of a band everyone and their mom is ripping off). I write this because I’m not content to sit in my little box listening to executives tell me what to listen to nor am I persuaded by scenesters to conform to their style of choice. I am tired of this soupy mess we call “music” that is being crammed down our throats every Tuesday (Yay! Release day). One band that deserves much acclaim for genre bending is none other than Children 18: 3, a much underrated artist not content to play the same garbage as everyone else and who chose to go their own way on their “Self Titled” Tooth and Nail release. Where are similar bands though? What happened to the year 1999-2000 when the whole market place was flooded with Punk Rock and sound alike clones. I know the market moves in waves and much of the market’s success has rested on trying to catch the latest trend. Why is it that Christians in music are always chasing what’s popular in the market place rather than sticking to their guns and creating truly innovative music and music that people can actually stomach or gasp!, sing a long to? Being innovative doesn’t mean you have to create unlistenable trendy off key crap music. Just because you can sing off key and quote Brand New as your most influential band of choice, doesn’t mean I want to listen to your music or be spoon fed it by the numbers. I’ m going back to the punk rock argument for a second. Why is it that a band such as Green Day is hugely successful in the market place yet no Christian label wants to sign a band playing a similar style? Instead the label is comfortable sitting in their air conditioned offices in Nashville, content to sign the same radio rock or other such “safe music” that they all conveniently seem to find together as one collective entity (Isn’t that weird, you’ve got different labels with different employees yet they seem so like minded)? What’s weird is that some of today’s hottest radio rock happens to be punk rock, still to this day. Look at the soaring popularity of groups like Blink 182 or Offspring or Green Day, who each continue to sell out large venues and produce hit singles. Blink 182 in particular decided that they were more missed while away than they ever were as an active band, so they reformed and are now going on a sold out national tour. Here we go again, where are the young Christian bands playing a style similar? None. You see, the Christian market is always a few years behind the general market place. A lot of screamo  was popular a few years ago and just now some of these “scream” bands are getting signed and releasing their debuts even though Underoath clearly went GOLD in 2006 and 2004 respectively. A few years too late the market is once again. Then you have a group like Jimmy Eat World going platinum on their “Bleed American” album, going gold with “Futures” and still in the game with “Chase This Light” and then it’s inevitable that there will be countless Christian clones capitalizing on the style a few years too late. Or my favorite, “Recommended for fans of Band A, Band B, and Band C”. Yeah, you’ve seen those stickers too and I could probably gather them all up and they’d list the same influences on each one. First it was recommended for fans of Mxpx, then a few years later it was recommended for fans of P.O.D when that style was all the rage, then it was recommended for fans of Underoath when they were all over the place, and now it seems as though recommended for fans of Devil Wears Prada is all over stickers, ads, and liner notes as “influences” even though you and I both know where TDWP would be today if it weren’t for Underoath. As much as I love a few certain labels in the Christian market, they are more content at churning out the same sound alike garbage as their secular counterparts. It’s getting ridiculous. I remember how eclectic the 90′s were and how you had bands of every style playing for your attention in the marketplace, though punk rock and ska happened to be the big genre defining styles at the time. Now we are in 2009 and I can count three styles all garnering for your attention, Screamo(and all genre twisting variants), Metalcore(and all genre bending variants), and Indie Rock(with all it’s offshoots and varities). Are you all really content to listening to just three styles of music? To be honest that is exactly what it all sounds like to me and trust me, I own A LOT of cds, half of which I feel like selling for it’s utter lack of creativity. What I am most tired of is Christians aping styles from the general market place or even their Christian brethren and then passing off as their own. There is a lot of money to be made in Christian music and I know a few labels that are well aware of that fact, pleased to sell you the same imitation junk year after year. One such label has decided they make more money off Christians that they have started shopping around for fellow believer bands that sound exactly like the one that came before them. Even though Facedown has a lot of bands that sound the same and they have just recently branched off from the whole “metal” sound they had become known for, yet I still have massive respect for them and the people that run the label so you’re not going to hear me talk smack. However, I would like to see a further branching out of their included labels to jump on many different trends and not just Heavy and Light, but everything in between. Some of the other Nashville centric labels who consistently churned out bands that would be featured on the cover of CCM Magazine when it was still around (a good barometer for all things cheesy), are playing the safe card because there is too much risk in signing “edgy” bands. However I do have to give props to Forefront for signing different sounding bands even though they may sound like a general market place band, Philmont, Abandon, This Beautiful Republic, Dizmas, etc. I mean if they really wanted to play it safe, they’d just sign the 100^th Jars of Clay or Third Day clone, so they are doing their part in switching up the norm. However much of the market that originally started in Southern California but later moved offices to Nashville, TN. (I know my history), lost some of their edge over the years. It really wasn’t until the 90′s that those CCM labels started signing real rock bands much of the credit is due to the success of Tooth and Nail Records. How many of you late 20′s-40s Christian Music fans remember the 80′s? CCM was stuck in a time warp throughout much of the 80′s and 90′s, content on rehashing the same sound alike garbage year after year. Amy Grant is huge, well we’ll sign 20 more versions of her to make a buck. Back then it was either Christian metal/hard rock or CCM friendly contemporary music. Hmmm, I see a parallel to today’s music scene. Yep, it’s there, we have a couple of styles and that’s what’s selling, or at least that’s what the executives want you to think because they’re too afraid to lose a buck in this market place. Just think what would have happened had T&N, or Intense/Frontline, or Rescue, or Bettie Rocket, hadn’t have come along, well you would have been force fed the same sound alike garbage over and over again till you just turned the channel. That’s what I think people are doing these days, they are just changing the channel so to speak, tired of hearing the same crap over and over again. People are flocking to other styles or gasp! General market bands, because they are tired of being force fed.

With age comes maturity and experience and I think with my age has come the tendency to just change the channel. Think about the target demographic, and trust me these labels have employees doing just that, tracking the demographics of this country and graphing what fans want to hear or at least that’s what they want you to think. Anyway, I’m well aware that the target demographic of these indie labels is aimed at people 14-25, it’s really commonsense. So I am conscious of my age and the demographic I am still trying to fit myself into and part of that fact is what persuades me into just changing the channel. Part of that dissatisfaction is the reason why this site appears to go “Dead” for periods of time. There are seriously days where I grit my teeth and try to gather the energy necessary to make a post about a particular unsigned/independent band who I know darn well sounds just like everyone else. So instead of posting, I just let the site appear dead. I know I’m not alone in this observation, I bet there are other staff members who feel the same way I do and they too decide not to post anything. But, there is a part of me that feels it’s my duty to report on positive Christian music to share the word with unbelievers and believers alike who may be going through a rough spot in their lives and are just searching for something uplifting to fill their heads with. That’s really the purpose of Indie Vision Music, to share positive, faith affirming music of love with those that have chosen to pass on religion or a belief in Christ. Those are the people I want to reach out to with this music. So what will I do? Well that’s a tricky question. I guess I’ll just continue to do the same as I always have, report on up and coming bands who are struggling to establish a fan base and who are all vying for your attention, while spreading the good words of Christ. My ears are constantly turned to the ground, the underground to be specific, and I am always on the hunt for genre defining bands and other artists who truly stand apart from the pack. Soo if you the reader comes across a band that truly stands out, don’t hesitate to contact me or use our “Submit News” page to send us news stories. I am always on the hunt for talent and it’s the diy ethic that drives me to do things my own way, the way I see fit and not what the market dictates for me. I always promote or share music about who I want to and not what someone tells me is the “Hot new band” of the moment. I just like music that sounds good and is catchy to the ears, however it’s all personal preference and I’m aware of that.

I just want to point out that no matter how “big” this site may get in terms of visitors, I’ll never sell out my soul to be some label’s puppet. DIY means in it’s simplest term, “DO IT YOURSELF” and that’s what I’ve always done. The reason you see so many independent album reviews and news posts is because we do things the way we want to and not because somebody tells us to do it differently. We bow to no one but God. We want people to find good independent music because that is where the labels are looking, they’re searching for the next big thing so why don’t we all collectively give it to them and tell them what YOU want to hear not what they decide to sell you. If you want real change, write those responsible for putting out your music. Send them emails, mail them a snail letter, whatever it takes to get the attention you deserve. Don’t be content to sit on your butt collecting clone cds like coasters. If you want truly unique music, you have to tell the executives what you want to hear and what you want to see on the road. Show up to shows for independent bands and buy their merch, that will send a message to label reps who should be signed. For the record, if some day, years from now,  a company or executive decides to approach me to  buy a piece of IVM, I’ll never sell out no matter what the price. I’m fortunate enough to have a good paying job that I could never get at a Record company (sorry guys, you couldn’t afford me, lol) so IVM Is all done as a hobby on the side and I continue to keep the site running out of my own pocket.

So until the climate changes, the stars align, Jesus comes back, and punk rock floods the marketplace, I”ll continue “Changing the Channel”

That is all,

Brandon Jones

Indie Vision Music