Entertain Your HEAD

What I hate about music submissions

I’m not bitter, really.  I am tight on time though and music submissions make me want to hit delete on scores of emails without even checking out the artist.  I know this means i could be passing up on artists who merit a listen and I know I shouldn’t be all judgy because a given band or artist is also not an expert in marketing themselves, but like I said, I’m tight on time.  

Here’s my scenario.  I take music submissions to Loudcaster.  I funnel submissions to one of the hundreds of Loudcaster stations of similar genres that I know accept new music.  This means that first and foremost I need to know what genre your music is.  So often a submission looks like this:

Hi, we’re Polka Dot Elephant Toes and we’d love to hear our new song on your station.  You can check it out here:  http://some.inocuousurl.com/ourmusic

Thanks for your consideration

That is just begging to hit my digital wastebin.  I get there is give and take here, and I’m going to have to devote a certain amount of time to helping our stations find interesting new content, but come on guys… is this really the best you can do?

I also don’t have time to read a novel about your band, so those get skipped as well.  So here’s my perfect submission format.

Band name

Genre(s)

Track name

Link to listen / download

Contact info 

Short bio paragraph - 2 to 3 sentences

If I had all the time in the world, I still probably wouldn’t go research a band, check out their site, listen to all their offerings, hit up google for interesting tidbits, search for other stations playing their music to make sure it’s a good fit, etc.  

I guess the over-under here is… you want something from those to whom you are submitting.. so make it easy for them to give it to you.

The Hornitz

The interesting thing about The Hornitz is their range and unpredictability. If you want to hear a little funky groove with a sax and bone, you’ll find it. You’ll also catch some beat boxing, some mixing, some keyboarding, some wacky song choices and some absolutely fabulous arrangements. If you’re in Boston come check them out, tonight they’re with The Richard James Band at Church in Fenway

Overkill… beating the life out of the already dead

I’m not an overly subtle person.  I do respect that it has its place and I try to exercise a certain decorum when required.  However, this notion that if its worth killing once, its worth backing the car over and killing again and again is ludicrous and foreign to me.  And without sounding to sexist… it’s such a boy behavior.

Lets have opposite day where all the overkillers become subtle and all the folks too timid to make their point known suddenly handle a situation with decisiveness and the rest of us.. well we’ll just continue hanging out at the center of the pendulums swing as we always do. 

Can we please quit classifying music as Emo, kthx

Does anyone else have an allergic reaction to giving the name emo to music?  Yes yes, all you zealots.. I know.. emo music had it’s beginnings back in the 80’s… and yes of course I know and love The Rites of Spring and I’m far from the kind of person to say that genres don’t evolve.. this is not my complaint. 

My complaint is that the name is a misnomer and  well.. stupid.  First of all lets talk about the generally accepted meaning of the name and genre.  From Wikipedia:

Emo is a style of rock music typically characterized by melodic musicianship and expressive, often confessional lyrics.

Riiiiiiiight.  Well now that you’ve described close to 60% of the music that exists… Quick, someone go ask Bob Dylan if he thinks he’s emo.. or Tom Waits.  I’d like to move on.  Lets look at a few bands with this classification:

• Paramour
• The Used
• My Chemical Romance
• Fall Out Boy
• Dashboard Confessional
• Jawbreaker
• Beefeater

Quite a spread.. alternative, to post-hardcore, to hard rock, and post-grunge with some pop punk .. and indie (another petpeeve).  My point is when you really start to look at why bands are called emo it all starts to break down.  Even better when you have guys like Gerard Way (My Chemical Romance) telling everyone that tries to stuff them into the emo box to essentially piss up a rope, emo is bullsh$t and generally dismissing the classification.  You tell ‘em Gerard.  As an MCR fan I reject it along side you. 

As for the others I thought I’d get a glimpse from an expert.. well a 15 year old who likes most of the bands listed above.  Ya, ok, he’s my kid but he was available for comment.  As he tells it, emo is no longer interesting as a topic of conversation and along with that the musical classification is generally ignored in favor of the less ambiguous genre listings (ie, Rock, Punk, Alternative, post-whatever, etc). 

I could be wrong about this but it seems the ones pushing the name are the masses, the public, the press and the music industry labels.  My how we love our little boxes which we efficiently label and stuff things into.  The artists don’t seem to care, the listeners don’t seem to care.  Interesting… emo as a genre is moot?  Ok, I accept this.  If this is the case.. lets let it go and return to the litany of genres already available. 

What’s that?  Oh really?  You’re a mom of a 12 year old girl and don’t want  her to start cutting herself?  Oh I see.  Its easier for you to disqualify music by this heading.  Here’s a hint… take an interest in what she has to say and what she likes and here’s the big one.. try LISTENING to music and determining if its ok for her.

I know these sardonic musings don’t mesh with everyone .. just saying we should all take a deep breath and learn to let things go.