Whether you’re a Goth, metal-head, traditional post-Punker or eighties fanatic there is a local alternative scene that is calling out for help.
What happened to the days when all alternatives alike would band together to create a thriving scene with music, merch and great people? While you’re rocking out at your Goth only club, there is a metal band down the street struggling to survive. Here are five super simple ways to support your local alternative scene all while having heaps of fun.
If we don’t start supporting our scene than before we know it, it’ll disappear right from under us!
Ozzy osbourne
Music is an art form and cultural activity whose medium is sound organized in time. The common elements of music are pitch (which governs melody and harmony), rhythm, dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture.
- Go to the shows! What’s a scene if no one shows up?
- Buy from independent businesses! Supporting independent businesses that support your scene is important. You know where the money is going, and often it is put straight back into the live shows and events you go to.
- Buy band merch! Local bands aren’t often on a record label; they rely on tickets sold and a good old merchandise table.
- Partake in swaps! Sure, you might not have the money to spend on band merch or independent designers. But many scenes hold swap meets, or markets with venders that would love to swap your goods for theirs.
- Dress up for your local club! Make an effort and soon you’ll start to inspire others to get out of the house in their finest club wear.
- Spread the word! The most valuable way to support your local alternative scene is to let other people know it exists. The more people that attend events, the more events there will be! Many alternative clubs or events go out of business because they don’t get enough attendance. Spreading the word could be as simple as sharing a Facebook page!
If we don’t start supporting our scene than before we know it, it’ll disappear right from under us! Don’t forget the little band with great music that you assumed would be fine without you – what if no one else has heard them? Share that designer you stumbled across on Etsy – they might be about to call it quits!
How do you support your local alternative scene?
Let us know in the comments below and don’t forget to share your favorite part of your own local scene with us too!
Let’s play a game
Go to your local record store — every good town should have one — and try to find Justin Bieber’s Believe, which sold almost 1,500,000 copies in 2012. Nothing?
Okay, try again. See if you can find anything by Nickelback. Nada? Okay, now see if you can find anything by The Pixies. What, an entire shelf’s worth? Why do you think that might be?
Simple economics, my friend. People who listen to vinyl tend to be quite discerning with what they listen to. They don’t listen to airy, saccharine, Top 40 guff with synthesized instruments. They listen to bands that have artistic integrity, and actually write their own songs and play their own instruments. They listen to great songwriting and have an ear for production. As a result, bands that meet those criteria are the ones you’ll find in your record shop.
When you listen to vinyl exclusively, you unconsciously make the decision to never, ever have to be confronted with Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus. And that’s lovely.
Record Buying Is an Experience
In a tucked-away corner of my hometown is a small, independent record store called Probe Records. This has been a Liverpool institution for the longest time. Generations of Scousers have grown up visiting this place, and spending hours upon hours wandering through their expansive collection. Myself included.
There’s something wonderful about buying records. It’s the type of experience that is sadly lost on the iTunes and Spotify generation.
It’s the type of experience where you show up and spend hours upon hours aimlessly looking for music. You take gambles, and you drop money on albums not knowing whether they’ll be good or not. You speak to people and get to know their recommendations and opinions, and ultimately make friends.
It’s a vastly more social experience than any app or online marketplace could ever be.
Vinyl Sounds Better
Sorry, folks. This one isn’t up for debate. Vinyl sounds better than MP3s ever could. I’m not just talking about that warm, mahogany-rich sound that vinyl is famous for, but in general. It’s just better.
Most of the music you listen to is stored and broadcast in a lossy format, where details are lost and quality is reduced. This is because audio is compressed in order to make it small enough to shove on a phone, or to broadcast over the airwaves.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re listening to a streaming service like Spotify (but not Tidal, which streams in lossless), or an MP3, or even to the radio. You’re still not getting the full picture of that track.
Vinyl is what’s called a lossless format. Nothing has been lost when pressing a record. It sounds as good as the producer or band intended.
There’s another, much more important, the reason why vinyl is better than anything else.
Vinyl, for the most part, escaped the ‘loudness war’. You see, with the rise and rise of digital music (CDs included), it has become possible to artificially engineer a track louder than it naturally should be. The problem here is that it has a massively detrimental result on audio quality.
Indeed, it causes songs to sound distorted and become unpleasant to listen to, and strips them of their depth and texture. Because vinyl is an analog format, it’s doesn’t really suffer from the same problems. Don’t believe me? Check out this comparison between the CD version of the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Hump de Bump, and the vinyl version.
Vinyl Can Make You Money
When you buy an MP3 on iTunes, there is no way you can turn that purchase into an investment that makes you money at a later date. That’s because you don’t own that particular MP3. You merely license it.
But, vinyl? That’s an entirely different beast altogether.
There’s an entire industry of people purchasing, collecting, and reselling vinyl, because overwhelmingly it keeps its purchase value, or even appreciates in value.
When you collect vinyl, you’re not just buying music. You’re making an investment you can sell on a rainy day, or even pass down to your children.
There are even apps and websites — such as MyRecordList — that make the process that much easier.
Improve your Tone
Music can be divided into genres (e.g., country music) and genres can be further divided into subgenres (e.g., country blues and pop country are two of the many country subgenres), although the dividing lines and relationships between music genres are often subtle, sometimes open to personal interpretation, and occasionally controversial. For example, it can be hard to draw the line between some early 1980s hard rock and heavy metal. Within the arts, music may be classified as a performing art, a fine art or as an auditory art. Music may be played or sung and heard live at a rock concert or orchestra performance, heard live as part of a dramatic work (a music theater show or opera), or it may be recorded and listened to on a radio, MP3 player, CD player, smartphone or as film score or TV show.
Improve your Frazing
Hip hop music has a very distinct form of vocal percussion known as beatboxing. It involves creating beats, rhythms, and scratching.
The singer of the Icelandic group Sigur Rós, Jón Þór Birgisson, often uses vocals without words, as does Icelandic singer/songwriter, Björk. Her album Medúlla is composed entirely of processed and acoustic vocal music, including beatboxing, choral arrangements, and throat singing.
Singer Bobby McFerrin has recorded a number of albums using only his voice and body, sometimes consisting of a texted melody supported by untexted vocalizations.
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Music is an art form and cultural activity whose medium is sound organized in time. The common elements of music are pitch (which governs melody and harmony), rhythm, dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture.
Different styles or types of music may emphasize, de-emphasize or omit some of these elements. Music is performed with a vast range of instruments and vocal techniques ranging from singing to rapping.
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Ozzy osbourne
Image Caption
Different styles or types of music may emphasize, de-emphasize or omit some of these elements. Music is performed with a vast range of instruments and vocal techniques ranging from singing to rapping. Music is an art form and cultural activity whose medium is sound organized in time. The common elements of music are pitch (which governs melody and harmony), rhythm, dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture.
The Beatles – Anthology (1995)
Originally broadcast in the UK as six one-hour episodes, the DVD edition was expanded to a whopping eight hours to tell the story of the biggest and most important band of all time. Tracing their story from their Liverpudlian backgrounds, through to their Hamburg apprenticeship, Beatlemania, world domination and their eventual demise, Anthology combines cracking archive footage with interviews with the then-surviving members of the band and some of the best music ever recorded. If you fancy an epic rock’n’roll tale while stuffing your face with turkey on the sofa, then this is the one for you.
Watch: DVD / Blu Ray & more
Dig! (2004)
Though long denounced by its participants for their perceived distortion of the truth, director Ondi Timoner’s study of the careers, friendship and then rivalry between The Dandy Warhols and The Brian Jonestown Massacre makes for horribly compulsive yet frequently hilarious viewing. Filmed over seven years as both bands struggle to break through, the car crash that unfolds is soundtracked by some of the best psychedelia of the modern age.
Watch: DVD / Blu Ray & more
Some Kind Of Monster (2004)
This unintentionally yet frequently hilarious study of thrash titans Metallica in the wake of the departure of bassist Jason Newstead makes for fascinating viewing. Rarely has such dysfunction within a band of this stature been so publicly documented or scrutinised. You can only sit there slack-jawed as you realise how they pay their “performance-enhancement coach” and how James Hetfield’s rehab derails the recording of St. Anger. Yet by the time they make their return to live arena with new bassist Robert Trujillo, you’re punching the air in support.
Watch: DVD / Blu Ray & more
Cocksucker Blues (1972)
You’ll have to dig deep for this one (well, YouTube), as The Rolling Stones have done their best to keep this film from bring shown in public. Shot in 1972 as they rampaged across the US in the wake of their double album, Exile On Main Street, the film’s cinéma vérité execution captures a variety of dubious activities including hard drug use, sexual antics between roadies and groupies and TVs being lobbed from hotel windows.
Watch: YouTube
Oil City Confidential (2009)
Before there was punk there was pub rock. Julien Temple’s sensitive yet melancholy study of Dr Feelgood – the John The Baptists to the Messiahs that were the Sex Pistols – reveals how four blokes in cheap suits and a sharp attitude to rhythm and blues busted out of their Canvey Island origins to shake up the musical excesses of the day and top the album charts. And then to let it all go. But through it all is the white-knuckle excitement of the music they made and incredible live footage.
Watch: DVD / Blu Ray & more
One More Time With Feeling (2016)
In contrast to Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard’s 2014 documentary 20,000 Days On Earth that offered a tightly-reigned and constructed picture of Nick Cave, Andrew Dominik’s portrait of the recording of The Bad Seeds’ sixteenth studio album, Skeleton Tree, in the aftermath of the death of the singer’s 15-year-old son, Arthur, is a profoundly moving meditation on the nature of loss and grief.
Watch: DVD / Blu Ray & more
The Decline Of Western Civilisation Part 2: The Metal Years (1988)
With its scenes of debauchery, decadence and excess, director Penelope Spheeris’ study of the LA hair metal scene of the late 80s emphatically displays why grunge had to happen. Featuring contributions from Kiss, W.A.S.P., Kiss and Aerosmith and some of the most deluded chancers of the age, the movie blurs that fine line between comedy and tragedy.
Watch: DVD / Blu Ray & more
Muscle Shoals (2013)
This fantastically engrossing documentary and FAME Studios and Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, charts not just the creation of some of the music that was made there – see the contributions from legends such as Keith Richards, Aretha Franklin, Candi Staton and Alicia Keys among many others – but also the personal cost that went in to setting up and maintaining the establishment. The stunning cinematography is matched by some of the most life-affirming music ever captured for posterity.
Watch: DVD / Blu Ray & more
Anvil! The Story Of Anvil (2008)
One of the best music documentaries ever made, Sacha Garvasi’s portrait of Canadian thrash metal almost-rans Anvil is less a study in failure and more the grip of rock’n’roll and why it won’t let go, even with the advancing of years. Having hit the big time for about five seconds in the 80s, the band spend the rest of their life chasing their dream while holding down real life. Hilarious, shocking and touching in equal measure, this is an essential must-see.
Watch: DVD / Blu Ray & more
Searching For Sugar Man (2012)
The power of music and its ability to cross borders – and, in this case, evade the censors – is at the heart of Malik Bendjelloul’s engrossing and moving documentary. The film chronicles the efforts to of two South African music fans to trace the whereabouts of American musician Sixto Rodriguez, whose music proved popular in underground circles during the time of apartheid while failing to gain success at home.
Watch: DVD / Blu Ray & more