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“No more gatekeepers!” was the rallying cry - that emerging teenage bands would soon have the same chances at an audience as an established superstar. As bandwidth got faster and tools more sophisticated and egalitarian, predictions about ‘the end of the major label’ were common (guilty as charged). That era offered a glimpse of the power of self-distribution, aided by the internet revolution. Not all gatekeepers are bad, but those corporate gatekeepers insisted on shoving their agenda-culture down our throats.īecause of this attitude, some celebrated when Napster supposedly (but not really) brought down the music industry. Sure, we had our gatekeepers - the fanzines, the college radio DJs, the cool punk rock clubs. The major labels were the target of our ire, but, in reality, our problem was with the corporate gatekeepers. The cassette displayed the familiar tape-and-crossbones icon (now appropriated by The Pirate Bay) and the phrase, “Home taping is killing record industry profits!” Below that: “We left this side blank so you can help.” The punks agreed. Alternative Tentacles released Dead Kennedys’ In God We Trust Inc. on a one-sided cassette - the b-side was blank. We read that slogan to mean “the music industry” as taping our friends’ records made more music, not less.
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“ Home Taping Is Killing Music” was a strange ’80s PR campaign by the British Phonographic Industry, a trade organization representing major labels and distributors. Here I am (guitar) at nineteen, playing something resembling punk rock with my friends (photo by David): So I dreamed - came up with names, imagined the types of bands I’d sign, scribbled fake logos, studied the discographies (and personalities) of labels like SST, Alternative Tentacles, and Factory.
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But those were ancient times, and I had no idea how to manufacture vinyl or find a distributor and doubted it was possible from my lonely North Louisiana dorm room anyway. I was nineteen years old and wanted more than anything to start a record label. Some, like Ian MacKaye’s still inspirational Dischord outfit, came closer than anyone had before.įast forward a few years after that Minutemen concert. Self-releasing, self-distributing, self-promoting, self-administrating, self-booking. (A quick pause to recommend Michael Azerrad’s essential book Our Band Could Be Your Life if you’d like to learn more about these scenes.) But the dream - yes, the punk rock dream - was autonomy. For the first time, bands like these were finding nationwide renown without a major label attached. American independent music was at its height, disadvantaged, compared to its British counterpart, by the sheer size of the country. I’m watching this Minutemen concert video from 1985 (“And when reality appears digital,” Mike Watt soothsays at 18:57) and thinking about the punk rock dream.