a thought

the Decemberists have had the top spot on my iPod since I was first introduced to a couple of their albums about a year ago.
I've realized since almost all of my friends also have the Decemberists in their music collection, or at least know who they are. I've also realized I've never heard any of their songs outside of a personal music collection context.

This led to another thought: what is driving dissemination of music these days? In my experience, music has always been spread by word of mouth (at least the stuff that isn't forced onto you by big-label marketing). But growing up in a rural area, I had very little idea there was a whole universe of recorded music existing outside the radio or carried by a national CD retail chain.

When I was in high school, the Internet was in its nationwide infancy. It wasn't until my junior year of college I heard the term mp3. It wasn't until I arrived at college I realized people had music collections full of bands I'd never heard of.
Kids today (I love using that term - it pushes me so far into the "old" category it feels like a joke, and I can pretend its ironic and I'm still young instead of the truth) must have a slightly easier time finding the currents of the musical underground. But I think you still have to have a reason for searching it out.

Whether it's online or off, you still discover new music through word of mouth. I think the one difference is now the kids who are outsiders and are in an area without an outsider scene (the goth kids, the punk kids, the fill-in-the-blank kids) can now find the scene online.

It seems like more people are going around or leaving behind the market campaigns. It's what all the "new-media" theorist say. But certainly not more people, I don't think. I'm not sure even the Internet is going to push even close to a tipping point where the big-money marketing becomes just one more voice in the crowd.