Jeff Tweedy of Wilco, on filesharing:
[Y]you try to encourage people to feel more like a patron of the arts instead of a consumer.
Wilco is always just ahead of the curve. They broke from alt-country before it became a cliche.[1] They deconstructed pop in ways that would make Brian Wilson proud. People acted surprised when they paired up with Sonic Youth for several shows, but it made a lot of sense to me, if you look at the creative arc of the band. They streamed their new albums, and chunks of live shows, over the Web for free. I hope the trend continues, because the concept of "patronage" makes a lot of sense in an era when fans don't have to be simple consumers eating whatever pablum's fed to them, but active and valued participants in helping the band make new music.
[1] OK, there are still some good alt-country bands. But the genre, like any underground movement that starts to become marketable, is getting clogged with some pretty unoriginal stuff. All of which is probably beside the point, since such categorizations never really had clear demarcations, and most of the early bands that ended up being slotted in that category resented the whole act of being labeled "alt-country."
[via philoblog]
Posted by johndan at April 1, 2005 01:10 AM | TrackBack