“I Am Because We Are”: Local and Tribal Marketing
There is an African proverb “I am because we are” or Ubuntu. African music is made for and by everyday life. It is communal by function and possesses an assortment of poly-rhythmic and cyclical compositions that affirms the proverb. We in the west on the other hand praise individualism thus equally embracing the individual struggle to rise to some sort of prominence alone. But Nirvana would not be without the support of the Seattle grunge movement. Stax Records would not be without the city of Memphis and the family oriented pool of individual artists who worked together at that time and place to create a sound. Bounce or bass music was specific to vibrations of the south and with that was promoted and patronized by the south before everybody else got hip. I won’t even bother to go into what happened up in the Bronx some 30 years ago.
I am a huge advocate of local movements. In the early nineties I was apart of a tribal movement here in New York of artists who banded together to make a scene and thus brought hip hop and prose together to make spoken word. The NYC band scene in the 80′s and 90′s was also supported by an understanding that we are apart of a wave that would bring us all to shore. At that time, musicians could sustain themselves with regular gigs, the environment in the city WIDELY supported the idea of going out to hear live music. And of course there were 10x more clubs that supported bands with different sounds and didn’t charge the band to play (side note)! Anyway, I write this to express the importance of geographical music scenes.
I live in Brooklyn which has a plethora of amazing artists. We all know and respect eachother but we are collectively moving in separate directions; which is an oxymoron. We all LOOOOVVEEE Brooklyn and all that it offers but Brooklyn still lacks a tangible movement, so we all float about in our separte boats hoping one of us hits shore. So I propose to Brooklyn artists or wherever your artist community geographically stands to catch a wave together. This past weekend my partner and I wer in Memphis at the National Civil Rights Museum to screen our film U People. The film focuses on straight and gay relations within the black community and speaks to a more universal message around human rights and liberties. After the film, the audience asked questions about how they as a community can turn the tide in Memphis in regards to gay rights. One of my comments was directed specifically to the artist community. I said that “The artist in this community need to get to work!” We as artist have the capacity to change minds without folks knowing they are being change. When we get behind anything political we transform it into a socially accessible platform. Simply put, we get the message out in ways that people are more open to embrace. The NEA just fired Yosi Seargant for trying to secretly create an artist lead underground that would strategically create art to promote Obama’s agenda of volunteerism. Regardless of where you stand on the issue, he affirms my point. Artists create the social norms we take for granted today. When artists believe their own hype about what they are capable of doing then it makes sense that tribes of artists can not only push a music movement to the for front but everyone within that movement in turn benefits.
Ok, so how are movements created? One way is by the repetition of common language. If Brooklyn artists after every show say, “you have just been witness to the sound of Brooklyn” (ok, maybe something better than that but you get the point). Or Brooklyn’s visual artists create a visual campaign that supports going out to live shows in Brooklyn to kill the recession blues. Clubs would love it. The people will hopefully place more value on going to see a live show to inspire them as oppose to feed into the illusion of scarcity. Online compilations. There could even me “brooklyn” logo that is printed on all Brooklyn artist merchandise, CDs, websites. Something small that doesn’t interfere with the band’s individual message but when seen on site after site and shirt after shirt starts to ring a common message. “There is something up in Brooklyn!” It creates curiosity, it places that band or artist as apart of something larger than themselves. Trust me when I proclaim that fans are more willing to invest their time and money into movements and subculture than in an individual artist. The idea of culture begets culture itself.
As you begin to create your marketing plan after taking my the RULE 4081 workshop and online course (shameless plug) you will hopefully include an action that includes others. You will begin to think tribally, locally and transfer that energy into becoming global.
NOTICE:
I am conducting a 3- hour introductory Rule 4081 online marketing workshop for artists at the Astraea Foundation in NYC. Saturday, Oct. 17th from 2:30-5:30pm. You can purchase tickets here. Class is limited to 20 persons.
Trackbacks