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Show THE FORUM 2 Letter from Wednesday Pure and Applied Science Forum, Malouf 201 the Editor 6 p.mi 7:25 p.rn, Griffin Volleyball v$, UM Western, Payne Gym Different from the five majors, some 5,000 large and small production houses sometimes called indies record less commercially viable music, or music they hope will become commercially viable. In my investigation of a small record label. Suburban Home Records, I found that this is just the case. Suburban Home Records was started by Virgil Dickerson in Boulder, 7 p.rm ASWC Wild Wednesday, Nightmare on 13th Haunted House , Thursday Career Resource Graduate School Internship Fairy Payne Gym 1 1:30 am.- - 3 pm. Weeks Poetry Series, Barbara Hamby and David Kirby, 7 pm. Nvmtmaker Place Colo. According to Media & Culture: an Introduction to Mass Communication, from the 1970s to the late 1990s, six companies controlled popular ASWC Concert Series, Shaw Center 7 s -- 1 pm - 9 pm. Friday music. Then, in 1998, Universal Ruuldenng Wall Grand Opening 12pm. lpm- - acquired Polygram, leaving five corporations that produce about 85 percent of all American CDs and cassettes and control 80 percent of the global market. Each of these major labels own and operate several labels, most of them formerly Griffin Volleyball vs. Mountain College Payne Gym 7 pm U Saturday Poetry Workshop, Barbara Hamby and David Kirby, Foster Faculty Lounge, 9:30 am - 1:30 pm. Acti tig in Film and. Television Workshop Walker 1 10 am, - 4 pm. Griffin Volleyball vs, Carroll College, Payne Gym 7 pm. ' ARWCASWC Cosmic Bowling, IB pm. . independent companies. The music industry as a whole the five majors and the produces more independents than 38,000 new audio releases each year. Some may say that the music business constitutes a global oligopoly a business situation in which a few firms control most of an industrys production and distribution resources. Major labels are in business for the money only signing bands that will turn a profit, dropping those full-leng- th J T' ' ' , . 1 .... . X 1 Lffc .jvwX ' v V h . i $ M&P The Gamits, a punk rock band signed by Suburban Home Records and promodon outlet for independent labels, which often use Web sites for recording and merchandise sales, fan discussion groups, and regular updates of tour schedules and new releases. tions, a jackhammer beat, primal vocal screams, crude aggression, and defiant or comic lyrics. Emo standing for emotional music broke off from the punk genre in 1984, and is mosdy made up of soft guitars with light vocals that build up and let loose into heavy guitar solos and loud emotional vocals, then are brought back down to mellow tones. The label produces many groups including. The Gamits, Stereotyperider, Adventures of Jet, Love Me Destroyer, and Laymen Terms. When asked where and how Suburban Home Records identifies its musical artists, Jessie Skriner, a senior at Westminster College and also a representative of the label who covers the Salt Lake City valley, said, People send Suburban ail Suburbanhomerecords.com does all of these things to promote its arusts and record sales. Skriner said the record labels target fans are kids who go to underground shows and warped tour. Dickerson agreed by saying that Suburban Home is one of those smaller labelsdistribudon companies that people hear of but dont really know about. Kids in the underground are hip to what we are doing, said Dickerson. Many indie labels face obstacles in popularizing their music and artists. Suburban Home Records is no stranger to those obstacles. Not being backed by a Kids in the underground are hip to what we are doing. bigger label is hard financially because they cant get as much advertising, said Skriner. The bands we sign dont care about getting famous and Virgil Dickerson huge though, that is why they chose to sign with an independent label. The bands just want that wont. O Mday had always been very passionate about music, but it wasnt until I went to school in Boulder that I found a kind of music that really spoke to me. Some really good friends took me to see some of my first real shows like Skankin Pickle and Green Day. .Those shows really changed my life, said Dickerson in an email interview. Shortly after those shows Dickerson started a fan zine because he absolutely loved the music and the ideas behind punk rock. He decided to call the zine Suburban Home. He said he started to put out a few I ASWC Senate Meeting, HOWA Board Room 7 am. S am. Ski and Snowboard Club Movie, Converse 202 7:30 pm. -- 9 pm, (CDs) for his friends, and the label just took off from there. Our very first release was a by a band called Overlap, said Dickerson. This fiercely independent label specializes in punk rock and emo. They are also explorch ing many other genres. I started Suburban Home with many of the D.I.Y (do it yourself) ethics of punk rock, said Dickerson. Punk Rock, according to Media & Culture: an Introduction to Mass Communication, is characterized by loud, unpolished distor- iLl October 15, 2003 i 1 j'm Home demos, or they pickup demos at all the underground shows they go to. Suburban Home does a show email list that goes out every week to 5,000 kids. It informs every one of all the shows going on in the area. We have helped release and distribute a number of great local bands in Denver, said Dickerson. Suburban Home Records also promotes its releases by any number of combinations of the following: touring, print and online advertising, mp3s on mp3.com, press and publicity, college radio, and promo mail- to produce good music. Dickerson said Suburban Home releases dont sell even 10 percent of what the bigger labels sell. He said he likes being the smaller company, but that it would be nice to be able to sell more. I would love to see all of our labels selling more copies so that they could run their labels full time, and I would love to see the bands we distribute selling more so that they could do their bands full time. That would be my definition of success. Dickerson said people ings. The Internet has also become a distribution low-co- See Indies, pg. st The Forum welcomes your opinions, SUGGESTIONS, AND OTHER SUCH MUS1NGS. TO CONTACT US, WRITE TO: Westminster College 1840 S. 1300 E. Salt Lake City, UT 84105 The Forum, or forumwestminstercollege.edu 8 |