Music Is Not A Competition...

J. Loren of Hurt said something that struck me during the Hurt/Dead Fish Handshake show last Saturday.

Paraphrased from his rant, he said that "Music is not a competition." J. Loren meant it as a way to say that musicians are all in this together and I thought that was the one thing, aside from their amazing performance, that I took home with me.

Hearing stories about some bands that have argued, fought and pulled off of tours because of such competition, it really means a lot for a musician to come out and say that.

In today's industry, musicians of any genre need each other now more than ever...a union of sorts, not just to protect themselves from label greed, but to protect their intellectual rights as an artist and to sell as many albums as possible by promoting each other. I think the greatest complement an artist can get is the recommendation from another artist.

Matthew Paul, lead singer of Dead Fish Handshake, reinforced the statement by saying that scenes barely exist anymore because bands are mostly into themselves instead of uplifting the scene they're involved in. This fragmentation of music scenes is not good for the artists that are forced to go it alone or for the music scene its self.

Sure, bands can compete for airplay and sales, but ultimately bands need to bolster each other to survive and to succeed. There needs to be camaraderie within a town or city so that bands can continue to support each other and support themselves.

United, scenes stand. Divided, they fall.