indie thought: May 2010 Archives

ren hang
Photo by Ren Hang. Check out his amazing work here

This post is specifically about the Shanghai underground rock live circuit. However, it may still make you think about similar situations in your own city so there you go.

As usual, there are premises. Shanghai gigs tend to fall into three categories:

1) The audience is almost all locals who are often students or have lower incomes.

2) The audience is almost all international with a lifestyle that allows them greater flexibility.

3) A very rare crossover of the two.

There is an exception. Some bands have built a specific following that they can rely on to come to any given show.

For longer term scene/following building we would all hope that more and more younger locals get involved. Everyone knows this and talks about it. There's no need to expand on this here. So, after keeping an eye on things for a few years and being surprised at how this has not changed much at all ... I give you, the cut off point

<<ticket price 40 yuan and/or the main band running over 11.00 p.m.>>

This also translates into visible anxiety when the band the fans are there to check out have not taken the stage by 10.00 p.m.

This must be observed unless you are super famous and on TV or something. Of course, if you are not interested in long term building, it doesn't matter.

What's a blog?

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from douban again ping
In case you're wondering, the photos come from galleries of friends on douban.com

So yeah, we all know what a blog is right? I mean, you're reading one now. They are very useful for the indie mind too. Saying that, there are some misconceptions going around that are useful to examine.

1) form vs content
2) standards and legitimacy

So, what's a blog ... drum roll please ... it's a type of computer software. That's right. It's a computer program that has many functions with the overall goal of letting you put things in the public domain via the internet.

The content - that is the things themselves, words, pics, ideas, topics etc - can be anything you like. So when you hear people talking about how blogs are like whiny personal diaries, they are just making an association. An incorrect one. You could research, write and produce a piece for a newspaper and have it in the print edition and also put it on your blog with no difference in the process. It's just available in two different mediums.

Abusive Editing

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fire cups
One part of the creative world that drives us into the DIY and indie corners is the idea of having to give your work over to abusive editors. 

Everyone is familiar with stories about movies whose scripts are butchered, directors are forced to change entire endings to suit the random whims of studio execs and stars that demand fundamental story ideas are changed to suit their persona.

In writing and journalism there is a similar culture but we are told it's normal and a vital part of the process.

There are many different ideas here and, as usual, it will help us to sift them a little. 

Let's try writing as a simple example.

In my mind there are only two kinds of editing. I'm not going to use accepted industry terms here exactly because they are loaded and abusive. Here we go:

What does selling out mean?

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fader
Ever since humans could put their thoughts down using written representations they have been wrestling with the idea of art.

We, as organisms, have the ability to reflect on our world and lives and express ourselves. It's a natural state, it just happens. Art represents the many ways we communicate these ideas to others.

Once we were living in large enough communities several issues came up. One biggie is art in the service of power. Like propaganda. Some fellow coined the phrase the pen is mightier than the sword.

Another issue is art used to sell things, or the intersection of art and commerce. This is especially relevant today as we live in a global consumer age and the people who run it have the power.

This is nothing new or controversial. 

Talking about this shouldn't bring up shock, panic or defensive behavior. But ...

About this Archive

This page is a archive of entries in the indie thought category from May 2010.

indie thought: April 2010 is the previous archive.

indie thought: July 2010 is the next archive.

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