Nancy K. Baym - Playing to the Crowd: Musicians, Audiences, and the Intimate Work of Connection

POSTMILLENNIAL POP

General Editors: Karen Tongson and Henry Jenkins

Puro Arte: Filipinos on the Stages of Empire

Lucy Mae San Pablo Burns

Spreadable Media: Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture

Henry Jenkins, Sam Ford, and Joshua Green

Media Franchising: Creative License and Collaboration in the Culture Industries

Derek Johnson

Your Ad Here: The Cool Sell of Guerrilla Marketing

Michael Serazio

Looking for Leroy: Illegible Black Masculinities

Mark Anthony Neal

From Bombay to Bollywood: The Making of a Global Media Industry

Aswin Punathambekar

A Race So Different: Performance and Law in Asian America

Joshua Takano Chambers-Letson

Surveillance Cinema

By Catherine Zimmer

Modernitys Ear: Listening to Race and Gender in World Music

Roshanak Keshti

The New Mutants: Superheroes and the Radical Imagination of American Comics

Ramzi Fawaz

Restricted Access: Media, Disability, and the Politics of Participation

Elizabeth Ellcessor

The Sonic Color-line: Race and the Cultural Politics of Listening in the U.S.

Jennifer Lynn Stoever

Diversin: Play and Popular Culture in Cuban America

Albert Sergio Laguna

Antisocial Media: Anxious Labor in the Digital Economy

Greg Goldberg

Open TV: Innovation Beyond Hollywood

Aymar Jean Christian

Playing to the Crowd: Musicians, Audiences, and the Intimate Work of Connection

Nancy K. Baym

Nancy K. Baym

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS

New York

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS

New York

www.nyupress.org

2018 by New York University

All rights reserved

References to Internet websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author nor New York University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Baym, Nancy K., author.

Title: Playing to the crowd : musicians, audiences, and the intimate work of connection / Nancy K. Baym.

Description: New York : New York University Press, [2018] | Series: Postmillennial pop | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017045025 | ISBN 9781479896165 (cl : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781479821587 (pb : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH : Popular musicSocial aspects. | MusicPerformancePsychological aspects. | Popular music fans.

Classification: LCC ML3918.P67 B39 2018 | DDC 781.64dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017045025

New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper, and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability. We strive to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the greatest extent possible in publishing our books.

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Also available as an ebook

In the past bands could disappear for four years and live in a mansion somewhere, and people were just happy when they did come down from their Ivory Tower and release a record and allow you to go and buy it. Now I think that its important that you engage with your listeners all the time.

Roger ODonnell, The Cure

You cant just show up and be a rock star and not put the effort into showing your fans you care anymore. Before you were able to just be a rock star, be aloof, be a drug addict, go on tour and it was cool. You were cooler for it. Now you have to put in a lot of work to keep them interested.

Sydney Wayser, singer-songwriter

Now people expect you to reply to them. They expect you to respond to their tweets. Its not like Oh My God! She actually wrote back! Its like of course you wrote back.

Zo Keating, cellist and composer

In the old days pop stars, rock stars used to just drop out of the sky, didnt they? And now, theyre tweeting about what they had for breakfast or, you know, whatever. Interesting days though. Its one of those things I suppose people are still trying to find out. Where to draw the boundaries and what works and what doesnt, you know?

Mark Kelly, Marillion

Figure I.1. Zo Keating, performing at the Intel booth, Consumer Electronics Show, 2011

Figure 1.1. Kristin Hersh

Figure 1.2. Stuart Braithwaite, 2011

Figure 1.3. Michael Timmins

Figure 1.4. Nacho Vegas, LAuditori, Barcelona, January 2009

Figure 1.5. Greta Morgan, The Pike Room, Pontiac, Michigan

Figure 1.6. Billy Bragg at SXSW, 2008

Figure 1.7. Jill Sobule and Steve Lawson at All2Gether Now, Berlin

Figure 1.8. Richie Hawtin performing as Plastikman

Figure 3.1. Mark Kelly

Figure 3.2. Turbojugend at a Turbonegro show in the Netherlands, 2016

Figure 3.3. Great Moments in Rock 'n' Roll

Figures 3.4 and 3.5. Tape trading, 1986

Figure 3.6. Sivert Hyem

Figures 4.1 and 4.2. Happy Tom

Figure 4.3. Stephen Mason

Figure 4.4. Lloyd Cole, 2012

Figure 4.5. David Lowery with Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven at the merchandise table

Figure 4.6. Kate Schutt

Figure 5.1. Honeychild Coleman

Figure 5.2. Roger ODonnell of the Cure, in concert in Boise, Idaho, 2016

Figure 5.3. Brian Travers

Figure 6.1. Erin McKeown

The relationship between musicians and their audiences has changed. No more disappearing into skies or mansions, todays musicians are earthbound, under pressure to build connections with listeners. Audiences, especially those who came of age in a time of ubiquitous media, expect the musicians they follow to be constantly accessible, especially on social media, offering unique and intimate moments to their fans. today musicians relentlessly seek relationships with audiences, following listeners from platform to platform, trying to establish a presence for themselves and build connections. Day in and day out, the work of relating is never done. People are so busy, says the savvy young songwriter Greta Morgan, If you cant find a way to sneak into their daily routine, theyll miss your show.

The music industries of the second half of the twentieth century were never really stable, but for many working within and around major and independent record labels, they came to feel natural. The path for a certain kind of musician to make playing into a steady gig was unfair and unlikely, but it was clear. You got a band together, you made demos, you performed. If you were lucky, you got discovered by the A&R (artist and repertoire) guy from a record label. The label would pay you up front and then finance, distribute, and publicize your work. Fame and fortune would follow.

Brian Travers, saxophone player with the British band UB40, was one of the lucky few who made an enduring career in this system. In 1983, several years after they first started playing together, their cover of Neil Diamonds Red, Red Wine, recast as a smooth reggae number, became a breakout hit. The band, two siblings and a bunch of friends from the working-class town of Birmingham, went on to sell more than 70 million records. To their shock and continuing confusion, they got rich. They dont have all their original members, but theyre still going, and they still draw huge crowds.