My friend's cousin's band.

I will never forget The PlayTrains or the other bands I saw during my days booking and promoting concerts for the Radical Rock Reactionaries at Westfield (NJ) High School.   Being a music lover living outside of New York City area (and being invested in concerts starting in the early 1990s) there was always someone encouraging me to listen to a relative's band or a friend of a friend who was a musician. 

In fact, for the past 20 years I have been taking the time to listen to these bands.  Unfortunately, a lot of times this leads to disappointing conversations, since the music either does not match my personal taste or I do not believe I can “sell” others on giving the band a chance.  While I always try to at least offer some type of response, there is not much you can do to make your review sound positive. Although different than the classic “it’s not you, it’s me” cliché, I try to find a way to lessen the fallout.  For example, after telling a person that the band is not the right fit for a gig, I try to follow that up with something positive, such as complimenting the bass line or something specific I liked about the lyrics.

And although I have been disappointed in the past, other times I have been blown away at the talent that exists less than 6 degrees of separation.  The first friend I made at summer camp (Greg) introduced me to a band of his elementary school classmates that has me still wondering if Nik, Fran & Billy are making music in 2015.  And most recently my friend Jennifer introduced me to her cousin's band Clipart.  It was actually really exciting to tell her that I enjoyed what they are doing musically.

But even in the age of Facebook, Twitter & Instagram, it is not uncommon to learn about new music thru the classic medium of “word of mouth”.   In fact, Word of Mouth Marketing (WOMM) could still be the most important type of social media there is.  Although studies that I have read point towards Word of Mouth Marketing being most prevalent in discovering mobile games, at this year’s SxSW in Austin, TX there was a breakout session titled, “Streamed It On The Grapevine: Music Word Of Mouth” which was dedicated to artists maintaining an intimate connection with their fans and preparing for the next wave of music word of mouth where human suggestions and algorithms work together.

Who will be the next bands to keep this form of promotion alive?!  Or will we not know until your friend Jon tells you about a band that has your former next-door neighbor’s son ondrums and & vocals?  In all sincerity, it is always exciting to hear music that is new to me.  Please keep the recommendations coming.

Thanks for reading.