THIS IS NOT (JUST) A PHOTOGRAPH: DEERHOOF'S DIY APOTHEOSIS

When things get so big, I don't trust them at all
You want some control — you've got to keep it small
— Peter Gabriel, "DIY" (1978)

    What you see in the photo below left is the camera that took the cover photo (above) of Deerhoof's excellent new album, Breakup Song.  The camera also happens to be Deerhoof singer-bassist Satomi Matsuzaki's cellphone.  She took the picture one night this summer on her street in Greenpoint.  On the face of it, it's kind of not a big deal.  But really, it's a definitive expression of a DIY movement that began with punk rock, and traces back before that by more than a century.
    The whole idea of punk rock wasn't to make snarly, abrasive music.   It was to be able to make music that the mainstream media would never allow.   And to do that, there had to be a lot of stuff besides musicians.   People had to build a parallel music industry: radio, retail, distribution, recording studios, venues, and print media.  Punk was about seizing the means of production.
    "That is so punk rock!"   In the most interesting sense, that doesn't mean someone is wearing a black leather jacket and a mohawk, it means that they've taken matters into their own hands and made a nervy and resourceful end-run around the usual way things are done. The beautiful thing is, anyone can do that, and in just about any field of endeavor.
    In the early days of indie rock, advances in technology were beginning to make possible just such defiant ingenuity: the photocopier became accessible to just about anyone, which wrought an explosion of fanzines.  Quarter-inch eight-track tape machines enabled more economical recording; soon, four-track cassette recorders appeared, letting anyone easily make multi-track recordings and thereby ushering in the lo-fi movement.
    Along with rejecting high-budget production values, indie rock analogously rejected the cult of technique, which enabled and emboldened a whole new type of musician — people who realized they could make soul-changing music even if they didn't have the chops of Emerson, Lake and Palmer or the studio budget of Steely Dan.
    Now, digital technology has advanced DIY exponentially further, to a virtually global reach and a virtually unlimited scale.   Photoshop, Protools, MP3s, blogs, podcasting, etc. have empowered the music underground beyond the wildest dreams of the '80s indie community.  It's now possible to record music, and distribute and promote it around the planet without prohibitively expensive equipment or the meddling of pricey professionals.   Musicians can be more truly independent than ever before.  Now an inspired indie musician can use her cellphone to take the lo-fi but undeniably artful photograph for her band's album cover.  The future is here.

Comments

[zabawne obrazki]

DIY now! Future is ours :-) Cheers

[Irene Taipale]

DIY is making a big role in music in coming future and no doubt about it.In Finland country many of people love to create music and most of the use to do podcasting.In fact i use to make a music also and i buy all my first dj equipment in part of Helsinki which i select all the good quality to create a good mix of music.

[Geluidstechniek]

Like Irene is already stating DIY in music is important for the future. I only fear the thousands of people who can not judge their equipment properly.

[josh]

Super fun to read. I wonder what would be punk rock now? What can you do that "Isn't allowed" now, and how is not allowing it, I wonder? Now that the means of production, distribution and promotion are pretty much in the artist's hands, is there anything left to fight against?

Not to say you need to fight against something, but it is an essential part of that indie / punk spirit..

And fighting for/against something does help motivate a legion of fans on the same page as an artist fighting for/against something, who feel there needs to be a change. So what can we fight against these days? I'm intrigued by this question. A few ideas:

- The growing tidal wave of similar music being put out into the world that is (maybe) drowning out the truly unique stuff
- The super rich 1% who own more than 40% of the wealth in America (although it's hard to write genuinely good movement with a genuinely motivating social message)

Glad I found your site!

[Michael Azerrad]

Those are great questions, Josh. One thing to rebel against is the rising tide of aggression, stupidity and ignorance that is engulfing every aspect of our culture. So you can make a statement against that by making music that is peaceful and smart. I wrote a post about that here: http://michaelazerrad.typepad.com/you_and_what_army/2010/02/npr-rock.html

At one point, "NPR rock" dominated indie. But naturally, music goes in pendulum swings, and now louder, more abrasive music is inevitably becoming fashionable. (See: the Men, Metz, Ty Segall, Iceage, Trash Talk, et al.) One could argue that this new, more aggressive music is a metaphor for being galvanized against the myriad new outrages of the modern world. Or, as catharsis, it could just serve to siphon off dissent.

One thing music can rebel against is its own co-optation. And by extension, the co-optation and corporatization, of seemingly every aspect of public and even private life. Even indie rock, which many people think of as underground, is actually heavily co-opted by the corporate world. Just look at SXSW: last year, very high-profile bands played inside a six-storey-high Doritos vending machine. And there is music being made and scenes being built which just can't be bought off by the Man.

But yeah, that's a great question. Rock music used to at least claim to rebel against things. And it did, at first: mixing the races onstage and off, and within the music itself. That was pretty rebellious. Then rock embodied and emboldened the sexual revolution and the peace movement. After that, except for punk and disco, it wasn't really that rebellious.

Don't get me wrong, most of my favorite rock music was made well after the '60s. But, especially lately, rock hasn't placed a premium on being rebellious.