In Sarah Schulman’s book The Gentrification of the Mind , she laments, “Will everything (books, music, pornography, education, movies, friendship, camaraderie, love, and television) all be free if they’re consumed online and prohibitively expensive to experience in person?” She wrote this in 2012 and may not have anticipated how much further that p... See more

Today’s music landscape is one defined by abundance and immediacy. In a chronically-online world, everything is overground immediately. Scenes have to work really hard to stay underground and even then, some eagle-eyed A+R or marketing person is going to see the buzz and try to bottle its essence for wider consumption. Underground never stays ‘unde

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Music has always adapted to the culture enabled by its dominant format . When radio was king, you needed to grab attention in the first 15 seconds or risk getting skipped. But radio DJs were gatekeepers who could champion unique picks to their taste if they believed in them. When Jay-Z and Kanye West 's “Otis” premiered in 2011, Funkmaster Flex pla... See more