This town’s music scene is off the charts. Every week I have to find new events, videos, songs to stream for riftmagazine.com. Some of the stuff I find is bands and musicians that I have heard of, and they are releasing a new album or something. Then there is entirely another layer of new music, new art and things I can’t believe I didn’t even know about.I have to admit and be completely honest with you; I don’t go out much anymore. I can’t handle the late nights, and since my head always turns on at about 4:30 am I would be a wreck if I went to all of the shows I wanted to go see. Those 10:30 pm start times at Icehouse, leave those to the young people and the other writers that help me out.
So I do this, I get up at 5:00 am and post about everything going on. And let me tell you, there is a ton of stuff going on. I have a day job as well, which luckily connects to the local music scene as well.
I am proud that over the last 30 years and beyond, this music scene has evolved into an amazing mix of styles and diversity. Old hardcore singers now being singer-songwriters, hip-hop exploding, pop, indie, experimental music, bluegrass, folk, and way much more. Plus the remnants of the heavy scene that followed the bands from the eighties into the post-hardcore and post-punk 90’s.
What set off this extreme love letter to the local music scene? A week or two ago, I was entering events onto the website and looking at the Pizza Luce Block Party and the Square Lake Festival. Two local events with all local music. If you look at the Facebook event pages for these events, the number of people saying they are going to these events combined is over 21,000 people.
I have to admit one more thing, many times since the relaunch of Riftmagazine.com, I have thought about expanding to cover more than just local music. Now I realize, that would be dumb. There is plenty of music and local art to write about, and I have barely scratched the surface. There is also a very large audience for this creative explosion.
Now like every artist and musician out there, I have to find that audience and invite them to my creation. This website has to be entertaining to the masses, and the word has to spread.
You can help out, please share articles, reviews, videos and streaming music. Like Riftmagazine.com on Facebook. Go to local shows, art openings, and creative events. Buy local music and art. It helps spread the word about that artist whose audience maybe ten now grow into 100 and maybe 21,000 someday. It would be great if Rift had 21,000 readers as well.
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