rock & roll health chick


Is There Anybody Out There?!


Do you ever find yourself wondering if


anyone is really out there - listening to your music, looking at your art or reading your words? Do you feel like you’re spending half your time trying to get likes and followers, and then the ones you’ve fought so hard to get don’t stay or re- spond? Do you have a platform for feedback and don’t really get much? Do you find yourself defin- ing your self-worth by the numbers? We can feel rejected if we don’t have digital “friends” and fol- lowers. Isolation and rejection, whether real or perceived, are harmful. So many people are actu- ally alone, and so many are focused on social media “friends,” not real ones. It’s not the same at all, but if you’re in the music biz and want to get noticed, you gotta play the game, as they say! It’s a weird world out there. There is a con-


stant barrage of attention getters fighting for ours. Your music might be the best thing since sliced bread. You might look great and have all kinds of local attention, but when it comes to get- ting the world to notice, good luck. Sir Paul Mc- Cartney’s song “Too Many People” comes to my mind. “Too many reaching for a piece of cake. Too many people pulled and pushed around. Too many waiting for that lucky break.” I have to wonder if there must be a point along the journey where a person wonders if anyone is really paying attention and if the effort is worth it. But what would we do with ourselves instead? Being popular and getting famous seem to


mean being a slave to social media, and that’s what it feels like. We’re all fighting for our piece of the pie and trying to capture our little market share. I think people have input overload, so they get narrow in their focus and have to shut a lot of us out. There is too much competition, and peo- ple’s attention spans have disappeared. Some people are collaborative, but others are suspi- cious, petty and backstabbing cogs in the wheels


of harmony and success. Some people have the best of intentions when they get really excited and talk about an opportunity they want to share with you, but then you never hear from them again.


The Internet changed everything. It made


some aspects of putting yourself out there easier and some harder. Some bands used to just worry about booking local gigs. It could be in a bar, at a frat house or other parties. They went around town tacking up flyers for the shows. If they were lucky, some friends would do it for them and maybe the bands put ‘em on the guest list in re- turn. The printer ink or print-shop cost, paper, gas, staples, driving around finding parking spaces and places to post were a way bigger in- vestment than using the Internet. You could tell all your friends and hope they told all their friends. Now you just need Internet access and social media. Back then, maybe the bar put up a flyer be-


fore the show or had some sort of marquee. Now they too have social media. Maybe there was a local underground paper that reported upcoming shows in your town. That could be a goldmine. Now print media is struggling. Some bars already had a regular following. That was always great! Getting an audience in a neighboring town or be- yond could prove to be more difficult. Hopefully you found favor with a more popular band to open for or impressed those who ran the venues.


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