The FEAR

This could be the cause for celebration in the belly of the beast.

I've realized recently that the "scene" I've attached myself to has come to a critical breaking point. The bands that have established themselves in this genre (your Killswitches, your Every Time I Dies, your Alexisesonfires, your Poisons in the Wells, et cetera) are reaching the point where they've managed to separate themselves from the masses and made names for themselves in their own right. Their labels realize the cash cow that's been created by a gaggle of kids who throw some screamed, witty lyrics over discordant verses. The suits fan the fire by throwing money, tour buses, and producers at these lucky few in hopes of the big dream of commercial success. And this is all fine and dandy. I mean, who doesn't love money right? On top of that, who doesn't love screwing around with your closest friends on a stage and making sweet moolah hand over fist? Nobody...that's who...except maybe communists.

So all this "corporation"-, "major label"-, "the man"- bashing isn't really what I'm getting at. Hell, when I hear of a band I like getting signed to a major label I'm excited! It usually translates into bigger venues, higher production value (on record and live), more extensive tours, longer sets...all in all it's a good time for all! Growth. Hell ya.

What worries me is the machination of the whole process. At a certain extent, some ear at some label hears the potential for a certain sound from a certain band. So the push comes not towards creative liberty but towards chart-topping. With the commercial success of bands like Killswitch Engage, Every Time I Die (ETID), Alexisonfire, Poison The Well, and others, I can't help but sit back and wonder if Epitaph is going to start pushing ETID towards a more mainstream sound for example. Or maybe Poison the Well will start shopping around to major labels again like they did with "You Come Before You" which was put out on Atlantic. Will these larger labels whittle away at the uniqueness of these homegrown success stories? I honestly couldn't tell you. But with new records on the horizon for all four of those bands (not to mention several others, Evergreen Terrace and August Burns Red to name a couple more) I can't help but worry a little. Look what happened to Atreyu...Avenged Sevenfold...Norma Jean...All That Remains.

To end on a positive note though, its hard to ignore the roots. These bands managed to "make it" in a time when power pop, faux-metal, nu-metal, and general teenie-bopper "punk" dominated the airwaves in the forms of anything from American Idol, Linkin Park, Finger Eleven, Breaking Benjamin, Newfound Glory, to Blink 182, these small garage bands managed to grow to national recognition. Sans help from MTV, sans help from mainstream radio, sans help from Rolling Stone, this scene has flourished. How can a band leave behind what has been doing for the past decade and hop onto that gravy train? It's hard to imagine. I'm not going to pretend like it DOESN'T happen...but I'm gonna say that I'm hopeful for the future.

Hopeful with a pinch of trepidation.