Whew, It's Over
CMJ is over. Thank goodness. How did I get through it without getting sick?
Was it just me or did CMJ totally suck this year? Besides Arcade Fire and a slim selection of other bands, I and many others have concluded that the quality of bands in this year's music marathon was at an all-time low.
Contemplating this, I naturally asked myself why. The only thing I could think of was that the screening process must be partial to friends and who you know, not necessarily based on quality of bands or music. I actually know many bands that didn't get in to the festival -- bands that are top notch and buzzworthy. Hopefully, the festival will revise their screening process and make sure to actually put the focus back on accepting bands who deserve the spot. Otherwise no one is gonna want to attend the festival, and the significance of it will fall until it becomes laughed at. My motto has always been quality over quantity -- otherwise your reputation for good taste in music will plummet and no one will trust you when you say a band is good. But you already knew that.
posted by jinners @ 7:49 PM
1 Comments:
I completely agree. The CMJ lineup this year was really lacking.
I think it might have something to do with the format- the fact that 'label lineups' take precedence over pretty much anything else. CMJ seems like it simply finds a few larger 'indie' labels to put on a showcase, backfills Bowery and Irving with bigger-name bands so those venues can draw, and excludes everybody else.
Which would be fine, if every band worth 'showcasing' fit into one of those two categories.
I bet a 'Brooklyn' showcase, a 'Jersey City' showcase, or an 'unsigned artist' showcase, etc. would have been a nice addition.
CMJ seems pretty far behind on the music curve, but I do think that the festival itself is a good idea which just needs better organization and broader horizons.
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