Have you come across bands online you thought were great, but had no following?

Nola

Well-known member
I have this happen on soundcloud a lot. I'll post them here as I come across them as I can't remember them all off the top of my head.

Here are a few I remember:

Mike Simmons. It's alt-rock/Wilco type stuff with great vocals.
https://soundcloud.com/mike_simmons

Pega Monstro is a cool band with consistently good pop-rock songs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC2HjKm3HOE
Their bandcamp has all solid material. https://pegamonstro.bandcamp.com/

Then I ran into Shelley Miller on youtube last night, and thought she had a really fun, cool song with amazing vocals. I'm not sure about the rest of their catalog as I haven't had time to delve into it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCqkXEnQUJc

Oh, and this guy, Andrew Huang: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAgGBfLgKmY&noredirect=1
That's a pretty awesome rap and vibe.

Anyway, I thought we should have a thread for good, unknown artists who we bump into! Maybe these people will get some attention they deserve. Any genre or style is fine.
 
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Here's the thing with places like Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Reverbnation..etc....and this is strictly my take.

Just about everyone who goes to these places are people who are there to promote and post their own stuff.
Some may through other musician sites and social media be able to drive a lot of hits to their pages, and then you get the so-called "following"...but that isn't just about how "great" they sound...it's just interwebs hits/likes...same shit you see on Facebook.
I mean...when you see someone with 10,000 likes/friends...do you really think they actually have a fanbase of that size that follows them around?
It's a lot of click-through stuff...and the funny thing...it's become some sort of "gauge" by many, who think the number of hits is directly related to how "great" they are.

Which is why you also have really good sounding music, with almost no hits.

Some of these folks spend countless hours generating "friends" and "likes" and "hits" on the interwebs...but honestly, at the end of the day, what does it really mean to the artists?
How many are directly seeing some sort of windfall from all those "friends/likes/hits"...?

The other thing...everyone who posts music, is mostly interested in their own music.
Sure...we all take a listen occasionally, but at the end of the day...we tend to be more focused on what we are doing (if we are doing anything) than following other artists as a "fan".
Not to mention...there are WAY too many artists posting stuff, so it's not unusual for many to also go by unnoticed, regardless of music quality...which goes back to what I said above...you need to spend a lot of time on the interwebs cultivating all those "friends/likes/hits" if they mean something you.

With You Tube...all you need is to post a really dumb video, the stupider the better...and they will flock to it. :D

At least that's my take.

All that said...if you want to have an "artist" thread with links that people add when they come across something really good...that's fine. :)
It should probably be in the Marketing/Promo forum though...
 
Miroslav, I don't understand your post in relation to the thread. I asked if people could share names, links, videos of artists they run into who they think are good and deserve more attention than they get. You are talking about something totally different.
 
I'm just commenting on why some people have thousands of likes and why you also see many who don't regardless of their "greatness"...since you raised that point. That's the relation.


I said it's fine to post links to music....though they should probably go in a different forum.
 
Miroslav, I don't understand your post in relation to the thread. I asked if people could share names, links, videos of artists they run into who they think are good and deserve more attention than they get. You are talking about something totally different.

kind of what I thought too. oh well.

I'd say that I've seen lots of good stuff online in random places, but I don't ever really look at what their following is. I wouldn't know if they had 10 fans or 1mil. I just don't think to check that part of the page out. I remember I liked a dude on YouTube who did strictly covers until he starting getting bigger and was able to draw attention to his originals. Argh, can't remember the name. And YouTube is locked at work right now. He was a 20-something guy with 50's style glasses and did those videos where he gets a shot of playing all the instruments and places them in the video all at once. He is very talented and has a great voice.

Boyce Ave was another one. This was like 10 years ago though. Both of those people have gotten rather big (relative term) since then.

EDIT: woah. so the guy was Alex Goot. And he did a collaboration with Christina Grimmie in 2010. I had no idea until just now, but that was The Voice girl who was just killed. That's crazy. That was one of the first videos she did...way before she got famous. How weird. I wouldn't have known that was her if it weren't for this thread. ha. I really liked that song they covered - i remember she had a great voice

these are mostly cover people though, not so much originals.
 
You guys tend to be rather singularly focused and seem to get too easily tripped up by tangent discussions. :D ;)

Nola brought up a point about the lack of hits for some better music.
I simply commented on that...and my opinion on why.
It was/is all relative to his observation. There's no reason why that should be so confusing. :)
Like when people put up a poll with choices...and all anyone needs to do is pick a choice, and that's it...
...yet even simple poll threads end up also having broader discussions about the central topic.

You also didn't post any links...rather you gave some comments about the central topic.

Though again, I don't think the User Contributions forum is the right place for posting links to other people's music.
It would be best done in the Marketing/Promo forum....IMO.
 
I guess nobody listens to other peoples' music? lol

Anyway, these guys are awesome (like 1:30 mark): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3Y8ElRpvQk

I remember going to a baseball game a long time ago and the best guitarist i ever saw to this day was a homeless busker outside with some battery power speaker attached to his back playing a beat up guitar.
 
Kind of! Can't imagine not listening to music other than my own.

I'm pretty sure we all listen to lots of music other than our own. I'm not so sure that anyone actually looks specifically for nobodies on soundcloud and youtube. I'm 100% sure that nobody cares to investigate anyone else's recommendations. That's probably why your thread gets no traction.
 
I guess nobody listens to other peoples' music? lol

That's what I was getting at in my first post:

The other thing...everyone who posts music, is mostly interested in their own music.
Sure...we all take a listen occasionally, but at the end of the day...we tend to be more focused on what we are doing (if we are doing anything) than following other artists as a "fan".


It's not that we never listen to anything but our own music...it's just that it's not "generally" listened to in the same way that typical fans would, at least that's my take.. It's like guys who do sports...they are aware of other players, but they are more focused on their own game than being dedicated fans like we at home might be.

When I was younger, I would listen to tons of music, all the time...but the more I get into writing/recording original music...being a typical fan faded back.
I dunno...all I can think of is that for me, it's about focus...and also about not wanting to or accidentally falling into "sound like" scenarios...but I know there are lots of home rec guys who are the opposite, and try hard to "sound like" and to emulate someone they like. Everyone is different.
That said, I'll listen to music all day at work...just some radio streams, but they just play already developed acts, not so much the unknown stuff you'll find on Soundcloud or Bandcamp...etc.
I think most people who are also musicians, just skim through those sites as opposed to becoming fans that follow other unknown musicians. That's the way I see the reason for the lack of "check these guys out" posts.

Notice how people were quick to post their favorite/influential albums...of already established artists...so there it is.
I dunno...I just have little interest or desire to scour YouTube or Reverbnation, etc...looking for music as typical "fan" might. :D
 
I think most people who are also musicians, just skim through those sites as opposed to becoming fans that follow other unknown musicians. That's the way I see the reason for the lack of "check these guys out" posts.

Yeah I agree...I skim sometimes, but if I have time I'll explore longer, and when I find something good I follow that musician (whether they're known or not i don't care at all). I guess i figured most musicians do that, but I guess not.

I like soundcloud. I find so much interesting stuff on there that slips through the cracks.
 
Well that's sad.

Yeah maybe. Kind of. I could post tons of links, but I don't think anyone would care or bother with it. It's like your influential albums thread. I'm just guessing, but I suspect that no one is looking up and listening to anything anyone else posted.
 
Yeah maybe. Kind of. I could post tons of links, but I don't think anyone would care or bother with it. It's like your influential albums thread. I'm just guessing, but I suspect that no one is looking up and listening to anything anyone else posted.

I listened to the stuff people posted, if I hadn't heard it.

Post some links! I'll check them out and maybe one other guy will, and maybe it will change their life forever.
 
There's tons of great stuff out there. There's also tons of crap.

By all means, share the stuff you feel is great.

Big problem nowadays is the oversaturation of music. There are not enough hours in all of our lives to listen to even a small percentage of it.

One can get overwhelmed and simply not care.

As for musicians actively looking for new music, I think that's not a common endeavor.

It is an immense and daunting task for one to build up a following for their own music.

Why would someone want to, and when would someone have the extra time to scour the vast wasteland of the Web for new undiscovered music?

Now maybe, if someone gets big enough to tour on a bus they could browse through soundcloud, etc. Maybe.

But the bottom line there's just too much to go through. And real musicians are usually exposed to new music through their peers. People they have met in the real world and/or shared a stage with.

Sorry if your thread isn't going as hoped for. :D
 
There's tons of great stuff out there. There's also tons of crap.

By all means, share the stuff you feel is great.

Big problem nowadays is the oversaturation of music. There are not enough hours in all of our lives to even listen to a percentage of it.

One can get overwhelmed and simply not care.

As for musicians actively looking for new music, I think that's not a common endeavor.

It is an immense and daunting task for one to build up a following for their own music.

Why, and when would someone have the extra time to scour the vast wasteland of the Web for new undiscovered music?

Now maybe, if someone gets big enough to tour on a bus they could browse through soundcloud, etc. Maybe.

But the bottom line there's just too much to go through.

Sorry if your thread isn't going as hoped for. :D

This ^^^

Most of it is so bad. I think becoming jaded is a perfectly valid reaction to the growing garbage dump of DIY internet music.
 
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