so ska’s in gap ads. it’s also in beer ads, car ads, soda ads, store ads, movie ads, etc.
so bands are making money to get their music heard more widely.
so more ppl are hearing it and therefor buying ska cd’s and starting up ska bands with their friends.
so where’s the problem?
here’s some of it:
i was at the zebrahead/reel big fish/they might be giants show in phili the other day, and the crowd durring the reel big fish set was generally a pain. a lot of teens who mostly were into them fer the trendiness and not the ska-ness, and a few really large drunken(?) assholes who were just getting their rocks off pushing ppl around, ’cause it was so crowded that pushing someone was a chain reation (i had to block some of the smaller teenies from getting too crushed, and help a few off the floor), and a couple fights almost broke out even.
durring they might be giants’s set everyone gave everyone else their personal space, and i got to do some good skanking and jumping around to make up for the mad crush durring reel big fish. (durring zebrahead’s set everyone kinda just stood there except me and a few other ppl who were jumping around a bit, mostly just the “get off stage so rbf can play” crowd vibe. icky, but at least pacific.)
now, this isn’t reel big fish’s fault. mind you, i don’t htink their set was all that, but i’m sure if it was a looser crowd they’d of prolly reacted looser. there’s an older rbf concert on my site (www.2tone.com) that shows how this can werk.
i was at a bosstones show in rochester a couple years back that was a similar situation.
they might be giants have a core following and thousands of die-hard fans, tho not neciserilly wide-spread popularity. it’s similar with bands liek the toasters. rudies know them, but not most average joes, therefor the concerts can be crowded, but everyone’s at ease and has their space to skank and jump around.
the crowd is part of the price you pay for getting generally well known. musicians like apreciation. they’re not selling out, bands with tunes in ads are not selling out, they’re just trying to get heard by people and keep food on the table. the music industry is a real bitch to survive in.
another point to remember is that popularised bands like rbf and mmbt help get people into ska, and therefor into the core group that’ll goto other ska shows and be part of the more laid back ska vibe. i was actually talking to one of the guys from the articles (a band everyone should definitely check out) about this a while back, and he felt pretty much the same. i think his words were something along the lines of “fuck it, if they “sold out”, fine, it’s helping the rest of us.”
i’d rather hear ska in the background of an advertisement than a lot of other things. enough ska injected into media, and lives might improve.