The Daily Swarm

Do you think Jon Pareles gets bored of writing the same CMJ nut graf year after year after year?

2008:

The marathon, which concluded on Saturday night, was created in 1980 by the weekly college-radio newsletter once called College Music Journal and now known as CMJ New Music Report. It started as a pre-Web way to share information, practical knowledge and contacts among the many do-it-yourself bands discovered and nurtured by noncommercial college radio, groups that at the time were just beginning to create lines of communication between local scenes.

Now, after the alternative-rock boom of the 1980s and ’90s briefly thrust independent bands onto major labels and pop radio playlists, the CMJ Music Marathon is in a way back where it started: gathering do-it-yourselfers, even though what once was word-of-mouth is now thoroughly accessible online.

In the 21st century it’s more important to draw listeners to a Myspace or iTunes or Emusic page than to find a limited-edition vinyl manufacturer, as in the ’80s. But one thing hasn’t changed: the overwhelming majority of musicians are going to survive by performing, and CMJ is one long battle of the bands.

2007:

The CMJ marathon started as a convention of college-radio people and gathered momentum from there. In the early 1990s the mainstream popularity of grunge and other alternative rock made it seem as if college radio was the gateway to platinum record sales. Later, as pop tastemaking reverted to high school and preteen audiences, CMJ remained a bastion of the indie circuit, a place where a band might make connections for its next van-and-couch tour.

Lately, as downloaded songs tear apart albums and one-hit wonders come and go, indie rock has been one of the few zones where audiences stay loyal; they actively seek out bands, stay with them and give their music some undivided and repeated attention. The 21st-century success stories of the White Stripes and Arcade Fire have depended on indie rock’s word of mouth, now amplified more via the Internet than by 10-watt college radio signals.

The Internet and indie rock have been perfectly aligned geek paradises, home to collectors, cultists, obscurantists and obsessives. Sprawling online ruminations over albums, new or old, can offer something different from space-conscious, news-oriented, deadline-pressured music journalism. The Internet has made public the kind of fanatical introspection that can build communities out of formerly isolated music lovers and, with the right links, draw interest from beyond the cult. It’s the automated, potentially international version of the circuit that indie bands and CMJ once sought to build with local gigs, fanzine interviews and long-distance telephone calls.

2006:

Recording contracts aren’t as glamorous as they used to be, not with major labels floundering. MTV and commercial broadcast radio haven’t helped by narrowing their offerings to a few nearly incompatible genres: self-pitying emo rock, bump-and-grind rhythm-and-blues and catchphrase hip-hop. At the CMJ showcases, some bands were still aiming for careers in current mass-market rock. They were the ones slavishly imitating Fall Out Boy’s punk-pop hooks and making music-video rock-star faces.

Of course hardly a band at CMJ would turn down a Top 10 single or a gold album on principle. Nor will any rule out other possibilities: a spot on a video-game soundtrack, in a commercial or on television, all of which can be hyperlinked back to the band. Most of the performers I heard — which were of course only a small fraction of the showcases — were making their way without Top 40 expectations.

The do-it-yourself circuit was once a patchwork of live shows and sporadic college-radio exposure, but the Internet has changed that. Now, the most obscure band can put up a page on myspace.com and have its music streamed on any Internet connection, any time. So a showcase at CMJ or its springtime counterpart, South by Southwest, is no longer such a make-or-break moment.

2005:

It’s a terrible time to try to become a rock star. Major labels are obsessed with hit singles and quick profits, and don’t nurture talent because small independent labels will do it for them. Radio stations are in a stranglehold of consolidation and payola. Internet file-sharing may be making it harder to turn a hit into a sales blockbuster, while consumers have so many choices that they have grown fickle. It’s hard for something out of the ordinary to get a hearing, and nearly impossible to get a second chance.

So why did more than 1,000 bands make their way to New York City to play brief club sets at 25th annual CMJ Music Marathon? There were 12,000 official participants this year (including those bands), from college-radio disc jockeys to label presidents, and another 4,000 bands wanted those club slots.

That’s because it’s a great time to be in a new band. Technology allows cheap, do-it-yourself recording, and nearly every computer is a CD manufacturer. Listeners are no longer limited by what’s available at the local record store and on radio or television. The Internet can pick up word-of-mouth and multiply it exponentially, turning a local band into an international buzz and opening up a sustainable touring circuit.