The recent, well-deserved signing of Atlanta’s The Constellations to Virgin records made me think about the Atlanta music scene. On a national and international level, Atlanta is known best for its thriving hip-hop scene, and what an incredible scene it is. Within a two mile radius of my house there are a plethora of world-class studios owned and operated by legendary artists and producers like Outkast, Dallas Austin, TI, and Akon.
But what about rock? One of the many things about the current rock scene here is that, while it’s not necessarily infamous like say Athens in the ’80s, Seattle in the ’90s or Brooklyn now, it is actually much more diverse within the rock genre itself than any of those cities.
In the late ’80s/early ’90s Seattle was cranking out the “grunge” and while not all of those bands sounded exactly alike, they certainly carried with them the same vibe and sensibilities that made them unified and created the “Seattle sound.” The current wave of Brooklyn bands is similar although really the only break-out (compared to Seattle 20 years ago, or Athens 10 years before that) from there in the past couple of years has been MGMT. The point is, Atlanta does not necessarily have a defining sound in rock, and I think that’s a good thing. It shows the diversity within the city itself. This isn’t to say that no two bands sound the same in Atlanta, it’s that the bands from here who have received critical and commercial acclaim throughout the country (and in some cases, the world) sound nothing alike, and I think that’s great.
For example, Deerhunter sound nothing like The Black Lips, who sound nothing like Manchester Orchestra, who sound nothing like Snowden, who sound nothing like The Constellations, who sound nothing like The Coathangers, and so on and so on, and yet they are all from here, for that matter most of them are from the same neighborhood. The one thing, however, that these bands and others like them do have in common actually has nothing to do with their sound and everything to do with their drive and authenticity. It comes down to all of these bands living and breathing their craft. They are all true to themselves in every way. What I mean is, in each case all of them had a vision for what they wanted to do, what they wanted to sound like, and how far they wanted to go, and they all committed to it and went there, no compromises, no looking back. This factor alone is so important to every band’s success no matter where they’re from. When bands aren’t true to themselves or when they try to take on another personality on-stage versus off-stage, it just seems so transparent and counterproductive. This obviously doesn’t mean that every authentic band makes it and the inauthentic ones don’t. We all know that’s not true. There are plenty of copy-cat bands who achieve some level of success as well as original, passionate artists who never see the light of day for whatever reason, and Atlanta has plenty of both. As I’ve said many times, my job is to seek out up-and-coming bands not only here in Atlanta, but in every US city, and I can assure you we have no shortage of innovative, talented artists coming up through the ranks. It’s a long hard process for any band, and there are no guarantees, but the ones who are true to their vision have a much better shot at rising above the fray.
Jay Harren
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