In a Global World, Can You Still Find 'Local' Bands?

May 29, 2007— -- Columnist Tom Friedman famously announced in 2005 that the world is flat. Thanks to technology and a more open global economy, he argued, any person can meet and do business with any other person on the planet. Nations will become obsolete.

The same could happen to music: As technology and social networking raise visibility for acts around the globe, the idea of "local" music becomes more problematic.

The 1990s were dominated by powerful music scenes: Seattle grunge, Austin alt-country, New York hip-hop. These scenes would serve as incubators for talent and provide one-stop shopping for record labels. Now, thanks to MySpace and Internet radio webcasting, bands don't have to hang around local scenes for long before they get a global audience -- if they're good, that is.

For example, Swedish electro-pop trio Peter Bjorn & John developed a fan base of taste makers, thanks to a single link posted on music web site Pitchfork. Less than six months later, their hit single "Young Folks" is playing in heavy rotation at major city Rock Stations and was recently featured in an AT&T ad.

When everyone can record and distribute from home, is there a role left for local music scenes?

DJs and artists seem to agree that the answer is a qualified 'yes.'

"The new local scene is a global music scene," said Chris Douridas, a DJ for the taste-making radio station KCRW, which also webcasts to a global audience. No one is a bigger advocate for finding music on MySpace than Douridas, who frequently scours band pages and sifts through mountains of emails from bands who want to be played on his show.

This way of doing things is a big shift away from the old idea of local music scenes, which Douridas characterized as areas where college radio and local print media would support local bands, who would all play the same venues and frequently swap members (think of Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Temple of the Dog in Seattle). From that joint attention, a band could get picked up by national labels and radio.

ABC News contributor Michael Smith is an internationally recognized DJ who has a music-services business. He works with a variety of national brands. www.smitheventmusic.com or info@smitheventmusic.com