Rebranding the Blues

From an independent artist point of view, I think this is a good idea, however it will take much more than just getting everyone using the same vernacular.

With the idea of working with a record label looking increasingly bad to alot of indie artists nowadays, in no small part to much easier access to distribution (CD Baby/Tunecore/etc.) and the ability to record without shelling out huge $$ like in the old days, the music world is both much more open to aspiring artists, but also flooded with them.

The idea of the niche artist is really the new dream for musicians who are into a genres such as blues - who want to be successful but realizing that they will probably never have a chance at being Top 40, not for their skills but for the music they play. The big distributors and radios (including online radio like Pandora and Satellite radio) have certainly realized this and now have tons of genres, stations, etc. That being said - THAT is where the term "Indie Blues" needs to show up. I can tell you from personal experience that it is somewhat disheartening when you're asked the question "what genre is your song/album" and you have a drop down list of 50+ genres, but just one "blues" and nothing that really fits.

The other side of this is that we need to get the older, as mentioned 58 and up, blues fans to accept and embrace this idea of younger indie blues players. Alot of old blues players, whilst deserving much respect and admiration, are extremely traditionalist and I think don't realize that without more progressive blues artists like JB, Gary Clark Jr, etc. the old genre would just fall off and be relegated to local jams that only other players go to and talk of the good old days.

Thanks for posting the article GMac.
I do agree with it as well.
A great example of how did country music get so popular when I remember a time you couldn't get anyone under the age of 40 to listen to it(have to admit I still don't lol).
If you think of rock music,what happened after the 70's?
You had new wave and then alternative to make it hip for a newer demographic.
More current bands like the White Stripes and Black Keys have spun off blues based music to the younger crowd.
So hopefully some marketing by the blues industry can help change the current state of affairs.
   Also I think Joe has been able to attract a younger crowd mixed in with the old blues fans.I think it just is smaller in numbers than what you would like.
It is a challenge for the blues to not only keep it going but take it to a whole new level.
I would say it is a bit harder now to make a huge impact being that the music industry that controls the mainstream media has been shrunk and dumbed down to offer as little of a choice as possible.
I still have hope that blues based music will continue on.

I think words like Americana and Roots are even more off-putting to younger fans. I recently went to see Eric Steckel and happened to be at a table with a guy in his fifties who had dragged his 25-year-old daughter along so that she could drive him home. As soon as Eric came on she was totally blown away. Yet she would never have come of her own volition because she thought it was blues, which is for 'old folk'. Now she says she'll travel anywhere in Germany to see him on his next tour...

There are so many young guys around doing wonderful fresh stuff with the blues, it's just a case of getting younger people in front of it. I'm in my fifties, but all my favourite artists are in their twenties and thirties.. Joe, Aynsley Lister, Ben Poole, Eric Steckel, Chantel McGregor, Gary Clark Jr ... they really excite me about the future of this very broad genre we call the blues. All we can do is try to get the word out and support these artists in any way we can.