“And
call me loyal
I'll
say you're loyal too.
I know you're loyal
I feel your loyal truth,
Call me loyal
I'll hold you loyal too,
And we are loyal
Keep it that way
Keep it that way girl”
I know you're loyal
I feel your loyal truth,
Call me loyal
I'll hold you loyal too,
And we are loyal
Keep it that way
Keep it that way girl”
Loyal
– Dave Dobbyn
When I first set out
to write my blog at the start of 2012 I was daunted by the idea of coming up
with a different song each week. I started off knowing what I wanted to write
for the first six or so posts, and from there I came up with an idea the week
of. However, that year I knew I wanted to dedicate all the May blogs to New
Zealand artists in celebration of New Zealand music month. I wrote about
established artists, up and coming artists and the Kiwi classic songs, and I
was quite proud of that month of writing. You can go back and read the blogs
here when you finish this one. Last year I struggled a bit to come up with
blogs about Kiwi artists without rehashing all the ideas from the previous year
but nevertheless still churned out four New Zealand music themed blogs.
Over the past two
years I have developed my radio career and as a result heard more and more
about the music industry. I took a paper on it in my final semester at
university and learned about the ins and outs of the business, and working in
radio naturally leads to discussions on music. I have heard opinions for and
against New Zealand music month, and each argument is justified. New Zealand
music month started out thirteen years ago as a way to celebrate all things
Kiwi music and to encourage radio to play more Kiwi music . However, it seems
over the past five years or so we no longer need a month for this push – people
are quite capable of breaking into the business associating it with New Zealand
Music Month. Look at Lorde, Flight of the Conchords and The Naked and Famous; they
rarely associate themselves with May and they are all extremely successful.
After hearing
differing opinions I wanted to construct my own and share them with in the best
way I know possible, which is on this webpage. This year this will be the only
blog I post on the topic of New Zealand music month because I only have one opinion
on it. I think it is still relevant but the purpose of it has changed. It is no
longer about pushing underground artists up – we have the internet twenty four
hours, seven days, twelve months for that, and no longer are our entertainment
sources surprised the talent they play is a Kiwi, because slowly but surely we
are matching international standards.
May should be the time
we consciously think about the music made locally and the way it impacts our
culture. By all means, go to gigs all
year around and buy albums no matter which month they are dropped, but use New
Zealand Music Month to understand how music made locally and how it reflects
this country we live in. You should make time to go searching for a new artist
to listen to on a music-sharing system like Spotify or The Audience, and see what
this artist is saying about our culture, as I firmly believe the culture you
are part of is reflected in your music. I deliberately chose Loyal because I think it sums up this
post: keep New Zealand music month because it keeps us loyal to impact music has
on our culture.