Monday 12 May 2014

Loyal

“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”

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.