As music evolves throughout time, venues and people come and go. Bands rise and fall, musicians enter and leave the scene. One thing that has stayed as a constant factor is the community. Community creates something larger, more substantial. It marks a footprint on a period of time that isn’t overlooked when glancing into history. The sounds of eras, styles, genres and people are given a chance to be heard inside of this group that is growing and sharing ideas amongst one another.
These groups of people holding similar ideas allow for roots to take hold. The most influential community on myself would be our local music scene. Local music has engaged me, kept my attention and desire to participate. At the beginning, a local show meant going to check out a friend’s band. Music I had never heard before, in a place I had never been. Until then, my exposure to music had been through my parents. I liked the music that they played, and those were the songs I knew. As a high school kid, my exposure to alternate ideas and new hobbies was limited. Until I learned that my classmates had a band.
It was a warm day in Buffalo, New York. I drove from my home in the suburbs to Xtreme Wheels Skate Park. A battle of the bands was about to happen: bands I had never listened to, people my own age. Supporting my friends in a contest to further their musical dreams. It is shows like these that stand out to me. Not just being my first show, but because of the people who attended. This was over six years ago, yet I am still in regular contact with friends I made that day. Xtreme Wheels has since closed, my friend’s band is no longer, but the community has lasted.
This was my exposure into a new world. A world full of people coming together to enjoy company, music, and support each other. I’ve been to shows at houses and I've been to packed festivals. From bands like Rush to local legends and no-name acts. In the music world, the majority and meat of it lies in the underground. The bigger shows with the billboard names and top-selling new albums are great, but the people I have met, the ones who are now a part of my life--they didn’t come from these shows. They didn’t show up at the big name shows once every six months to see a radio-hit album; those shows don’t leave a lasting impression on me.
The experience of the music community extends further. Every town has a scene--groups of people coming together to be with music and each other. With the internet, this also allows for the communities to engage with each other. This desire to interact with other communities allows for strong bonds to form. Musicians can now reach out to other communities, fans can find new music, and people can discover a lot more about the world. There are millions of conversations being held about music with people who have never met in person. Music has had a huge impact on their lives and is able to spread and grow even more with the evolution of technology.
From these local shows, I quickly desired more music. I wanted to listen to everything there was, everything I had been missing. Last.fm was the first step in my quest. A huge database with band after countless band, I went through and listened to every single related artist I could find, but this was only half of the experience. I was also shown people that shared similar tastes as me. People like Maddie and Gregory, living on the other side of the Atlantic. More people like Maria and Hilary were living only hours away. My understanding of the world was about to radically change.
Music has opened my eyes. It has allowed me to learn about people, about different cultures, and communicate with the rest of the world. There is much going on, and I was missing out. Though all of these people lived in different parts of the world, it seemed to me that they weren’t much different than myself. We are all unique, but we are also all human. We share feelings, ideas, tastes, experiences, and a community. My closest of friends were all made through music. What a powerful force music has become.
There are other communities, groups of people that I have been a part of in my life. None of them have made as lasting an impression on me as my local music scene. If you have not taken the time to meet the members of your local music scenes, I assure you that some of them are genuinely amazing people. This sense of community is one that stands the test of time. One that does not falter when venues close. It is bigger than us as individuals, yet makes us feel at home.
There is a famous quote that says, “Without music, life would be a mistake.” If I hadn’t gone to that first show, I might have made a mistake.
