The Internet Has Ushered in a Golden Age of DIY Music

I set out to write a post about the New Zealand indie pop act Lorde (née Ella Yelich-O’Connor). As I was doing my preliminary research, I came across something I didn’t expect. Lorde is 16, going on 17, this November. I started to realize that quite a few of the hot new artists I’ve been listening to lately are rather young.

Chance the Rapper is 20. King Krule is 19 and a handful of days. Bishop Nehru is 17. Lorde is 16. And that’s only within the bounds of my personal taste. Looking elsewhere we see that Miley Cyrus is 20, Justin Bieber and Earl Sweatshirt are 19, and Austin Mahone (just signed to Cash Money Records) is 17. Put simply, hot music is getting young in a way that it never could have before.

Of course, this isn’t the first time musicians have been famous at a young age. Michael Jackson, for a canonical example, was a star in the Jackson Five when he was under 10, but by no means as the result of his own self-promotion. And lots of teen idols have begun their careers at a young age, but many of these stars were essentially created by adults â€" both showbiz parents and music-industry execs with comic-book dollar-sign eyes. What’s unique to this 21st century phenomenon of the “hot young artist” (or HYA) is that the HYA is often the product of his or her own ingenuity.

Bishop Nehru, the Rockland County, N.Y.-based kid-rapper (not to condescend), does not have a bunch of suits plotting his every move. He has Tumblr and Soundcloud. He’s got links to his free mixtapes.

Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus are hot, young artists, but it’s Bieber who best fits the mold of the HYA because he was effectively discovered on Youtube, plucked from the masses to be special. He went from being another teen singing on the Internet to a massive international star thanks to some guy who found him. Of course, he's now got massive label backing and production (in every sense), but his origins are in the do-it-yourself ethic that’s allowing all these artists to grow from literally nothing but talent and some social-media savvy â€" and perhaps a little luck.

And I think that’s what’s so exciting, especially for someone young like me. Social media, which has evolved from a meaningless buzzword to a meaningful buzzword, has truly revolutionized the music industry by threatening it in a huge way. Music discovery is cheap now. If your goal is to amass an Internet following and some real, lasting buzz, you can still start from scratch. The Internet means that DIY ethics can lead to the kind of results previously reserved for label-backed artists with access to traditional mainstream channels (terrestrial radio, print advertisement, large-circulation print music press). This is exciting. This is progress.

Chance the Rapper was mocked in high school for his musical aspirations. Forbes picked up on his mixtape after it blew up online, and now he’s got 32,287 listeners on Last.fm.

Bishop Nehru’s story is similar, though his success isn’t yet at the scale of Chance’s.

King Krule followed perhaps the most mysterious pattern for HYAs: He started out small with a bunch of little-known releases, and managed to grow gradually, with a boost from a guest spot on a bigger release. He eventually found his way to a big presence primarily through Internet buzz.

Lorde, deviating slightly from the HYA pattern, was found by a talent scout at a high-school talent show â€" it’s a weaker example of what I’m talking in terms of rise via Internet, but still serves to show that the world is ready for really young artists on the bleeding edge of a scene other than teen pop. Her fame still grew as a result of web-sharing and viral buzz, which means she still counts. (And her music is really great, by the way â€" go listen.)

I think most music fans find something appealing about DIY ethics and the self-made fame of artists such as Chance and King Krule. Hell, half of Jay Z’s (and numerous other rappers’) music is about his rags-to-riches story. DIY success (minus the fear of “selling out” or other such fame-shaming) is the musical equivalent of the American dream: Rising to prominence through hard work and talent â€" as well as Facebook likes and Youtube views.

The fact that young people, who are typically limited by practical, financial and logistical factors from achieving mainstream success at an early age, can now break out in such a big way â€" and are doing so frequently and so well â€" is a huge victory for the anti-label, anti-Big-Music crowd worldwide. It’s a populist victory, supplanting The Man’s previous exclusive access to the keys of music fame.

Indie music, DIY music, underground music has always existed, but it’s never been this easy to succeed and reach tons of passionate music fans with your music. That’s not to say that it is easy â€" it’s just easier than ever before.

We live in a world where we need music discovery and recommendation sites (not to mention sharing sites for more personal curation) to sort through all the work â€" good and bad â€" being produced right now. Up-and-comers still trip and fall, and don’t manage to make an impression. Some buzzy bands still fade out into obscurity after their 15 minutes of fame. But when you share that new song you just found on some Soundcloud profile or Tumblr page, you might just be helping to further the golden age of the DIY laptop-musician with a Facebook page and a Bandcamp EP.

Keep sharing, keep discovering, keep listening. This is a good time to be a music lover.

Image: Flickr, Kevin Ballard

This article originally published at Death and Taxes here