Originally published Saturday - July 11, 1998
Online music liberating populism
...I was reminded of technology's liberating potential when I
visited one local site, "The `Other' Memphis Music Page,"
(http://www.SteveCox.com). Steve Cox... jazz musician...
has taken matters into his own hands by making music, in a
small way, available to all.Like many musicians with their own Web pages, Cox offers
his muse for the listening. He also features more than 30
selections by a dozen Memphis-based artists whose music
has been largely relegated to the cut-out bins of history. Cox's
choices lean toward '70s and '80s rock groups like DBeaver,
Target and Xavion. But there's also singer-songwriter Richard
Orange and his tune cut by Cyndi Lauper, All the Way to
China, plus tracks by guitar wiz Shawn Lane, harmonica wiz
Pete Pederson and, in a nod to the classics, Mr. Carl Perkins.
Among the best stuff are live cuts from Joe Walsh when he
hung around here in the early '90s.Cox says his three-year-old site has had more than 60,000 hits
in the last six months, which gives these rare and unreleased
selections a new lease on life.There may be no royalties, but there is recognition.
It's becoming more common for artists to offer their music on
the Internet, bypassing the music industry entirely. Whether
Cox and his like-minded rebels know it or not, such pages free
music from the hands of profit-motivated label executives and
lawyers - at least for now.Rest assured, the music industry will figure out a way to make
money off the Internet. Until then, consider sites like SteveCox.com
to be a nose-thumbing challenge to corporate America. Who
cares whether I want to hear DBeaver? The fact is, I can. And
that's democracy at its finest.