The Promotions Forum and the Kvlt of Fame

[Requiem]

I've been thinking about the fact that the Promotions/Events forum is one of the busiest on the entire site.

Every day (nearly) there are new postings from one-man black metal projects, garage bands, and musos of various kinds, several with hyperbolic 'press release' style statements about their music. Everyone is creating music with the technology available today, and this is cool. 

The thing is, almost all of those people don't post in other threads or join the community at Metal Forum, they just use it to advertise then go on their way. Considering the traffic in the Promotions forum, this is happening a lot. I would say that 90+ percent of sign-ups do this - maybe more. 

On the one hand this is fine and who cares, but on the other it says a lot about the era in which we live I think. When internet forums - older school ones like this - get more people here trying to become stars than people who just want to talk music, I think it's indicative of the 'look at me' society that we live in. Not many people seem to want to discuss music in detail and connect with like-minded personages from around the world, they just want to sign-up, post their projects and go, presumably to the next site to do the same. 

With Twitter and Facebook based exclusively around the cult of self-personality, I think forums like this one are great yardsticks for where we are as a global society, as they are fundamentally anonymous and the poster gains no gratification beyond engaging in discussion with others. This obviously does not hold a lot of allure for people in 2017.

Any thoughts? 

[FatherAlabaster]

I wouldn't call it busy, so much as just full of threads. It's always been that way here, and before we did our big cleanup a couple years ago, the promo was in a bunch of discussion threads as well. I get annoyed when people don't bother reading the guidelines and spam the community with their stuff, but I honestly don't fault people for not getting more involved in the forum in general. Promotion is a lot of work (and it has to be done if one wants one's music heard), and not everyone has the time or inclination to get involved in this particular community. We're self-normalizing in that way; the people who stick around don't mind the slower pace, and enjoy longer/more personal conversations. There are definitely busier forums out there if that's what someone prefers.

For what it's worth, there are good, in-depth conversations as well as a lot of great recommendations to be found on FB, if you get involved in the right groups and follow the right pages. The platform lends itself to shallow engagement, but it's more rewarding if you dig around - much like anywhere else. 

[MacabreEternal]

The promo section serves it's purpose, whether to embody the shallow and transactional immediacy of society or to simply have someone make a unique and lucky find.  The majority of the projects that go up I find appalling if I am honest, just shows me how saturated the metal market gets with the same old, same old regurgitation of ideas and/or with artists utterly incapable of any musical merit or direction.  I only pay attention to the posts if they crop up in the wrong section and then the only pleasure I get is usually banning their scheming asses for spamming.

I am not going to steer this in a "what's wrong with MF?" direction (I am sure AttheGates will be along soon for his annual visit and amazing insight into the lack of forum activity on a board he never visits) but there's no resurgence ever coming to MF for me.  It is never going to be that hive of activity that people seem to yearn for on occasion, it is a community but not one that you have to work too hard to stick about in.  Req, Will, Skully are all recent examples of newbs who have stuck about just for the chat and banter.

I could live without the promo section (although I accept there would just be a flood of spam for us Mods to deal with constantly) but it is what it is. 

[Requiem]

I think the promo section definitely has a place, and I certainly dont want this site to become the online equivalent of Mexico City population-wise.

But when more people have projects than want to talk about projects then we have reached critical mass as a genre. I think I'm using 'critical mass' correctly here but I may be confusing the term. 

Anyway it just struck me as funny and not a little tragic.

[FatherAlabaster]

Critical mass refers to the amount of material necessary for a nuclear reaction. I think you're looking for a metaphor that implies collapse rather than explosion? Anyway, my point to that would be that (in my experience) pretty much everyone with a band would like to talk about their band, and other bands they enjoy; they just may not want to do it here. Forums have something of a steep learning curve, when it comes to getting acclimated to the group dynamic and really getting into the conversations. I really don't think you can extrapolate the state of the genre or a larger cultural decline from our activity here. There are a lot of bands doing a lot of great stuff at the moment. I'm only tuned into a small section of it and I'm finding more new music than I can keep up with, and I see that as a positive.

[Skull_Kollektor]

I came here to post the shit I did at home, but actually forgot about the initial purpose and got carried away with the proper music discussion threads

BTW, if anyone missed my shit, it's still in the promo session. Excuse the subtle spam!

[FatherAlabaster]

I enjoy your posts even though we don't listen to much of the same music, it's nice to meet someone with your level of interest in the genre. Glad you and Requiem and Will have stuck around.

Now, back to the regularly scheduled program of mocking each other with photos of androgynous musicians.

[MacabreEternal]

2 minutes ago, FatherAlabaster said:

I enjoy your posts even though we don't listen to much of the same music, it's nice to meet someone with your level of interest in the genre. Glad you and Requiem and Will have stuck around.

Now, back to the regularly scheduled program of mocking each other with photos of androgynous musicians.

I would!

[Vampyrique]

I dislike twitter, facebook and so on. Even as avenues for bands. I prefer forums and official band websites.  

 

[Requiem]

1 hour ago, Vampyrique said:

I dislike twitter, facebook and so on. Even as avenues for bands. I prefer forums and official band websites.  

 

I went to give you the standard 'horns up' that I usually feel compelled to give you after reading your posts, but alas, the button is elusive. Consider my horns well and truly erect. 

[Vampyrique]

35 minutes ago, Requiem said:

I went to give you the standard 'horns up' that I usually feel compelled to give you after reading your posts, but alas, the button is elusive. Consider my horns well and truly erect. 

Funny. I was going to say more in my previous post. I was actually going to say that good conversation that was once had on messageboards has largely been replaced by a simple thumbs up/thumbs down or like/dislike option on many social media platforms...seemingly in efforts to dumb everyone and everything down. But I suppose it's all well in addition to good conversation! 

 

[Requiem]

16 minutes ago, Vampyrique said:

Funny. I was going to say more in my previous post. I was actually going to say that good conversation that was once had on messageboards has largely been replaced by a simple thumbs up/thumbs down or like/dislike option on many social media platforms...seemingly in efforts to dumb everyone and everything down. But I suppose it's all well in addition to good conversation! 

 

I hope the horns up button stays gone. It's better just talking rather than hornsing up every time someone says they're listening to a Bathory album. 

[Vampyrique]

40 minutes ago, Requiem said:

I hope the horns up button stays gone. It's better just talking rather than hornsing up every time someone says they're listening to a Bathory album. 

^ horns up ^ 

 

[Somguyoveryonder]

I'll admit I signed up for the same and understand the concern, I feel guilty of "trolling" on one hand and on the other I say fuck it and throw my terrible piece of music were I please.  I enjoy just throwing it around for the sake of being a dink/asshole/prick, not for hopes of fame or recognition.  There's TONS of awful music out there (to me, art is subjective...) So I guess I feel somewhat entitled to put awful music out there myself, whether people like it or not.  I don't think of myself as promoting myself, more or less littering the web with something that should have never been made and leaving my mark behind.  Good post, people don't seem to think out loud about this sorta thing.

[Aave]

I know I'm new and yeah I'm guilty of doing exactly what your talking about. I'm not gonna lie at first I thought that this could be another platform for me to get feedback on my music, but after reading some posts, I've realized there are a lot of knowledgeable people that post on here. You discuss interesting topics and it doesn't come off as elitism when you post an opinion. I like you guys I might stick around! lol

 

[backwards]

I came here to show (what i assume to be) a new style of music. Backwards Death Metal.

I'm not here to promote myself or to try to make money.

my website is aimed at showing that it can be done, and also the methods i employed to do it.

 

[Sigmastic_Jeff]

I sense great power of minds here and as such can not stop myself from the drawing to this place of power people.