SELFHOOD on: DIY music
by Adele Lefebvre du Prey
Photo by Onur Sevigen
Rewind just a few years and artists performed at local pubs, bars and clubs in the hopes of being noticed by someone from a record label who’d see enough potential in them to want to help them make it big. While this can still be the way young musicians get into the industry, it is not the only way. In fact, it’s increasingly becoming one of the most rare.
With music discovery platforms (TikTok, Soundcloud, Triller etc) now firmly entrenched in the mainstream alongside existing music streaming platforms, young artists now have both the means to find audiences from their bedrooms, and crucially, for audiences and record labels to find them.
The breakthrough moments for young artists are now when a song goes viral online or is used as a cultural touchpoint, with TikTok quickly becoming a production line of young DIY music talent.
Cardiff-based rapper Yxngxr1 experienced this first-hand when his track, Rather Do, blew up on the platform. With how quickly things can snowball for artists on social, he now sits on over 2 million followers and is performing at IRL festivals across the UK. A prime example of bedroom to mainstage thanks to new avenues for exposure.
Many look set to follow the same DIY journey. TikTok’s latest breakout star PinkPantheress recently discussed how her process involves little more than laying down her vocals over beats assembled in GarageBand (Apple’s pre-installed music maker software on Macbooks) in her university halls.
This phenomenon isn’t entirely new. Soundcloud, originally founded back in 2007, continues to be responsible for launching the careers, with the likes of Lil Yachty, Lil Uzi Vert, Trippie Redd, XXXTentacion, Lil Peep (and about a million other rappers) all seeing success from the platform.
But as with most virtual trends, it’s been accelerated immeasurably over the last year and a half.
For the Next Generation, the pandemic was a perfect opportunity to turn their bedrooms into their studios and offices and get creating. Hustling from their bedrooms became their thing. This unexpected spare time they had was used by so many to explore new avenues for creative expression and business ventures.
SELFHOOD member Jaz, 22, has been running a music collective since the age of 16, and took the opportunity to expand the business into a talent agency earlier this year.
“I run the agency, I do all the social media management, I do the graphic design, and I run the scouting”.
Jaz is emblematic of a generation of self-made creative entrepreneurs rewriting the rules of the music industry from within the four walls of their bedroom.
This new way of making moves in the music industry has also allowed people to discover and be discovered in other markets that previously would have felt a million miles away. SELFHOOD member Onur, 23, is born British but to Turkish parents and through the power of travel and the internet, he rediscovered his Turkish roots and the beauty in making more traditional music with a Western twist.
This may have never happened 30 years ago and if it did, it would be a much more arduous and complicated process - and that doesn’t even cover finding the right audience to then listen to and engage with it.
But with creative freedom comes the flipside - which for many is a lack of support.
Lily, 21, is an aspiring music artist who told us that when she released her first EP this year ‘it was really fun, but really lonely because it was only me, producing and everything. It was good to do your own stuff but [...] I was just sat in my bedroom, self-criticising every single day’.
Elaine, 22, told us that ‘after about 6 months I reached a low point in my creativity...I kinda ran out of motivation to draw on life experiences’.
The technology, platforms and will-power are all there for the Next Generation of artists to thrive, but it’s likely that DIY artists still need support from record labels and brands if they’re to make the most of their talent.
Likewise, record labels and brands need to think differently if they’re to keep up with the evolving nature of music creation and fandom. This generation of bedroom hustlers waits for no one.