A Short and Thorough Overview

My name is Joseph Urban and what I am most passionate about is music. The subtle nuances of every word and how they ebb and flow over seducing chords and brazen melody is what gets me through the day. Whether it happens to be the simplistic pop song on the radio or the strumming stomping hardcore beat from the local VFW hall…I try to incorporate that into my life.

I’ve been in multiple facets of the music industry. From artist, to manager, to random tour merchandise runner, and even label owner. These jobs inspire me to learn more about what pushes music to become popular or even financially stable.

Knowing that you must partake in many jobs in the music industry to truly be a self-sustaining band or label is something I try to learn about everyday. What makes each label better than the next? How do you grow a band from square one? What is more important these days, substance or style? All of these questions are completely subjective and hopefully I can keep true to my roots while answering these questions on my own, while keeping moral integrity in check.

While we see digital taking over the physical platform of CD’s, we have also seen jumps of over 300% increases in vinyl the last few years. This niche medium fell off the edge when the CD was invented in 1983 and even more so when the mp3 came out (the digital counterpart of the CD). Though, now we have the younger generations holding this piece of plastic in their hand and valuing it as a piece of art and not just some hip alternative to the digital age.

I do feel that music genres and styles run in phase and cycles. When something becomes too popular a counter-culture will strike up and inherently strike down the “more popular” genre. You’ve seen this with the start of punk rock in 1977, the start of grunge in the late 80’s/early 90’s, and slightly with the resurgence of punk in the form of post-punk/post-hardcore in the early 2000’s to combat the reign of the Backstreet Boys and N’Sync.

I would have to bit my tongue if I ever said “Those days are long over when a “man-made” group of young boys can take over the Billboard charts”, because I would be completely wrong as for every counter-culture act there has to be a Miley Cyrus or Justin Bieber or One Direction. To me and many others who have these unwritten rules of music, it’s almost like this manufactured sound will always have its' place in music.