…and that should be celebrated
I consider myself a relatively rare breed in terms of music consumption. An endangered species, stretched further by the lack of an environmental action plan. My rarity appears in the form of the variety of music I consume.
‘What music do you listen to?’
This question was always met with apprehension as I found it difficult to condense the compendium of sounds I appreciated into an easily digestible response. On the rare occasion, where I’d attempt to break down the variety of music I listen to, I found that those who posed the question would lose interest rapidly. This would eventually play a part in me launching The Fuss. You’ll always find people online, actively consuming content related to the things you find interesting – curating their fragmented interests.
With time, as I consumed myself with the exploration of the music culture in Johannesburg, I found myself in circles where having an eclectic and flexible taste in music was celebrated irl. The only problem is that there is a major lack of spaces online where one can explore eclectic Southern African sounds.
Ian McNair from Platform recently wrote an opinion piece which I found to be in line with my frustrations on the online coverage of local music. He summed up my thoughts in writing, “The liberating variety of interest and important events, albums, singles and videos available to music-lovers isn’t adequately (or individually) being decoded”.
His article goes further in-depth on the subject offering further ammunition to his thoughts on the matter. The article also serves to announce the relaunch of Platform Magazine whose mission it is to “disrupt the currently fractured, problematic and lacklustre coverage of the [Southern African] music subculture.” You can read the rest of the article here or below.
