WHY DOESN’T THE ‘BROOKLYN SOUND’

SOUND LIKE BROOKLYN?Aram Sinnreich Rutgers University

School of Communication & Information !

EMP Pop Conference April 25, 2014

BROOKLYN’S MUSICAL LEGACY

SELLING THE ‘BROOKLYN SOUND’

NY Magazine, 2009NY Times, 2014Bklyn Mag, 2014

NY Mag, 2013Vice Mag, 2012

IN SEARCH OF THE ‘BROOKLYN SOUND’

Grizzly Bear

IN SEARCH OF THE ‘BROOKLYN SOUND’

MGMT

IN SEARCH OF THE ‘BROOKLYN SOUND’

Dirty Projectors

IN SEARCH OF THE ‘BROOKLYN SOUND’

Parquet Courts

IN SEARCH OF THE ‘BROOKLYN SOUND’

Vampire Weekend

TRACKING INFLUENCESGrizzly Bear

Elliott Smith (Omaha) Mercury Rev (Buffalo) Neutral Milk Hotel (Athens)

MGMTFlaming Lips (Oklahoma) Sparks (LA) David Bowie (UK)

Dirty Projectors

Black Flag (Cali) Brian Eno (UK) Fela Kuti (Nigeria)

Vampire Weekend

XTC (UK) Peter Gabriel (UK) Spoon (Austin)

Source: Music Bloodline, Rovi

THE GREAT MIGRATIONBen Goldwasser,

MGMT

Ed Droste, Grizzly Bear

Amber Coffman, Dirty Projectors

Andrew Savage, Parquet Courts

Rostam Batmanglij, Vampire Weekend

THE BIGGER PICTURE: DEMOGRAPHICS2000-2010:

Brooklyn's population grew by 39,000 people. • White population grew by 38,774 • Asian population grew by 75,838. • Black population shrank by -49,517

White growth

Asian growth

Black and Latino growth

THE BIGGER PICTURE: ECONOMICSRising rents, 2004-2012

RISING RENTS = SHRINKING BUDGETS

THE ‘BROOKLYN SOUND’ OR THE ‘SEGREGATION SOUND’?

Rise of the ‘Brooklyn Sound’

THE ‘BROOKLYN SOUND’ OR THE ‘SEGREGATION SOUND’?

WHAT DOES ‘RETRO’ MEAN?

Antibalas Sharon Jones/Dap-KingsLee Fields/Expressions

THE BACKLASH

THANK YOU.

Aram Sinnreich Rutgers University

School of Communication & Information !

EMP Pop Conference April 25, 2014

!Twitter : @aram sinn@rutgers.edu