Lordy are we still arguing over this?

It appears that there are still a few people who are choked about the whole The Sheepdogs win the cover of the Rolling Stone thing. Alex Thomson, a writer for The Huffington Post, aired his grievances about how the band ONLY has 12,000 or so Facebook fans even after the cover.

His argument is a logical one; You can’t force music on to people, they must find it for themselves, and The Sheepdogs have such a low number of Facebook fans because they were part of the former. But I’m not so sure I buy his argument.

It’s a demonstration of Facebook’s ability to remain a representation of genuine popularity and not industry clout. With all that weight behind them The Sheepdogs have yet to turn their new found profile into actual fans.

… From the bottom up, Facebook engagement has to be honest, interactive and creative. Your average kid on the site is not swayed by who somebody’s manager is, what deal they’ve got, or even what the coolest blogs say. It’s an absolute bullshit filter.

The fact of the matter is that The Sheepdogs are not that good a band — their music is a pale take on Americana — and that’s exactly the point. A band — and we’re talking “bands” here, not pop music — no matter how generously you swing your balls behind them, will not register on a grassroots level with kids if they’re simply not good enough.

..With all the will in the free press world, you can’t just put a band on your front cover and expect them to become an overnight success. It’s not the industry telling people what to listen to anymore, the people have found their own voice, and if you want to be heard you better get talking to them… not AT them. (More here)

Hmmm…

I think one thing that the author missed is how a large part of The Sheepdogs audience doesn’t give two fucks about Facebook. This is a band that makes 70s style rock and roll. You know who’s down with 70s style rock and roll? Older people who don’t care about social media. I’m not saying that 70s rock is enjoyed only by older people, but from what I’ve seen the band’s fanbase is more down with listening to the band’s music than commenting on their latest status update.

Plus, remember that the whole fact the band did this sort of thing was for more exposure. Perhaps they’ll never be as big as Mumford and Sons with a certain age group of people, but that doesn’t matter. They’ve already doubled their Facebook likes and with The Sheepdogs work ethic they will be perfectly happy grinding it out for the next 12,000 fans.

Music Consciousness
Voyno