Over the last half year, I have truly enjoyed interning with Our Town Reno as its spring music reporter. I have had the opportunity to not only improve my skills as a journalist, but to also learn more about the ever evolving music scene in Reno.
Being the previous singer of a local band, I had been informed on some of the positive and more toxic qualities of the scene. However, it wasn’t until I started interviewing local bands, artists, photographers, and creative minds alike that I realized a major issue.
The main issue is a lack of resources allocated to small bands or rather the lack of creative individuals wanting to help newer bands looking to make a name for themselves.
When I first joined the music scene nearly two years ago, I observed that while some bands do have good intentions when it comes to supporting new musicians, most are driven by competition. A natural motivator when it comes to creating art, nonetheless, a harmful yet inescapable trait.
Many people don’t want to take risks on small bands because they won’t yield promising connections or bring in a larger audience to help fuel their own personal careers.
Thus, a competitive nature is introduced where people are only interested in promoting others if it benefits them. This competitive quality has expanded out of the local band circle and into the media.
Photo by Kiawna Lavery
Videographers, photographers, and journalists seem to allocate most of their resources to a handful of “small bands.” I put quotes around small bands because the people that proudly claim to help smaller musicians are the ones who only help the bigger bands of Reno. Refusing to lend a helping hand to the group with 45 monthly listeners and instead putting all their time into writing articles, filming music videos, and taking pictures of bands with nine million listeners on streaming platforms, such as Surf Curse, a band formed in Reno that has since located to Los Angeles, California.
There’s nothing wrong with allocating your creative talent to bigger bands. I think it’s extremely important that all bands get the media coverage they need to succeed. However, there’s a significant issue when people only help big bands and instead claim that they're small, usually as an incentive for people to promote their work by advertising a mission statement saying they help the underdogs.
The issue is only perpetuated when collectives established outside of Reno creep in, picking and choosing who they'll give media coverage to based on social media followers. Yet they proudly share their mission statements, claiming they create communities small artists can thrive in.
While on occasion some real small bands are highlighted, it's far more common for bigger bands such as Couch Dog, Mom Cars, and Peach Pit to be chosen for media opportunities within these collectives. All incredibly talented bands with over 18 thousand monthly listeners on streaming platforms. Peach Pit itself has over two million monthly listeners.
In the grand scheme of things, that is not a lot of streams. However, when focusing on the Reno music scene specifically, that is huge compared to the local bands who are barely scraping by with less than 100 listeners a month.
There’s a variety of talented videographers and photographers in the Reno music scene. A few genuine people who take every opportunity they can to help smaller bands make a name for themselves. Through interviews, I have discovered some of the most talented and beloved photographers of Reno: Trevor Castillo, Jake Erwin, Kiawna Lavery, Sam Z, Elizabeth Martin, Tatum Hanshew, and Daniel Lopez.
These photographers always lend a helping hand to newer bands by either taking pictures for free or offering affordable prices for band photoshoots, live show shots, and more.
Photo by Daniel Lopez.
On the other hand, different videographers and photographers focus on bigger Reno bands exclusively. Which is very honest work within itself because even big Reno bands don’t have nearly as much traction as they should. However, when a photographer says they are enthralled to help a small band with over 10 thousand monthly listeners, it feels almost offensive and nearly impossible to ever obtain proper media coverage. If a band with over 10 thousand monthly listeners is small, what would you call a band with under one thousand listeners?
Another frustrating problem is the cliques in the Reno music scene. Some photographers, videographers, and journalists prefer to only help certain bands. They allocate all of their talent, outreach, and creative ideas to the same bands over and over leaving no consideration or thought for other upcoming artists.
I have noticed that the bands that get the media clique resources, have gained significantly more social media traction, and monthly listeners because of these photos, music videos and articles. Therefore the impact media coverage has on the music scene is critical to the success of upcoming musicians.
To address these issues in the Reno scene, it's imperative for both media professionals and audiences alike, to encourage inclusivity and fairness in coverage. By amplifying the voices of smaller artists and challenging existing biases and cliques, we can create a more equitable and vibrant music scene where talent, not connections, determines success. Only then can Reno truly unlock the full potential of its musical landscape and celebrate the rich creativity that thrives within it.