July 26, 2011

RPM.fm promotes Native music

RPM’s 10 Must Hear Tracks by Native Musicians

By Wilhelm MurgThe internet has become a place where everyone is on a level playing field when it comes to promoting music. The Vancouver film and video company Make Believe Media is taking advantage of this fact with the launching of RPM.fm, which is devoted to promoting Native music with MP3s, videos, streaming programming, and podcasts of Indigenous artists. The site was inspired by a documentary on Native blues artist Derek Miller, ‘Music is the Medicine,’ which the company produced for broadcast this fall on Canada’s APTN.

Jarrett Martineau, who is Dene and Cree, is the Creative Producer of the project. He comes from a background of working in digital media and is a hip hop artist himself. In the documentary Miller talks about the glass ceiling that Native artists seem to hit, and about the responsibility indigenous musicians have to their home communities and the Native communities they perform for while trying to reach a wider audience. This inspired Martineau and his team to start RPM.

“We all agreed that this is an experience that is common to a lot of indigenous artists,” Martineau said. “And we realized was there really wasn’t a contemporary pop forum to promote Indigenous musicians, particularly musicians who are breaking down genre barriers and who are seeking to expand their audience beyond these categorical definitions of what Native Music is, which is being relegated to the kind of categories you see in award shows, where Native music is treated as a solid music rather than looking at the diversity of music from Indian Country. As we started to build the site we did outreach to some of the artists, told them what we were doing, and the response has been amazing. The artists get to be associated with Native music hype that they don’t have to be embarrassed by.”
Comment:  For more on the subject, see Rockwired Radio Seeks Native Artists and Online Radio for Native Hip Hop.

Below:  A Tribe Called Red.

1 comment:

Rob said...

For more on the subject, see:

http://www.timescolonist.com/entertainment/UVic+grad+student+launches+First+Nations+music+website/5589833/story.html

UVic grad student launches First Nations music website

New website offers Aboriginal musicians a new avenue for getting their music to the public