Comments From A 'Hustler,' An Indie Label Rep & Me

Sometimes I think the comments get buried on Ypulse. I am looking at a possible redesign of the site in the next several months (look for some big announcements soon). But for now, I'll just pull out two comments I from yesterday worth sharing and one I made this morning. The first was in response to my comment about how Alloy's "urban hustler" would survive being trapped in an office. Ali Muhammad, who appears to be an urban hustler himself, wrote:

You say: What will the "urban hustler" do trapped in an office?

The thing about it is The Hustlers will always create an opportunity for themselves. If they don't become entertainers or moguls, they will create the businesses, that create the jobs or move up the corporate ladder much faster than their non-hustling counterparts.

In my opinion, what the research did was identify that there is a segment of the urban culture that identifies with the fundamental principles of the American. Dream, and they are not afraid to live accordingly.

But the thing about marketing research is that its always about consumerism. What is not in the research is that American's are in a position to where we are going to be forced to hustle. With the shrinking middle class and lack of job security you are going to have to think differently about your life and career.

To which I responded: I've been so steeped in this Generation Me stuff, that my concern was (and still is to some degree) that there may be a gap in what these urban hustlers expect to happen and what actually does for them — or how long it actually takes to make it happen and the challenges you have to continuously overcome. And how much credit card debt they may rack up "playing the part" until they get there.

marah absolutely disagreed with the Consumair Affairs article I linked to blaming the music industry for illegal downloading (remember, just because I link, doesn't mean it's my position):

that illegal downloading article is, like, the WORST. several arguments against it:

1. when music was not available on the internet, you didn't just walk into stores and take it. there's a lot of groceries i want, but i don't just walk out of the store with my arms full of tombstone pizzas.

2. music is not "information," it's a service. you pay for services. you pay for newspapers, for phone service, for internet, for cable. if you want something specialized, you pay for it. otherwise, you have the radio and the library.

3. all music labels are not like… the walmart of music, and all artists do not make $.10 from every record they sell. most indie labels work with artists, on a shoestring budget, and give them a couple of bucks a record, at least, and when you're an indie artist, all those downloads add up to paying your rent, buying a new guitar to replace the one that broke, only having to tour 9 mos out of the year instead of 11. and trust me, at indie labels, we're not rolling in money. it's not about whether we're going to take the 30th floor of the highrise instead of the 25th for our corporate offices. it's about whether we can afford to have insurance. period. there's a bunch more stuff i could say about this article. it goes on and on…

And finally, my own comment on Ypulse contributing editor Chet Gulland's virtual hipster post this morning:

In many ways hipster like sites already exist online like Vimeo or Threadless. They just give off that air of hipsterness even if they're for everyone. So when you have a mainstream site like MTV, creating a "virtual hipster space," I'm not sure it will have real cred, at least among the hipsters. It kind of has to have people with that vibe behind it and believing in it; it has to be authentic.

That said, what I love about the web is that it has always had a more open spirit to it — since the pioneers and early adopters tend to be geeks, there is more of a come as you are vibe and you'll be accepted, a vibe, that doesn't quite jive with the feeling you get in offline hipster enclaves.

So keep the comments coming and I'll try to highlight them in an effort to create more of a Ypulse conversation.

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