integration

a lot has been said in the past year about the relative island-like nature of this city's independent music scene, namely, that it seems to be indie rock or bust, generally, and few other genres (and as such, other artists) get integrated into shows. both wavelength, and zoilus and I'm sure quite a few others have gone on about this, so I'm not going to waste much more breath on it.

wavelength seems sort of alone right now in at least attempting to go beyond the usual borders of what could stand to be a more diverse scene, but there are problems even within said scene where there is an apparent, dare I say, fear of risk-taking in both booking and attendance (perhaps the latter reinforces the former, and if so how do we stop this vicious cycle?).

as much as we trumpet the depths of talent in Toronto, aren't most of us just taking in the same old things? I worry about the culture of friends supporting friends, and sometimes wonder how any new music gets found at all. I can't complain about the events I've been involved with over the past few months, but how much of the audiences were new? should I even care?