As the music industry’s woes and general malaise — more than a bit of it, self-induced by decades of its own overstuffed arrogance and failure to genuinely diversify — continue, the outsider, anti-corporate spirit of DIY, not only lives on but, thrives in the form of some self-described musicians and singers, a good number of whom, for various reasons, likely wouldn’t have made it beyond the piles of demos in any label office.

Specifically, the indie spirit subsists via decidedly lo-fi, low tech and low budget (not exceeding more than a few chai boba lattes, which likely fueled the sessions) self-made music videos. For the most part, no more than web-camed, individual karaoke sessions shot in a bedroom, these recorded performances are broadcast by scores of un-shy singers with hi-speed connections and high-level social network savvy. This is MTV (when MTV actually played music videos) for a generation weaned on “American Idol” and “America’s Got Talent” and for whom, there lies a tacit if not, actually verbalized dream to be discovered somewhere, somehow by someone a la their ‘scene’s’ Patron Saint, Arnel Pineda who famously parlayed YouTubed covers into a living-the- dream career as the new lead singer of Journey.

Most are barely listenable, far from emo-riffic — some even terrible — and how this all translates to live performances before real audiences still remains to be seen as well as heard but, a good number, have the pipes, the skills and most importantly, the tone and soul. This has also led to more than a few cool partnerships between video performers like the one below between Melissa Polinar, a Pinay singer/songwriter from Dallas and Jennifer Chung, a KA similar hyphenate from Irvine, who likely came to know each other online via their respective videos. Here they are dueting on Polinar’s original “Brave Face.”  Read more...