Hi and welcome to edition #2 of Alternative Motive! We are a monthly music newsletter focusing on today’s alternative music scene. If this email was forwarded to you and this is your jam, please click here to subscribe.

Tuned In

On attending multiple dates of tour
Reflecting on checking off this concert bucket list item

Does anybody else remember that period in spring 2020 when Instagram became an obscure bingo hall? I recall tapping through peers’ Instagram stories, seeing 5x5 grids where typical bingo numbers were replaced with experiences related to an overarching theme. I would always play games of concert bingo, proudly putting an “X” over “saw my favourite artist,” “been front row,” and “caught a guitar pick,” but there was always one square that I couldn’t cross out that bothered me: “been to multiple stops of the same tour.”

This quintessential concert-goer experience has been on my bucket list for a long time. Before the bingo cards, I had seen tweets from fans going as far as to follow their favourite artist nightly on tour.

I wanted to do that.

There are various logistics when attending multiple stops on a tour. Some considerations include a person’s work or school commitments, finances, transportation, accommodation, location of tour stops, the tour’s time of year, and a person’s mental or physical capacity to attend the shows.

When I first added this feat to my bucket list, I was still a high school student with neither a full-time job nor license.

Being a Canadian music fan added – and still adds – another layer of difficulty as many international acts only perform in a few distant cities in the country (if any at all). It involves more time and money for a me to travel to the sole Toronto and Vancouver dates of a tour than a fan living in Anaheim, Calif. would need to attend their hometown, Los Angeles, and San Diego dates.

My dream felt impossible back then. Still, I always hoped to do it. And Waterparks’ 2023 North American tour was finally my chance.

The Property Tour was announced on Dec. 13, 2022 with two Canadian dates: Vancouver on May 3 and Toronto on May 17. As soon as the dates were officially announced, I opened tabs for each concert alongside my calendars for due dates and exams, muttering to myself about how I could make this work in my favour.

I had already planned to visit home in British Columbia after my final university semester concluded, before heading back to Ontario for my convocation ceremony. With Waterparks visiting each province, I arranged my travel dates accordingly and bought tickets for both shows.

There are so many decisions to be made when going to a concert. Do I stand at the barricade to make eye-contact with the artist or stand at the back to have more dancing space? Should I be on the side where my favourite band member plays or the side of the member who I’ve never stood near before? To pee or not to pee?

I think a lot about the butterfly effect, and while I’ve never left a concert with regrets, I sometimes wonder what would have happened if I arrived a few minutes earlier, stood a couple feet to the left, or just sat back in the balcony instead.

By watching two Waterparks shows, I had the chance to experience their concert differently each time. I stood in the second row in Vancouver, which meant I could see the tiny red heart drawn under guitarist Geoff Wigington’s eye. But in Toronto, I stood near the back and took-in the saturated, moving graphics projected on the screens behind the band.

There were other elements – beyond my control – that also differentiated the shows, including how Waterparks interacted with the audience (singer Awsten Knight brought bagged milk on stage in Toronto), how the crowd acted with one another, and the surprise songs that the band played.

Going to multiple shows can be compared to a day at school or work: lots of elements stay the same, yet no two days are exactly alike.

While the experience of going to two concerts lived up to my expectations, it hasn’t led to anything beyond a checkmark on my bucket list.

Don’t get it twisted: I had a fantastic time at both shows and have no regrets about attending either. That being said, it was certainly a big commitment. Now that I’ve done it, I have even more respect for all the fans who follow tours and go to shows back-to-back.

Even though my concerts were two weeks apart, going to them still involved planning, money, time, and energy – things that I can’t always put towards live music, as much as I wish I could.

Still, I’m glad I attended two dates of The Property Tour because now, I can finally yell “BINGO!”

Backstage

Crossing the barricade: Following the fangirl to music industry pipeline
Young women in the music industry are using their fangirl status to advance in their professions

This story is a direct follow-up to “At the barricade: The survival of fangirls,” which was published in the first edition of Alternative Motive. To read it first, click here. 

It was peak Tumblr-era 2014, when pop-rock band, The 1975’s, glowing box logo was the centre of black and white mood boards all over the internet. Tumblr Girls, dressed in soft-grunge skater skirts and sheer black tights, would sit with their laptops on their beds, surrounded by walls decorated with record covers, printer photos of lead singer Matty Healy, and Polaroid film with their friends. On their computers, they would listen to Healy sing “babe, you look so cool” while making Arial typeface lyric edits to post on their Tumblr blogs. On November 3 of that year, The 1975 played a mid-size show at the now-closed Kool Haus in Toronto. Evie Maynes was there.

It was Maynes’ first general admission concert. They grew up in the small town of Marmora, Ont., over two hours away from Toronto. On the day of the show, a friend’s dad drove 14-year-old Maynes and two friends to the venue for a 10 a.m. arrival. The group waited in line all day, until doors opened at 7 p.m.. The three linked arms to form a human chain and made a B-line to get as close to the stage as possible. In the hour before the show began, Maynes observed the packed general admission floor. Maynes’ Billabong zip up and blue skinny jeans stood out against the Tumblr grunge of the rest of the crowd. People were drinking and an unfamiliar smell of weed wafted through the air.

Maynes had been to concerts with their parents before, but when The 1975 took to the stage, their experience was different: first GA show, mingling with friends, and seeing an artist they had a fan history with. After the show, Maynes even met Healy.

“It was a high that lasted days,” said Maynes. “I just could not wait to go to my next show […] It lit something in my soul.”

Maynes became a frequent concert-goer after that, driving to various Tumblr-esque shows like Lana Del Ray and even following Walk the Moon across multiple tour stops, when they eventually got their license. They were a true self-identified “fangirl.” As time went on, they realized the high cost that came with going to shows – each $40-$100 ticket was a lot for a 16-year-old – and wanted to find a way in for free. It was at a Khalid concert at Echo Beach that Maynes noticed the photo pit filled with photographers, sparking an idea.

“I started emailing every publication I could find that covered shows in Toronto, just being like, ‘Please let me try this – I have a camera, I will try,” said Maynes, who is now a concert photographer and tours with artists professionally.

So began Maynes’ journey through the fangirl to music industry pipeline: they started photographing miscellaneous shows for blogs, writing music journalism, building relationships within music circles in Toronto, booking their first tour photography job with Toronto artist Luna Li, and starting to pick up other touring positions along the way.

While fans have always been the backbone of the music business, accounting for ticket, album and merch sales, online music streams, and social media support, fangirls in particular are now entering the field as workers.

There is a unique set of skills fangirls bring to the music industry after many years of being engaged from the other side. Amplify Her Voice, an organization which advocates for gender equality in the music industry, notes in an infographic that music companies are beginning to “value and utilize the skills that only fans can provide,” including digital marketing, concert promotion, creative work, and fan engagement. Every time fans create a trending hashtag, put up posters with QR codes for concert tickets around their city, edit a fancam, or simply interact with other fans, they are building their resume.

As a tween, Hannah Aviv used to manage an Ariana Grande fan page on Facebook with four other girls from the U.S., U.K., Mexico, and Australia. At its peak, the page boasted just under one million followers. Aviv also ran a YouTube account where she made birthday tribute videos for Grande, collecting birthday wish submissions from fans across the globe through Twitter and editing them together.

In January, she wrapped up a social media marketing internship with Warner Music Canada. She also does concert photography and works at music industry education organization, Fan to Band, coordinating initiatives with fellow fans as their street team manager.

“Every project is a passion project when it comes to being a fan because you want to do well [especially] with the stigma of, ‘All fangirls are crazy, don’t trust the fangirl,’” said Aviv.

Gillian Turnbull, a music instructor at Toronto Metropolitan University, said that women in music often face a dismissal of their taste, suspicion surrounding their desires to work in the industry, doubts about their skills, and a lack of access to lessons, studio time, and technology.

“Those are all kind of self-perpetuating things,” said Turnbull. “The more women are kept out of the studio, the less they’re going to be able to develop those skills, the more it’s going to reinforce that belief that they can’t develop those skills.”

These challenges extend further for fangirls, whose identities are closely correlated to that of a “groupie,” an often derogatory title for women only interested in music for sex.

In an article about “merch girls” for the Journal of Popular Music Studies, John Vilanova and Kyle Cassidy write that any woman on tour “is presumed to be pursuing a position in the live touring business because she ostensibly seeks a sexual relationship with the male members of the band or is dating a member of the band.”

But while some so-called “groupies” have provided sexual favours to musicians, Turbull said they also have a history of being muses for artists, a source of comfort, and helpers in domestic tasks on tour. Turbull said definitions often do not acknowledge “the real connection that women have to music and what brought them to the road in the first place.”

In 2018, Maynes attended seven shows for the band, Walk The Moon, in only five days. Driving with a friend they only knew from Twitter and meeting other social media “mutuals” along the way, Maynes attended a first show in Omaha, Neb. and travelled through the U.S. Midwest, ultimately culminating at three Lollapalooza-related events in Chicago.

“I tell people this all the time: my time following Walk The Moon on their tours prepared me so immensely for touring,” said Maynes.

“On that very first Luna Li tour, it was that team’s first big tour as well…and it very quickly became apparent that I was more prepared than the rest of the team because I had done this kind of thing before.”

Their experiences driving between cities, understanding quirks of U.S. culture (from gas stations with petting zoos to graphic religious billboards on the highway), and being physically prepared for the tiredness that comes with travelling night after night were all beneficial.

But despite having the skills required to work in the music industry, many women continue to face challenges in their day-to-day life.

Maynes and Aviv both have experience working with teams that are primarily built of women and non-binary individuals. While neither professional said they face discrimination from their direct colleagues, they are aware of the challenges in the industry around them.

“We were at a festival in Boise, Idaho and I had been with [Luna Li’s] band since we got to the festival, which was a few hours – I was there during the whole sound check, I was there long before festival doors opened,” said Maynes.

The festival was scheduled in the middle of Luna Li’s tour, opening for Japanese Breakfast. Both acts were on the festival lineup, with Japanese Breakfast as one of the headliners. When the crews arrived at the artist parking lot, everyone – including Maynes – was given an “All Access” wristband. Maynes also kept hold of the Japanese Breakfast tour laminate while on the festival grounds.

“I was on stage shooting for the first couple of songs and then I came down from the stage to go into the photo pit and security blocked me.”

Maynes said festival security told them they did not have the credentials to enter the photo pit, despite wearing the “All Access” wristband, carrying a tour laminate, and being on stage with the band minutes ago. Maynes said that security argued they needed a separate media pass, despite the “All Access” title on the wristband.

“While they’re arguing with me, this dude with a camera strolls up and goes into the photo pit and I’m like ‘Who is that? He doesn’t work for the band,’” recalls Maynes.

Brenessa Roach, who previously completed an A&R internship with Sony Music Canada and is the creator of music blog Behind the Beat, said that as much as she “embraces” her fangirl status, she has become very aware of her social media presence since joining the music industry.

“In the past year, I have started to fangirl less on Instagram just because I don’t want to be perceived as, ‘Oh, she only joined the music industry to fangirl,’” said Roach. “In general – not just fangirling – I want to be more conscious about what I post because there are so many eyes on me.”

Despite the persistent challenges, Turnbull notes that the music industry has made improvements for women professionals in recent years. These include commitments made by the industry at large to foster women’s engagement.

Women in Music Canada published a framework for improving support ecosystems, safety, access, intersectionality, and funding for women by 2025.

Many fangirls who now work in the industry continue to build community with their peers through organizations like Fan to Band and Amplify Her Voice, social media, and their professional work.

Maynes interacts with fellow music fans while on tour through their Polaroid Fan Project.

Inspired by photographer Anna Lee’s #ALMFanCam initiative (which Maynes participated in during Walk the Moon’s tour), Maynes’ project allows 4-5 fans per night to bring them a pack of Polaroid film which Maynes will shoot throughout the show. After Maynes scans copies of the photos, fans can pick up the one-of-a-kind pictures to take home.

“I think fan engagement is so important, like it’s one thing to have the content and post it […] but to actually connect with your fans in a different way, especially with something hands on, elevates the experience,” said Maynes.

After years of being a fan, Maynes describes their project as a “full circle moment.”

“It’s kind of hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that I’m now creating this experience for them.”

Alt New Monthly

May 2023’s Alt New Monthly features brand new music from Zeph, a recent discovery by Softcult, and a summertime favourite by Young Culture.

To find songs previously featured in the Alt New Monthly playlist, check out the Alt New Archives on Spotify.

Thank you for reading the second edition of Alternative Motive. Be sure to subscribe if you haven’t already and follow Alternative Motive on Instagram and TikTok.

Talk again soon,
Kendra