ROLE OPTIC

ROLE Magazine contributor Jura Shepherd is a well-known fixture of both the RL and in-world music scene. As a tireless promoter and supporter of musicians and their cause, Jura shares her observations on a noticeable hole in our music community.

"In a stylish Brooklyn brownstone on the Millions of Us sim, the intermittent stream of adult alternative music makes a listless attempt to break up the hush of utter inactivity. Promotional posters for Talib Kweli’s 2007 Warner Brothers CD release, “Ear Drum” adorn the walls like preserved relics of abandoned ambition that was to be Kweli’s foray into virtual worlds. The project had buzz, celebrity appeal, and a thoughtful build for showcasing live performances in-world but with a current day traffic rating of seven, it points to the greater question of why urban music has yet to capture audiences within Second Life.

To be fair, major label music acts have yet to utilize SL in a meaningful way and there’s also the fact that urban music isn’t the real world juggernaut that it was three years ago. Even so, at any given time roughly twenty percent of iTunes sales are songs classified as Hip-Hop /Rap. Look at ranking charts for terrestrial radio and you’ll see similar numbers so why is the genre so under-represented in SL’s live music community?"
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