Purevolume, a Place of Dedicated Artists

When stepped out of repetitive controversies surrounding pop artists like Jonas Brothers or Miley Cyrus, this world has a plethora of true artists, who live day by day with one goal in mind: play the music they truly love. Purevolume^TM is a well-known website for musicians, who consider themselves to be underground and away from "mainstream." Purevolume offers playlists for some songs and free downloads of rest. There are both signed and unsigned artists, and have a large list of genres anywhere from Acoustic to Indie to Soul and Techno. Many artists fall into more than one genre, and nearly all of them list several bands in their biographies for their musical influences. Some of them also use Purevolume as another way to publicize their songs (Myspace being primary way for some).

The misconception that people receive towards Purevolume is that it is just a website for emo music or punk sounds. This is not true. Purevolume is just an excellent website for anyone who wants to share the quality music that people cannot normally find in iTunes or MTV. Taking Back Sunday, My Chemical Romance, and Fall Out Boy are three of the well-known bands that have started from Purevolume several years ago.¹ It is true that especially with Fall Out Boy, the "feel" of their songs may have changed from how they were before they became mainstreamed, but nevertheless, they are certainly different from musicians like Brittany Spears or Lady Gaga.

Personally, in 2006, I came across rather regionally popular band called Valencia through one of my buddies who played tennis with me in high school. Now, this band has 11,049 fans in Purevolume and 109,138 fans in their Myspace webpage. Also, during that time period, I found an independent singer named Ronnie Day, who falls into the categories of Alternative, Folk Rock, and Indie. This guy is a very talented musician, who now has 2,380 fans in Purevolume and 53,843 fans in Myspace, which includes Secondhand Serenade, a well-known acoustic artist that has his music available on iTunes. I actually ended up purchasing the CD from Ronnie Day, and it was one of the best CDs I ever got, laying on my shelf with that of Howie Day and Daughtry.

Other day, I found a very talented female singer named Cady Groves, who delivers songs with such emotions and passionate voices. Her songs are available for play in Napster Free, and interested people may purchase her songs in iTunes as well. She is just one of musicians who just wait to be recognized.

So, press pause in your iPod player and visit some of the artists at Purevolume. I am sure they will appreciate it, anyone from starting artists like misewell to featured musicians like He IS WE.

Works Cited

1. "Music fans reach for the stars" by Edna Gundersen. USA TODAY. March 9, 2005.