The business of pop music

When Darius Rucker sauntered onstage at the Township Auditorium in Columbia on a Sunday night in late October 1993, he paused to make an announcement before plugging in his guitar.

"I've got good news and bad news," he told the 1,000 Hootie and the Blowfish fans who'd come to party with their favorite pop rockers. Which do you want first?"

A chorus of "the bad news" rang from the crowd as they pressed closer to the stage, ready to rock.

"The bad news?," Rucker asked with an innocent grin, playing it for all it was worth. "The bad news is this is the last time we'll be playing around here for awhile."

A long, low "boo-o-o" reverberated through the auditorium.

"But the good news is we've signed with Atlantic Records!"

Cheers erupted as Rucker turned to his bandmates, and when they tore into "The Old Man and Me," the crowd began bouncing to the song they knew by heart.

No one knew it at the time, but that Hootie concert more than three years ago was a defining moment for pop music in South Carolina and the lifestyles and businesses surrounding it. A few months later Hootie would record an album called Cracked Rear View, a catchy little 11-song disc that turned the music industry on its ear.

Cracked would become the hit album of 1995, selling 12 million copies and visiting the No. 1 spot on Billboard magazine's top albums chart on five different occasions, the most times that's happened since the South Pacific soundtrack soared to No. 1 six different times in 1959.

By the time Hootie had won two Grammy Awards in February of 1996 and were generating an operating profit of about $30 million on an estimated $90 million in revenue (according to the Wall Street Journal), much of the music industry and media were checking out South Carolina, trying to figure out how such a phenomenal success story could originate in a most unlikely place.

"When I started a business here 11 years ago, South Carolina was very much perceived as a backwater by the national music business community," said Carl Singmaster, owner of the Manifest Discs & Tapes chain of music stores. "Over the past few years, and certainly since the arrival of Hootie, South Carolina has garnered a lot of respect and is now considered a very active and vibrant market area. It's an area the national record companies will now actually target, focus on and pay attention to, in regard to certain releases. They know there's an active consumer base here. South Carolina, and the Southeast in general, have leapt ahead of many other areas of the country."

The music business in the Palmetto State hasn't enjoyed this much national attention since the Southern rock hey days of the mid '70s, when Spartanburg's Marshall Tucker Band rode to fame to glory alongside other regional acts like the Allman Brothers Band and Lynryd Skynryd. But even those heady times can't compare to the excitement generated by Hootiemania.

The number of consumers of cassettes and compact discs has been steadily growing in the state. Recording studios are booking more local projects. Bands are perfecting their promotional and managerial skills while honing their chops. Radio stations are expanding their playlists to include local artists, and nightclubs are seeing increased attendance at shows by acts from South Carolina and around the region.

Only those businesses that deal with musical instrument and equipment sales are yet to see as dramatic an increase, but some feel that is likely to change.

"I haven't really seen an upsurge in the buying of equipment," said John Futch, owner of The Music Store on Devine Street in Columbia, "but that will probably happen in time as interest in local music continues to grow."

"Business has been going up for us," said Jerry Sims of Sims Music. "but across the state as a whole, business (for instrument retailers) has been down. Seven stores closed in South Carolina during the past year."

That actively growing consumer base for recorded music, however, was first noticed in the summer of 1993 when Hootie released its self-produced EP Kootchypop, a six-track disc that the band sold at gigs and distributed to record stores in the Carolinas.

"We took out a loan that summer (1992) and went into the studio for six days and made Kootchypop, said Hootie bassist Dean Felber. "We had sold 20,000 copies of it by October of '93. Between then and February '94, we sold an additional 30,000."

Those were phenomenal numbers for an independent release, and the major record labels descended on Hootie like flies on a summertime picnic table. Hootie chose Atlantic, a label with a long history of dedication to rock 'n' roll, home to legendary hard rockers Led Zeppelin in the '70s and alternative heroes Stone Temple Pilots in the '90s.

When Hootie's first hit, "Hold My Hand," began soaring up the charts, radio stations could easily justify adding more South Carolina bands to their playlists. In fact, commercial rock radio in the state started becoming more progressive after years of bland, middle-of-the-road programming.

"With 96 Wave, we have a tremendously strong radio station here that has had a tremendous affect on our business," said Carter McMillan, who with Kevin Wadley owns one of the state's premier rock clubs, the Music Farm in Charleston. "We make their product viable by hosting gigs by the bands they play on the air. We have a fantastic relationship with the station."

The symbiotic relationship between the Music Farm and WAVF-FM in Charleston is only one example of how inter related music businesses are working together during these exciting times in South Carolina. In Columbia, WARQ-RM (Rock 93.5) hosts interviews with musicians who are in town to play gigs at the Elbow Room, Rockafellas' or the Township. Bands are invited to play unplugged shows at the Manifest location in the Boozer Shopping Center on the days they have late-night gigs in Five Points. Fans can see the band for free, chat with them and get autographs.

Singmaster understands the need for stores, clubs, bands and radio to work together.

"When one wins, everybody wins," he said. "When they all work together a lot more things can happen. We're all out there crusading for more people to listen to good, original new music now."

And there is a lot more original music being recorded and released in South these days. Charleston's Edwin McCain signed a record deal with an Atlantic subsidiary label called Lava Records, and his debut album, Honor Among Thieves, has sold almost 200,000 copies. The Greenville band Cravin' Melon recently signed a substantial deal with Mercury Records, and their major label debut is scheduled for release this fall.

But the bands who are making music just below the radar screen are just as dedicated and determined as those who are finally reaping the rewards from years of hard work. Charleston's Jump Little Children, a band that blends folk and rock with reggae and hip hop for a truly original sound, have released a CD called The Licorice Tea Demos that has sold well across the state. Another Charleston band, jam rockers Uncle Mingo, recently released a 10-track disc called Little Baby Brother.

In Columbia, the Root Doctors recorded a superb slice of energetic funk rock called No Bones About It at Strawberry Skys Studio. Singer/songwriter Danielle Howle has released a disc called About to Burst that's filled with wonderfully poetic images and tastefully played folk pop. The hip hop group Dem Boiz has recorded a single for RCA Records, and the rock band Treadmill Trackstar has earned lots of radio airplay with songs from their album Excessive Use of the Passive Voice.

"Again, when I got into this business, we could count the number of local pieces of music put out every year on four or five hands," Singmaster said. "We could count on 20 or 30 releases, and maybe four of them actually sold 100 units. Now the number (of regional discs) that sell more than 100 units is tremendous."

South Carolina bands are definitely looking at music more as a career than a hobby now. They're learning how to market and promote their product, and they're displaying more professionalism in everything from managing their business affairs to planning tour schedules. It's all part of Hootie's influence.

"What we're tending to see now is that bands are thinking success is a little bit more within reach," said Gary Bolton, owner of Strawberry Skys. "They've seen it happen to the guys next door, they feel it's a little more within their grasp. A lot of them are realizing it takes serious effort. They're going to have to be more serious about their recording projects, stage shows and promotions.

"One thing that's really interesting is that even people who are coming in here to record gospel albums or something totally out of the rock field are using Hootie as a reference point. They're very much aware of how hard Hootie worked, and they're becoming more aware of Hootie's management and how they've done things."