The Golden Age: The Justin Vernon Effect
*MP3: Bon Iver - “The Woods”
The recent news that Justin Vernon has collaborated with Kanye West for the rapper’s upcoming album would have been strange in any world but the one we now live in. The bizarre idea of Bon Iver’s head man rolling out of bed in the morning to shoot some hoops with Kanye before going to work on music all day is only eclipsed by the fact that he flew out to Hawaii multiple times to do it. That some scruffy white kid from northern Wisconsin should, on the strength of one album and one EP, have the ear of one of the world’s biggest hip-hop artists would, in another world, be unthinkable.
But this is a different world than the one we knew even a few years ago. This is Justin Vernon’s world. Or it is a world where a talent like Justin Vernon can thrive without having to jump through the normal hoops. It’s a world where Eau Claire, Wisconsin is also a nexus of the larger music world, not just New York and LA. All Vernon had to do was release his For Emma into the swarming cloud and let the strength of the work do the rest. It’s what allows Vernon to be heard all over the world in a matter of months, and it’s what allows Kanye to hear “Woods” and ask for the phone number of the dude who wrote it.
There’s a pattern of accessibility here that has not always existed. Kanye has become just as famous for internet rants as his music. ?uestlove is out there too, reaching out to indie internet sensations like Dirty Projectors and Joanna Newsom to appear on Roots albums. Dessa and Brother Ali are in the conversation. The internet is a place where niches can thrive in their own spheres, but it’s also a place where whatever real or imagined walls and ceilings in the stratosphere of indie and mainstream can be pulled away. Everyone can see what everyone else is doing, and reach out to one another without the usual intermediaries.
This is not to say that the internet has become a utopia of music. It just means that Justin Vernon might suddenly have a very lucrative windfall of hip-hop projects lined up for himself, without ever having to leave Eau Claire. And this is a good thing. This is the victory of music’s relationship with the internet. The coasts aren’t the most anymore. People can stay home and build scenes. Music can be made from anywhere and seen from anywhere else. Big names and small names can exist for the talent that separates them, not position or proximity.
This does of course mean that some extra sifting is in order for the listener. The bad will inevitably outweigh the good. But then, every once and a while, there will be a Bon Iver, a Justin Vernon that can find the elusive balance and project it out for every ear to hear. His greatest success so far has been his voice, which has appeared on almost every record or musical project made in the past two years. The National wants him. Kanye and Peter Gabriel want him. Vampires want him. Above all, it’s clear that Vernon wants music, and has found it in a dream world of side projects and collaborations. In interviews, he says that he’s exactly where he needs to be. He’s exactly where we need him to be too.
- The Golden Age is a weekly column written by Erik Martz from Minneapolis, Minnesota.
