Americana at its Coolest: DittyTV

F

Punk, as was often pointed out in its early days, was as much an attitude as a style of music. It was a backlash to the predictability and stodginess of what many thought mainstream rock had become. It took different forms, be it the cerebral middle finger of bands like the Talking Heads and the Clash or the raw snarl of the Sex Pistols or the Dead Boys.

Country music, at various junctures, has also had its own versions of that ethos, be it the Americana movement, or most vividly, the Outlaw Country of the ‘70s. And that demeanor is still going strong, if just under the radar, manifested by what today is called “alt-country.”

One could argue that punk rock wasn't born in the '70s in London or New York City, but in fact burst onto Planet Earth in Memphis in 1954. It was then when a guy named Presley seized Bill Monroe's bluegrass standard "Blue Moon of Kentucky" and Elvis'd it all up -- and raised a whole bunch of eyebrows when he did.

Regardless, if music from the heart, created by artists who care about what they’re playing, with no never-mind for what other people think it's supposed to sound like, if that's your definition of punk, you need to get yourself over to DittyTV.

This may seem an odd place to find a feature on DittyTV, but we actually don't think so. The musical spirit that we try to celebrate here is very much the spirit of DittyTV as well. And, some of the music you hear on shows like Eleven often isn't but a stone's throw away from what we write about here.

DittyTV is a 24-7 network devoted to Americana and Roots music. It tilts most heavily towards the country music side of things, but there’s also plenty of folk, blues, soul, and rock and roll, too.  It stands as a stark contrast to the processed-to-death product that passes on over-the-air radio for country music these days.

Amy Wright

Amy Wright, Chief Operating Officer and co-founder of DittyTV, hasn’t exactly been trying to foment anarchy or anything like that. When she and husband Ronnie founded the network in Memphis about four years ago with barely more than a passion, they were just trying to present a worthy showcase for artists, whose work otherwise would have to be stumbled upon in the vast and poorly charted universes of YouTube or internet radio.

The Wrights were uniquely qualified to start a channel like DittyTV. Both have extensive backgrounds in both both tech and in music, and both were longtime aficionados of American roots music.

“We founded DittyTV out of a true passion for all types of music,” explained Wright, who talked to Garagerocktopia by both phone and email.  “We wanted to tap into a market that was under served, and provide a platform for artists that did not have one. Pop Country, Pop Rock, and Urban Music already have platforms for artists to reach fans.  There was so much outstanding Americana and Roots music and we wanted to create a community that truly connected these artists with fans.”

There are many ways to watch DittyTV, including on tablets and PC’s and on streaming media players and any other wired media. The look, feel and especially the sound of the channel is of a seasoned production, not just somebody’s cool hobby.

Watching the channel is much like watching MTV was in the early ‘80s, except with cool music all the time instead of just when nobody’s watching, and with VJ’s not biologically engineered to be annoying.

Instead of a just a disembodied loop of videos, the network features several hosted programs and presents news, trivia, interviews and concert sets. DittyTV never comes across as somebody’s pre-programmed playlist, but as a vibrant channel produced by a team that actually enjoys the music it proffers.

The playlist is not determined by who’s moving the most units or soaking up the most airplay on commercial radio. Rather, according to Wright, it’s devised by an inclusive team at the channel that gives considered thought to what songs are to be included for broadcast.

“We have a team of people who curate, including production staff and hosts,” explained Wright, who hosts her own show on the channel, The Curve. “We carefully decide what music will air on DittyTV and on which of our shows.  Since artists change their style from album to album or even song to song, the song itself determines where it will air.”

There are occasional videos or appearances by big-time mainstream country performers like Toby Keith. Lots of other artists, well-known within their niches such as Ben Harper, Charlie Musselwhite or the Lumineers, can also be seen and heard on the channel. Perhaps the best music you’ll find on DittyTV might be from artists which whom you, or even the most intense music geek, might not be familiar.

What you won’t find on DittyTV are color-coordinated cowfolk, monotone rappers oblivious to the notion of rhythm, or rock and rollers better suited to be playing GTA in their parents’ basements.

“We try not to branch into Pop County, Pop Rock or Urban music,” Wright confirms. “But we do cast a wide net.  From Bluegrass and Alt-country, to Rockabilly and Indie Rock, if the music/video is good, we will air it and let the audience decide what they like.  Musical taste is so different from person to person that we try not to limit what we play.”

The American cultural landscape is littered with the innumerable hulls of creative and bold ideas, but by all appearances, DittyTV isn't going to be one of them. In the early days, the audience was in the thousands, hardly an embarrassment for a new channel. These days, though, the numbers have more zeroes and they haven’t stopped climbing.

“DittyTV is now reaching over five million viewers a month, and we are amazed at the growth of our international audience,” said Wright, whose channel had two million at the beginning of 2018.  “70% of our viewers are national and 30% are international, watching from many areas around the world like Australia, Canada, Europe and South America.”

According to Wright, despite the ubiquity of mainstream country, she and Ronnie got the notion that there’s still a widespread appetite for real-deal American music, a notion that, thus far, is turning out to be spot-on.

“We attribute the growth to a real global growth in the popularity of  Americana and Roots music.” said Wright, “as well as a strong social media presence. We are creating a global community of musicians as well as music lovers, and connecting our artists with new fans.”

A very common annoyance in these early days of streaming TV is finding a cool channel, enjoying it and one day clicking it only to find the dreaded “Service Not Available” message. Our love, after all, won’t pay these channels’ bills. Luckily, DittyTV isn’t relying just on that. Wright reports that the business end is making progress.

“You will not be getting the “Service is Not Available” message when you click on DittyTV,” assured Wright. “Sponsorship and advertising are always slow to catch on because you have to show significant audience numbers and become relevant before advertisers are interested. We have already reached that tipping point.”

“We have grown significantly and are now well known in the Americana and Roots industry.  We are working closely with brand partners that want to associate their brand with music, and we are looking forward to continuing to expand our programming and our platforms.”

One of the appealing things about alt-country, or Americana, or whatever you choose to call it, is the wide-ranging nature of its artists and audience. It includes everyone from rural people who’ve actually lived the life, to fed-up folkies, to country artists finally making the music they really always wanted to make, to disaffected and exiled punk rockers and to people who just plain don't feel the need to fit in someone else's box. Wright says that the DittyTV audience also reflects those inclusive demographics.

“Our audience is fairly evenly spread out from 20-70 years of age with a large concentration between 25 and 55,” reported Wright.  “We believe our adoption across the various age groups is largely due to the universal appeal of Americana and Roots music as well as the age diverse group of artists that consider themselves a part of this genre. We are also about 55% male and 45% female, and many of our viewers, while not necessarily professional musicians, do play an instrument and are passionate about music.”

There’s been no shortage of negative news, especially of late, about social media. It’s easy to forget, though, that there’s also been a lot of good, especially if you’re into music, and doubly-especially good if your musical tastes live outside those with which big media outlets want to saturate you. DittyTV is a prime example of something positive built in no small part on social media.

“I think it would have much harder to be successful 20 years ago,” Wright said. The technical costs associated with starting a television network would have been a major roadblock.  The internet allowed us to cost-effectively deliver our broadcast and turn our focus to quality content. Beyond that, social media has played an huge role in our growth. We feature artists’ music on our network, and the artists reach out to their fans and turn them on to DittyTV.  We have a built in organic marketing engine which has be incredibly successful.”

We have some other features already in the works here at Garagerocktopia. Artists have been sending us some very cool stuff. As always, we don’t make any guarantees in stone but we’re happy to say we’ve gotten a lot of very promising music sent to us, and we’re always happy to spread the word about about bands that are playing the way-out kinds of music we profile here. Send us a line and we’ll talk.

Also, we do have a Facebook page for this blog. We don’t put personal stuff on it – no pictures of grandkids or our dinners or politics or anything like that. What we do post are announcements about upcoming features, maybe extra stuff about the bands, and any cool music, movies or TV Shows we stumble across that might have even the most tangential connection with the music featured here. While we don't spend all day thinking about it, we do like "likes" if you're so inclined ...