Joanna Newsom and the Creative Class

In the early 2000s 90s lo-fi indie musicians became popular with the younger hipsters. Recorded music sales went down hill after 2000. Indie bands were selling their songs for advertisements and doing a lot of media interviews and being kind of lifestyle influencers before Instagram. It was like a gold rush as they tried to capitalise on this moment of popularity that had eluded many of them in the 1990s. Audiences downloaded lots of music for free on the internet with file sharing and it was a time when everyone wanted a big digital library of records. This type of indie music was renamed as Post-Punk or Post-Rock and many bands were making pastiche records that referred to the sounds of past records.

Successful indie musicians were also part of the socioeconomic Creative Class (see Richard Florida) which was intrinsic to making some cities internationally hip and increasing economic production. The Creative Class was also linked to processes of gentrification in former working class urban areas and increasing real estate prices. 

Joanna Newsom (b. 1982) was about the age of the young hipsters that liked 90s indie bands in the 2000s. She had dropped out of college to try to pursue a music career. Bill Callahan was one of the 90s indie bands, and there was about 14 years difference between them. 

Joanna Newsom grew up in Nevada City in California, her father was a surgeon. Joanna Newsom was not allowed to watch TV or listen to the radio as a child meaning that she lived a relatively sheltered life while young. She dropped out of Mills College (part of Northeastern) to pursue a music career with her harp playing. Mills College is not a very highly ranked college. Bill had done a few semesters at the University of Maryland and dropped out, that is also not a very highly ranked college. 

The people I knew who studied music at University level said it was very hard to make a profession of it in terms of non-pop or non-rock’n’roll music. It was incredibly competitive to get a career in classical music for example. It was more realistic to become a music teacher or play in indie bands, if you were not totally amazing. By dropping out of college Joanna Newsom cut off the option of being a university teacher or researcher, leaving her only to pursue fame as a singer and harpist in the popular music genre. 

Will Oldham discovered Joanna Newsom around 2002-2003 when he was dating Sue Schofield.  Will Oldham had dated Dianne Belino in an open relationship for around 10 years up until about 2001. Joanna Newsom was then signed to Drag City because of Will Oldham.

Joanna Newsom’s second cousin twice removed is Gavin Newsom who is the current Governor of California and is considered to be a potential Democrat Presidential candidate in the 2024 USA federal election.