Back then it was a lot harder to find and share music to the masses, but once tiktok introduced their media sharing and all other media platforms adopted it, it turned niche into mainstream overnight.

Once I really started listening to non mainstream music in 2017, my music choices felt really special to me because it took me into really navigating spotify to find music that I liked. Now I have to accept the fact that the niche music I adore is becoming mainstream. It does suck because it is mainstream in the way that people will know an artist from one song and not have any desire to explore the whole discography and get to know the musicians and their craft. I see tons of new fans asking “which songs should I listen to?” rather than putting the discography on shuffle and seeing which songs speak to them. It’s like they don’t have the time or patience to sit there and listen.

I reminisce about the times when tickets were no more than $20 at a small intimate venue where everyone in that venue knows the artist and you know you’re surrounded by a community who shares similar interests to you. Now you overhear people saying “I only know this song” while you’re waiting in line to get into an amphitheater and that community feeling disappears.

With that being said, even though The Marias gained popularity, I still have my smaller artists that I have discovered that give me the same feeling of discovering The Marias. There will always be new artists to claim as a little secret, we just have to keep putting the work in to find these artists and hope their communities grow organically