It hasn’t gotten much better. What’s got me talking about it again is, in fact, NPR’s co-opting of the RPM Challenge.
As I mentioned before, Second Stage has slacked for me as an indie music discovery vehicle since it’s opened up to music that has label support. The quality stayed about even, but the variety slacked off, more songs sounding like stuff striving to fit into the indie scene than songs trying to stand out. (Robin Hilton’s grating intros and disdain for anything indie-folk just adds to the displeasure.)
Second Stage, though, has been featuring artists from the RPM Challenge, and - lo and behold - the best songs are coming from unsigned unknowns recording in bedrooms.
Many of the RPM Challenge songs featured are more original, more beautiful than what’s come out since the change. Of note that I don’t want to forget: Sarah Kenvyn and The Missed Connections. Both unsigned, both relying on MySpace and YouTube and such to get their music out with little, if any, outside support.
That’s what Open Mic was all about, what it did best — getting the word out about awesome artists who are stuck doing their own PR, publishing their own music. That it took an outside event to make Second Stage as relevant as it was before it opened up to labels — even small indie labels — is telling as to how wrong a turn NPR took in ditching the old format.