Every band big or small starts somewhere and was influenced by something.
That truth has become the driving focus of a University of Texas at Arlington professor.
Dr. David Arditi is a sociology professor with a passion for music.
He started the non-profit website MusicDetour.uta.edu to try and catalog and collect every local rock bad, rap artist, jazz quarter or country crooner open to being included.
Apu Gomes/AFP via Getty Images
“If we don’t [preserve it] that piece of cultural history is gone,” said Arditi.
The goal is to preserve local music history and hopefully influence someone else.
“To show that different people are influenced by different music… we can begin to think about how collective and community oriented producing music is,” said Arditi.
Fort Worth band Mean Motor Scooter formed in 2015 and agreed to participate in the project in hopes of keeping North Texas music alive.
Bassist Joe Tacke said their name came from a line in a movie and their unique sound comes from all kinds of influences.
“Everything from old country to pretty hard-core punk,” said Tacke.
Reporter Films Escape Surrounded By Fire
Singer and guitar player Sammy Kidd said they were flattered to be asked to be a part of the project.
“If we can inspire anybody to start a band and make new music and do something that’s original and refreshing and exciting, that’s all we could really ask for,” said. Kidd
Artists agree to upload their music for free and there it will live on, even if the band does not.
In fact, Arditi said since he started archiving local music, most of the bands he’s collected are no longer making music together.
That’s why Arditi said he’s inspired to try and preserve as much music as possible.