When I try to imagine Seattle’s musical network materializing it looks something like a massive, intricately crocheted, tangled web. Not the best visual, I know.
Luckily, with the help of Rachel Ratner‘s genius creation of the Seattle Band Map, I can ditch my lame mental image. The Seattle Band Map was brought to my attention by this great article by Caleb Garling of The Underwire. Ratner successfully tackled the daunting (and never-ending) task of mapping out how all of Seattle’s music players have connected with each another over the years.
As explained in the Garling’s article, the once physical Seattle Band Map outgrew it’s original paper home and has now been converted to an online project. I have a bit of an idea of how complicated this project must have been from past experience trying to write a massive research paper on the media’s influence on Seattle’s grunge music. This was hands down the most complicated research journey I’ve ever embarked on. Seattle bands in the 90’s were swapping members like they were trading cards. Ratner’s Seattle Band Map would have been extremely helpful to say the least. I’m glad this is finally being documented once and for all and I wish her luck!
