Welcome to Niche Nation

Long Tail author and Wired editor Chris Anderson on infinite markets, the death of the Top 40, and the birth of personalized politics.

Nick Gillespie from the November 2006 issue

(Page 6 of 6)

Anderson: Yeah. So I don't agree with him 100 percent. I like that he's able to reconcile somewhat liberal social views with quite enlightened market views. That's all. Schwarzenegger as well. Basically, these guys are all socially liberal and fiscally market-oriented. I hate to say "conservative" because it just doesn't seem right. They try to enable markets wherever possible and there's not a kind of default inclination toward regulation. It's a mind-set that doesn't look to government first for answers but looks to government last for answers.

Reason: Let's end with a final anecdote that relates back to the Long Tail. Back in the 1980s, you were in a little band that some people know as R.E.M., right?

Anderson: I'm not sure that anybody knows us as anything!

Reason: But you were in a band called R.E.M. that morphed into a group called Egoslavia. How did that happen?

Anderson: Coincidentally, there was another band called R.E.M. from a Nowheresville, hick town called Athens, Georgia, wherever that is. We were later to find out. We were preparing to release an album, and a concert promoter thought it would be funny to have a battle of the R.E.M.s, with the winning band getting to rename the loser.

Reason: Where did the battle of the bands take place?

Anderson: It was the 9:30 Club, the legendary 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C.

Reason: Obviously you did not win the battle of the bands, did you?

Anderson: I would say we lost resoundingly.

I think the first song they played was "Radio Free Europe." It was clear from the first chord what the outcome of that decision was going to be.

Reason: And the winner got to rename the loser, right?

Anderson: In the aftermath of this resounding defeat and with a lot of fear involved, we emerged named Egoslavia.

Reason: Is there any chance that the former Egoslavia will tour again?

Anderson: It may. I hope for their sake they can find a better bass player than me.

Reason: Will the Long Tail ever be fat enough where there will be an audience for Egoslavia?

Anderson: Guess what? Our album is available on eBay now. Parts of it are now in circulation. Tracks have been sampled. People have gotten back in touch with a lot of other [obscure] '80s bands, and they're all coming out again, you know? Some of them through amateur efforts, and some of them are actually being rereleased professionally.