{"id":979,"date":"2012-01-07T11:19:51","date_gmt":"2012-01-07T19:19:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=979"},"modified":"2012-01-07T11:19:51","modified_gmt":"2012-01-07T19:19:51","slug":"the-mystery-of-willis-earl-beal-and-the-bread-crumbs-of-digital-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=979","title":{"rendered":"The Mystery of Willis Earl Beal and the Bread Crumbs of Digital Media"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It started innocently enough.<\/p>\n<p>It started like this:<\/p>\n<p>Scrounging around the hipster fodder of Pitchfork, I <a href=\"http:\/\/pitchfork.com\/reviews\/tracks\/12928-evenings-kiss\/\" target=\"_blank\">read about and streamed a new track<\/a> by an unknown singer.<\/p>\n<p>Intrigued, I did a quick <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/search?q=Willis+Earl+Beal\" target=\"_blank\">Google search<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>I read <a href=\"http:\/\/www.chicagoreader.com\/gyrobase\/willis-earl-beal-found-magazine-acousmatic-sorcery\/Content?oid=4330114&amp;showFullText=true\" target=\"_blank\">an article<\/a> that described the outsider artist that only left me with more questions.<\/p>\n<p>I picked up my phone and dialed the phone number that is scrawled along his album art.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7033\/6654369141_073af734d2_o.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"381\" height=\"135\" \/><\/p>\n<p>No one answered.<\/p>\n<p>I did another Google search and was floored by a YouTube video:<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0dmeK01Nm48\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I clicked another link and was floored again:<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/r9IbU1LM6B8\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>And then found performances with a band:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/34596294?title=0&amp;byline=0&amp;portrait=0\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"400\" height=\"225\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/vimeo.com\/34596294\">Same Old Tears written &amp; performed by Willis Earl Beal<\/a> from <a href=\"http:\/\/vimeo.com\/user9288170\">j. harley<\/a> on <a href=\"http:\/\/vimeo.com\">Vimeo<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>I looked around for copies of the Found Magazine package that was released in limited quantities by Found, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.quimbys.com\/store\/3877\" target=\"_blank\">Quimby\u2019s<\/a>, and Ebay all proved to have nothing (though the cover of <a href=\"http:\/\/foundmagazine.com\/shop\/\" target=\"_blank\">Found #7<\/a> is another Beals artifact).<\/p>\n<p>And then I found <a href=\"http:\/\/www.magcloud.com\/browse\/issue\/207585\" target=\"_blank\">copies of visual and narrative art<\/a> supposedly by the same person.<\/p>\n<p>Did I mention there is a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.willisearlbeal.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">website<\/a> with even less information?<\/p>\n<p>At the end of the day, I began wondering how much of the enigma of Willis Earl Beal is marketing for his forthcoming <a href=\"http:\/\/www.xlrecordings.com\/willisearlbeal\" target=\"_blank\">major-label debut<\/a>?<\/p>\n<p>Even <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/#!\/theroots\/statuses\/149540346869714945\" target=\"_blank\">the Roots have tweeted<\/a> about the simmering response he is sure to receive by mainstream media.<\/p>\n<p>Aside from providing a glimmer into my browsing and listening habits in the early days of 2012, I describe all of this to illustrate the changes in information seeking for me. Growing up, musical discoveries were the banal clich\u00e9s many probably go through. I felt like an insider because I was listening to <em>Velvet Underground and Nico<\/em> because of the opening pages of <em>Please Kill Me<\/em>. Likewise, <em>Our Band Could Be Your Life<\/em> made Mission of Burma a staple in my college listening habits. I \u201cdiscovered\u201d Yo La Tengo because of \u2026 a featured <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/albumreviews\/and-then-nothing-turned-itself-inside-out-20000302\" target=\"_blank\">review<\/a> in <em>Rolling Stone<\/em>. Before the Internet allowed me to dig toward a more personally curated music repertoire, things like the <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Factsheet-Five-Zine-Reader-Underground\/dp\/0609800019\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1325901972&amp;sr=8-1\" target=\"_blank\">Factsheet Five<\/a><\/em> guided me toward specific forms of listening.<\/p>\n<p>That an outsider artist like Beal has a significant stream of online media is unsurprising. The machine of online rumor, gossip, otaku fandom, and marketing make someone like Beal an irresistible tidbit to tweet or share in online spaces. What is significant, however, is just how much of a dead end Beal\u2019s online presence has led me. Despite all of the links of information I\u2019ve found. I feel like I still haven\u2019t been able to find out who Beal is beyond a superficial context. I have only found a limited amount of his work and\u2013gasp\u2013I haven\u2019t been able to support this artist\u2019s work or financially invest in a download or physical purchase (aside from the print-to-order art books noted above). That\u2019s not to say that this won\u2019t significantly change in the near future, but I find Beal\u2019s present case an interesting one contextually. In a time when bands regularly give away more music than people can keep up with Beal sparks my interest because of the dearth of content surrounding him.<\/p>\n<p>This process of seek and stream and download is a relatively new one. It\u2019s a process that interlinks search queries with media consumption, participation within affinity groups and individual focused engagement. As I occasionally felt frustrated at not finding the results I sought, I wondered if I was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=816\" target=\"_blank\">doing things correctly<\/a>. As digital literacies exhibit a confluence of different skills happening concurrently, self reflecting on a process like diving into the Beals mystery are useful in recognizing changes in day-to-day online practice.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled\"><div class=\"robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-icon-text sd-sharing\"><h3 class=\"sd-title\">Tell people this is awesome:<\/h3><div class=\"sd-content\"><ul><li class=\"share-email\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-email sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=979&amp;share=email\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to email this to a friend\"><span>Email<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-facebook\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"sharing-facebook-979\" class=\"share-facebook sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=979&amp;share=facebook\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Facebook\"><span>Facebook<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-twitter\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"sharing-twitter-979\" class=\"share-twitter sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=979&amp;share=twitter\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Twitter\"><span>Twitter<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-print\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-print sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=979\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to print\"><span>Print<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-pinterest\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"sharing-pinterest-979\" class=\"share-pinterest sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=979&amp;share=pinterest\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Pinterest\"><span>Pinterest<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-tumblr\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-tumblr sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=979&amp;share=tumblr\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Tumblr\"><span>Tumblr<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-reddit\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-reddit sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=979&amp;share=reddit\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Reddit\"><span>Reddit<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-linkedin\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"sharing-linkedin-979\" class=\"share-linkedin sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=979&amp;share=linkedin\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on LinkedIn\"><span>LinkedIn<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-pocket\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-pocket sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=979&amp;share=pocket\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Pocket\"><span>Pocket<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-end\"><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It started innocently enough. It started like this: Scrounging around the hipster fodder of Pitchfork, I read about and streamed a new track by an unknown singer. Intrigued, I did a quick Google search. I read an article that described the outsider artist that only left me with more questions. I picked up my phone [&hellip;]<\/p>\n<div class=\"sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled\"><div class=\"robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-icon-text sd-sharing\"><h3 class=\"sd-title\">Tell people this is awesome:<\/h3><div class=\"sd-content\"><ul><li class=\"share-email\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-email sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=979&amp;share=email\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to email this to a friend\"><span>Email<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-facebook\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"sharing-facebook-979\" class=\"share-facebook sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=979&amp;share=facebook\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Facebook\"><span>Facebook<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-twitter\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"sharing-twitter-979\" class=\"share-twitter sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=979&amp;share=twitter\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Twitter\"><span>Twitter<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-print\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-print sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=979\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to print\"><span>Print<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-pinterest\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"sharing-pinterest-979\" class=\"share-pinterest sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=979&amp;share=pinterest\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Pinterest\"><span>Pinterest<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-tumblr\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-tumblr sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=979&amp;share=tumblr\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Tumblr\"><span>Tumblr<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-reddit\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-reddit sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=979&amp;share=reddit\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Reddit\"><span>Reddit<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-linkedin\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"sharing-linkedin-979\" class=\"share-linkedin sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=979&amp;share=linkedin\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on LinkedIn\"><span>LinkedIn<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-pocket\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-pocket sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=979&amp;share=pocket\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Pocket\"><span>Pocket<\/span><\/a><\/li><li 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