Surely you remember the tunes, “Semi-Charmed Life”, “Jumper”, or “How’s It Gonna Be” from Third Eye Blind’s debut 1997 self titled album. If not, you have my permission to stop reading this and move on to refreshing your twitter feed for the 3rd time in the past 3 minutes.
Third Eye Blind is getting ready to hit the road this summer to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the album. It’ll be the first time they tour an album playing it all the way through every night, plus more.
I’ll admit, I’ve been a huge fan of Stephan Jenkins and Third Eye Blind since the days I started listening to music. They own the art of taking southern California lifestyle and culture and mixing it into endless catchy melodies.
Let me ask you this. Does anyone still go see or listen to new music from Toni Braxton, Jewel, Dru Hill, Duncan Sheik, En Vogue, Savage Garden, Mark Morrison, Rome, The Verve Pipe, Robyn, LeAnn Rimes, Baby Face, or No Mercy anymore? These were, with Third Eye Blind, the top artists of 1997, according to Billboard.com.
Sure some artist like The Notorious B.I.G. passed away so he’s out of the question. The Spice Girls are still touring off the same various hits they had in the late 90s. Not like the Spice Girls really wrote their own music anyway…
I’ve seen Third Eye Blind about a dozen times most recently at Bonnaroo Music Festival.
Each time Stephan Jenkins and the boys stepped on staged they spend all their time up there trying to make a connection with their audience no matter how large or small. At the end of a few of their most recent shows they always thanked the audience for “Helping keep our music alive”.
I think they’re giving us way too much credit. Third Eye Blind has used social media to their advantage as that bubble has been growing. In a time where traditional instruments are the old and incredible amounts of auto-tune is the new, the band reminds their long time loyal listeners that pop/rock music still lives on and gives a new wave of potential listeners something to consider.
The band uses social media to interact with their fans in the most intimate ways. They announced their latest nationwide tour on Facebook Live accompanied by a few acoustic songs, all by request by the fans. As an added bonus the release promotional codes for their fans to buy tickets early. This made sure that tickets got into the hands of fans, instead of others looking to turn a profit on them.
I hope that all music artists both current and those who have faded from the spotlight are taking note. They have all the tools in the world at their disposal to help keep their music alive. If they’re truly passionate about their art they’ll take the time to use these tools to spread their art worldwide.
Since the growing of the social media bubble Third Eye Bind has release a full length album “Dopamine” and a 7 song EP entitled “We Are Drugs”. If you ask Jenkin’s, he refers to them as their most successful albums even if not commercially so. If they had social media back in 1997 like we do today who knows how far the bands reach could go.
The band also known for hosting photo contests on their Instagram each night posting what they think is the best shot from each night of a tour. Imagine the excitement of a fan seeing their photo spotlighted on their favorite band’s Instagram.
This keeps fans snapping and posting away all in hopes that the band can keep continuing their dreams and most importantly, keeping their music alive.