Monday, August 3, 2020

Lunch With Doug: A Re-Entry Into the Heart of Our Community Since March 23, 2017


Where it began and where it will end are left to the unknown.

Lunch With Doug has been on an official viral internet outbreak since March 23, 2017, but the roots are planted much deeper.

Doug Harper began making videos of his band and their adventures in 1996 and later building on that by promoting a then non-existent local music scene in his hometown of Nevada, Missouri.

By 1998 using an internet journal, internet web log or homepage as sites like his were called back then (before the term blog was coined in the spring of 1999) he unknowingly started one of the earliest music scene websites in the nation.

The Local Ear Underground Entertainment Guide began simply because no mainstream coverage of local music was happening. The live music boom of the 60's, 70's and early 80's had since crashed regionally and something new was on the horizon.

A printed fan-zine was created but with the power of the internet it became obvious that to get to the masses it was going to take more technology and less paper.

Although the printed Local Ear fan-zine was reasonably successful for a short while it was a hard reality that people were mostly reading via the on-line email newsletters. Two hundred subscribers quickly peaked at around 5,000 before the end of that era, and the birth of the famous social media site Myspace, then later crushed by a massive Facebook presence.

The tools that were out there were crushed by the new competition and the consumers moved to new trends. Local Ear went back to the underground, but the local music scene had arrived at mainstream.

Doug went on to have several really good years as a successful musician as well as many others involved with the local music scene.

So was it mission complete? Well not exactly. The live music scene grew too big for town and the musicians involved started to move to larger music scenes of all sizes such as Nashville, Los Angels, New York, Denver, Kansas City, Columbia, and Springfield.

Doug found himself even moving to Nashville for a short while before realizing that his heart was being an indie, and his love was to do big things in a small town. Knowing that Nevada, Missouri really is positioned in a good place being only 98 miles from KC, and 98 miles to Springfield, only 60 miles north of Joplin, and about 150 miles to Branson. These short travels to much bigger metro areas are an advantage at the fingertips of the Nevada, Missouri music scene.

Lunch With Doug was officially born on March 23, 2017 as a re-entry into the hearts of the community after internet trends changed and the music industry crashed. This time it was about more than just music but with a heart for the arts.

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