Immersed in the big stop tours and radio classic rock of South Florida in the 1970s, Mac McCaughan thought he was being relocated to a place that would strip him of the true musical experience when he moved to Durham at age 13.
“I remember thinking, ‘Oh, we’re moving to this place where there’s going to be no bands playing’… and when you think about it now, North Carolina versus South Florida, which is the more cultural wasteland? Definitely South Florida.”
McCaughan’s career as the lead singer of local band Superchunk and founding partner of Merge Records with Superchunk bassist Laura Ballance provides him a unique perspective on local music. He attended Jordan High School in the 1980s and began to get involved in new music through other students early in his high school career.
“Some time in ninth or 10th grade I started hanging out with people who were listening to what you would call new wave or punk rock and they were hearing that on college radio stations [like] WXYC [in Chapel Hill] and WXDU in Durham.”
Through the 80s, 90s and recent years, college radio has supported varying music and helped to spotlight community musicians.
“In my own experience, listening to WXYC always gives me something new to put on my playlist,” McCaughan said. “[There are] songs that are interesting but that you’ve probably never heard before, unless you’re encountering new DJs. I started being exposed to other kinds of music, other than just what was on the ‘top 40’ or ‘Album Rock Radio.’ College radio is what really opened my eyes to other kinds of music.”
UNC’s student-run radio station, WXYC, is known for everything from its wide variety of genres and spotlight on local artists since the 1970s, to being the first radio station in the world to stream audio on the internet. East alumna and current UNC-student Molly Horan is a WXYC General Manager and DJ with an inside look into how the station runs.
“We play anything and everything all day, all mixed together, so we really emphasize for our DJs to play a wide range of things… We use only physical media, so all CD and vinyl,” Horan said. “We’ve got this huge library; it’s got over 70,000 physical pieces of music, so we basically encourage our DJs to look around and play stuff they haven’t heard before.”
WXYC attempts to get an inside look at local music through student DJs in bands and connections with the town.
“Any connection to [W]XYC clearly gets like a little boost, just because it’s easier for us to hear about it, [but] I think just in general, [we try] to reach out to local record labels and keep our relationship with the local scene really strong,” Horan said.
East senior Jake Brown is part of an East jazz band ensemble and seeks out local concerts along with playing and writing music outside of school as one of Chapel Hill’s young musicians.
“I feel like I can express myself a lot in playing music and writing songs. It’s just a way to meet new friends and form new bonds,” Brown said.
As a young artist, Brown looks up to Superchunk and their success in the Chapel Hill community.
“It’s kind of a goal for me and my own bands and people I play with to kind of get to that level [and] have that impact on people around town,” Brown said.
This local impact is what distinguishes Chapel Hill’s evolving music scene from that of bigger cities like New York or Los Angeles. McCaughan has experienced this sense of community through his involvement in Superchunk and Merge Records.
“College radio is still really great here, Cat’s Cradle, clubs in Durham that didn’t exist when we started, as well as Raleigh… All those elements are what really make a music scene and allow bands to thrive,” McCaughan said. “I think that the difference between Chapel Hill and a place like Los Angeles is that…you can just make the art that you want to make, and not feel the pressure to get big.”
The value of art and connection over fame is what makes Chapel Hill, and similar college towns, a variation from the norm; however, the location of the town also provides this experience to artists in the South.
“One thing that I think sets [Chapel Hill] apart in the minds of the music press or other people from around the country, is that we were in the South… I think there was this bias against the South as a cultural place, and so I think that worked to our advantage in the sense that it was surprising to people and made them want to think about us in a different way,” McCaughan said.
Brown agrees that while there may be more chances for success in larger cities, the community aspect of Chapel Hill acts as a net positive to music produced here.
“I think it’s great,” Brown said. “I think there’s a lot of opportunities for young people to play music and meet people and start playing gigs around town. I’ve met a lot of people through the local music scene and just going to shows.”
Chapel Hill has become a known location for up-and-coming bands and new styles of music. Much of this success can be attributed to long-standing local venues and artists.
“I think that the Cat’s Cradle being here, and Frank [the owner of the Cat’s Cradle] being someone who is treating bands fairly… and maybe taking chances on bands that wouldn’t be booked otherwise, really built it into a place,” McCaughan said. “And if you meet other bands and they go, ‘Oh, you’ve got to play this place, and when you play there, you should get so-and-so to open for you,’ that’s a really important element of building that scene.”
Horan concurs with the idea that community figures and location contribute to fully embracing and sharing the art created here.
“A lot of local venues…[and] local record labels, [will] send us stuff, kind of keep us in the loop so that we can get Chapel Hill music on air.”
Photo by Ananya Cox/The ECHO
