While Jon Batiste famously uses the term “social music” for his crowd-pleasing, genre-blurring approach, the music of Huntertones—the band co-led by Batiste’s Stay Human bandmate, trumpeter Jon Lampley—might better be called “social media music.” The group was founded by three Ohio State University classmates and has found success, first in Columbus and now in Brooklyn, by using social networks to generate virtual word of mouth.
The most famous example is the band’s tribute to Michael Jackson, with Lampley and co-founders Dan White and Chris Ott performing a medley of 16 songs by the King of Pop, which has generated more than half a million views on Facebook. A Snarky Puppy cover on YouTube led to Puppies Justin Stanton and Keita Ogawa appearing on the band’s new album, Passport.
