Decline of music
Dave Tahija
location: Butte, Montana, en route from San Francisco to Juneau
listening to: Train - Save me, San Francisco
registered: 1999.12.27
posts: 261
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I wonder if another factor in the decline of good new music is the rise of cd-based bar djs and karaoke.In the 60s and 70s, many young musicians could supplement their day-job income, or even make a rather wretched living, by playing in bar bands on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. Most of them weren't very good or didn't have enough dedication but it was possible for someone with sufficient talent and a dose of luck to get by and eventually graduate from the school of hard knocks.Most of the great rock musicians, for instance the Beatles in Germany, went though this stage before they hit the big time.Today there are very few local live bands. Their place has been taken by djs and karaoke, which are cheaper and less troublesome for the bar management to deal with. There are some open mike and pickup band nights but these are not practical channels for young musicians to go semi-pro and then professional.On a national scale, this means there is no breeding ground, no minor leagues for new music. There are few places for the young and the daring to try their experiments and make their mistakes. As a result, the amount of good new music bubbling up is much reduced.The corporate culture has played its role, to be sure, but I have to think that if there was a solid supply of good new music out there, it would leak out one way or another.
D
Dave Tahija
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I wonder if another factor in the decline of good new music is the rise of cd-based bar djs and karaoke.In the 60s and 70s, many young musicians could supplement their day-job income, or even make a rather wretched living, by playing in bar bands on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. Most of them weren't very good or didn't have enough dedication but it was possible for someone with sufficient talent and a dose of luck to get by and eventually graduate from the school of hard knocks.Most of the great rock musicians, for instance the Beatles in Germany, went though this stage before they hit the big time.Today there are very few local live bands. Their place has been taken by djs and karaoke, which are cheaper and less troublesome for the bar management to deal with. There are some open mike and pickup band nights but these are not practical channels for young musicians to go semi-pro and then professional.On a national scale, this means there is no breeding ground, no minor leagues for new music. There are few places for the young and the daring to try their experiments and make their mistakes. As a result, the amount of good new music bubbling up is much reduced.The corporate culture has played its role, to be sure, but I have to think that if there was a solid supply of good new music out there, it would leak out one way or another.
