Is interest in live music declining?

[D.A.R.K.]

Original music is doing great where I live (Washington, dc metro area). Standard bar cover bands? Not happening. I am thankful.

 

[FenderBassist]

Lots of valid points in this thread. I've personally seen a decline in the skill set of cover band musicians I've encountered. I used to be able to find players with blues/blues-rock/r&b/funk chops and sounds.

Now I mostly find hard rock/metal players trying to do variety cover material...guitarists with one sound (distortion) and playing style. Drummers that omit the bass-and-drums coordination that can give songs power. Band too loud, songs too fast, no dance music sensibilities in the presentation, too many missing signature parts. Songs start to sound the same.

In my opinion just a mess in too many situations I'm auditioning for.

 

[FenderBassist]

I think the typical bar is in decline, not music.

I think there is some truth to that. Too easy to sit home and entertain yourself these days.

 

[theinfamous]

40 people? we've played shows to 15 and that includes the bartenders and other bands.

I've played plenty of shows like that personally too, it's just that now it's the norm rather than the exception.

 

[Knavery]

It could just be the bar scene in the area. My home town used to be happenin'. There were several bars all next to each other and they were constantly busy on the weekends. Now, it's a ghost town. Though other areas are different. I think it just depends where you are. The music you're playing is a huge factor, but if people don't go out there, it won't matter what you play.

 

[Element Zero]

I’ll say here, yes kinda. The biggest downfall I see in my neck of the woods is “quality” live music. There’s tons of crap here though so... I dunno.

 

[Somnambulance]

This kind of thread comes up quite a bit. I'll repeat what I said in the last one - when it usually comes up, people ask about "live music," but what they really mean is "rock bands in bars." As far as I can tell, touring bands still sell concert tickets, Broadway musicals are popular both in New York and touring, summer concert series from your local Parks and Rec or library performances are still pretty well attended.

So I don't think live music itself is declining - but the cover band scene certainly is. There are a bunch of reasons.

Part of it is a change in the music market. The internet has fragmented it, and genres have shifted. The Top40 of today is not the same as the Top 40 of yesterday; it has less market share. Which means any given new tune is going to have less familiarity and enthusiasm than an old one, even if it's top ten. Meanwhile the top 40 of yesteryear is the "heart music" of a generation that's getting older and older. Young people do know and often love older music, the same as lots of 80s kids like me loved the Beatles, but it's not the same thing - that doesn't mean they're eager to go hear a bar band cover the Beatles.

One thing I was just reflecting on today was the issue of volume. Part of it is that overeager, or presumptuous, bar bands have driven lots of customers away by being too loud. I think there's another dimension of it, too, which is that for those people who DO enjoy getting blasted by an overwhelming wall of sound, there are now alternatives to live bands to get it. It's not the band that creates that, it's the PA system, and a DJ at a rave can generate the same effect and do the "Drop the bass" thing. That phenomenon puzzled me - why would anyone want to listen to a synth just generating a static, low-frequency tone, rather than a bassist actually playing a greasy low-end groove? - until I realized that for some people, all they really want is that rumble-their-bones feeling and it was never about musicality.

I think there's been a big cultural shift in terms of attitudes to nightlife in general. You don't need a singles bar when you have Tinder. Staying home is a lot less boring than it used to be, with all the manifold forms of digital entertainment. As a marketing theme, "Netflix and Chill" has been an extraordinary success. I see people on social media all the time - not just older people, either - who will post stuff asserting that some unnamed other people might be out swinging from the ceilings at clubs, but they're just going to curl up with a movie and a glass of wine at home Saturday night. You never seem to find out who those "other people" actually are or how you can get them to see your band. There's a kind of cost/benefit, risk/reward calculation over what to do on a Saturday night - is it worth the effort to get dressed, to go out in the cold and travel twenty minutes, to get to a bar where the band might really suck and be too loud and the drunks be really annoying, and you've got to work out a designated driver who's willing to go party with you without drinking themselves, or risk getting pulled over for DUI on your way home? Or would it be better not to bother and stay in and watch a movie?

And then, there's the life cycle of popular music genres. Blues and jazz are still a thing, and people still go to see them. But there aren't nearly as many jazz clubs around most areas as there would have been fifty or sixty years ago. The same thing is true of rock. There will always be rock bands, or at least for a long time to come, and people going to see them. But not as many people, and not as many venues. We're in a post-rock world.

I may be jumping ahead a bit here and if this has been covered then I apologize for the redundancy. You're correct about the internet changing music, it offers musicians and bands of various genres to reach around the world and receive millions of views. A good portion of the bands I listen to regularly haven't gone on North American tours in years, and if they do then they're showing up at massive festivals. With the internet has come many changes in culture, and its impact on music has changed the way musicians market their music. Live bands are still very much a thing, and in my experience I see more cover bands in bars than original bands.

also, it is much more economical to drink at home while watching movies or listening to music you want to hear than drinking at a bar to listen to a cover band play the same stuff you've gotten sick of hearing years ago. What you lose with this is the social aspect of talking to other people at the bar, but social media has stepped in for that as well.

 

[two fingers]

These friends of mine have no problem finding work. Adding 100% validity to your response.
Past Action Heroes 80s and 90s cover band

Now THEY look like they have a good time.

 

[Marc DLarosa]

Now THEY look like they have a good time.

Right?
And, if You knew what they EARN...
IT'S SILLY/INSANE!!!

 

[PennyroyalWe]

I’ve noticed a resurgence in the prominence of house shows lately. The bar gigs on a great night may have 40-50 people, over 12 and I’m still impressed. The house shows though you’re looking at the 50-100+ crowds very often. There’s a niche/exclusivity element to them that I think seems to help the draw. They’re BYOB, so you aren’t racking up a huge bar tab. They’re all ages, which annoying as it can be, opens up a large demographic in college towns. The door cover is usually by donation and more or less entirely for the touring bands, and the “venue” is run by volunteers/the people that live there (can’t say positively that don’t get some compensation). I personally don’t care for the house show scene as an audience member as they tend to be 100 degrees inside and reek like armpits, but there are crowds out there if you can get on the bill.

 

[juancaminos]

These are both true.

Much like @hrodbert696 beats his drum in these threads, I'll beat mine.


The problem is us. We (by "we" I mean most local cover bands) show up with no lights, dressed like we just got done cutting our grass, and put on no SHOW whatsoever.

We are NOT ..... I repeat NOT..... in the "music business". We are in the ENTERTAINMENT business. They can get music from a computer. They don't need you for that.

Dress the part. Set up lights. Move around. Engage your audience. You'll get more gigs than you want.

Wear a tucked in Fender T-shirt and white New Balance sneakers on stage, set up no lights, put in no show, play the same old crap everyone else has butchered in bars for forty years and continue to start threads like these.

Short version. Yes, the number of people who want to go to a bar and see boring old guys play old guy music and act/look like old guys has dwindled.

YEP, YEP, YEP

 

[Ekulati]

The biggest downfall I see in my neck of the woods is “quality” live music. There’s tons of crap here though so... I dunno.

Yup this. But I'll throw out another angle to the "quality" viewpoint, that there's tons of crappy, lazy dad bands in cargo shorts: if that's the case, then what does that tell us? It tells us that that's the level of the market. It's low, because the venue owners have no incentive to "raise" it. Your six, seven, eight hundred dollar band with costumes and lights does not increase their bottom line, despite the fact that we all romanticize that somehow it does or should. So they get the dad band for 200.

Do your best, put on a show, be professional, but only for your own pride and self worth, not because "if bands would only do x" it would return local live music to the 70s when bands worked for decent money five nights a week.

 

[bluesblaster]

People started watching music instead of listening when MTV came along, every song needed a clever video attached to it or it just wasn't relevant and was quickly lost in the dustbin of pop culture.

Prior to the MTV era you put on a 33 1/3 long playing record album and maybe got "herbed up" a little to enhance the experience, in the 80's your imagination wasn't required anymore, MTV did it for you.

 

[arbiterusa]

Also, what can be done to lure people out to see live music again??

Turn down. I’m serious. The audiences are getting older and they’re not going to stick around for guys playing at what most of us consider moderate volume. Gotta get it quiet.

We did this to ourselves. I like playing loud as much as anyone but you can’t expect anyone to pay you for that anymore.

 

[theinfamous]

Original music is doing great where I live (Washington, dc metro area). Standard bar cover bands? Not happening. I am thankful.

I get it, but if you're in a band and want to play live on a regular basis and get paid around here you pretty much have to play covers. It's a necessary evil. My bands are pretty careful not to play the typical covers you always hear.

 

[dennis james]

Every time I read these threads I get depressed

Me three

 

[DWBass]

Probably your local scene is waning. Live music is plentiful in my area. However, I'm from NY and this scene is different but still thriving. It's just not a funk, jazz type of scene even though it's here. The best bands are playing top40, variety and get paid well for it.

 

[theinfamous]

So basically you want to: gig regularly, get paid, and not play music the audience actually wants to hear?
I want Yvonne Strahovski. Guess which one of us has a better chance of getting what we want?

No, that's not what I'm saying. I know there is a market for what we play, but we need to have it in front of more people to make it work better. People don't always want to hear country or top 40 rock stuff, that's just who is getting hired. It's a "safe" bet for things like stock shows, street dances, rodeos and the like. But, audiences are constantly complaining that it's always the same kinds of bands at those things.

Basically, this thread could be titled "how the heck do I get the people that like my band to get out of the house on a friday??"

 

[Charlzm]

Is interest in live music declining?

Yes. Changing times. Music has become disposable as the years have passed. I'd say far fewer people today like music that is actually made by humans (look at the Billboard charts - nearly everything is sampled or programmed) and also communal activities like going out to see local bands are on the decline.

I think a huge number of "dad bands" have also turned off many younger people, but that's just a guess.

 

[superheavyfunk]

I'd say ''no.' but the interest in PAYING for music in general, and especially live music (espeially on the part of venue owners) has been on a steady decline for some time now.