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Will 2020 be the year without music?

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#41
My forecast - end of the boomer rock and roll bar bands, and audiences. Live bar bands in general go the way of the big band ballroom models. There will be some small left overs, similar to jazz and folk. Probably, a few leftover performance rooms, and special dance venues (e.g. like swing dances). Country will do better, at least in some parts of the country, and it will pickup the greatest hits of classic rock. All trends already underway. I suspect we'll just jump five or ten years down the road.
 
#42
pbassjbass said:
My forecast - end of the boomer rock and roll bar bands, and audiences. Live bar bands in general go the way of the big band ballroom models. There will be some small left overs, similar to jazz and folk. Probably, a few leftover performance rooms, and special dance venues (e.g. like swing dances). Country will do better, at least in some parts of the country, and it will pickup the greatest hits of classic rock. All trends already underway. I suspect we'll just jump five or ten years down the road.
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Your observations of current trends may be on point but I truly hope your predictions for the future are totally wrong.
 
#43
There will always be music. Live music is going to suffer for a while, but it won’t die. Chris Thiele is doing a home broadcast he calls “Live from Home.” That’s the way it’s going to be for a while.
 
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#44
I'm with the others in that with "Netflix and chill" culture being what it is, livestreaming shows will become more prevalent. Sure, there will be enough people who want to actually be there live, but plenty will pay less to simply livestream a show from the comfort of their homes.

I'm also with the others in that people may not be releasing new music now, but since they're using "quarantine" time to woodshed, once the smoke clears there will be a flood of new music out there because people were hunkered down creating stuff.

Bandcamp has been one of my favorite websites for a long time to explore for music that's new and undiscovered to me, and there's so much great stuff out there.

Music is more important than ever now. Music is what's keeping people sane. My bass is getting more play time from me now (what with me being home to e-school my students) than it ever did, and I'm getting better. And when the smoke clears, my friends and I can't wait to get together and jam again because we've all been practicing more while hunkered down.

Music isn't dead. It's simply out sick.
 
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#45
My husband and I (guitar/vocals and bass) are playing at home, with our lead guitar coming in once a week to play. I don't say rehearse... because what gigs? We are retired, and are financially secure. We know a lot of local musicians who are relying on gig money to survive.
When "normal" life resumes, I'm wondering if the moral thing to do is to let the gigs go to the people who need the income. However much I love the gigging, and need it to feel alive, and however few active gigging years I have left.
I also think it'll be a while before restaurants start paying for live music. They really going to be hurting, and every penny will count.
Stay well, all.
 
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#46
bass12 said:
What people "need" right now is what they always "need": escapism - and for the majority Netflix will do the trick. Most people don't need music. At most they like consuming a bit of it from time to time. Unfortunately I don't see that changing anytime soon.
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Right, hasn’t there been countless threads about how venues were drying up/reverting to DJ’s, and how music in general has become less of a unifying cultural experience and mode of communication, and more of a secondary fashion accessory, usurped by video games and all manner of internet activity?
 
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#48
Michedelic said:
Nobody’s in a studio anymore; they’re in a basement or bedroom with a laptop.
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Smaller acts definitely are, but a full album still requires people meeting up to record parts. My band is nervous about getting together just to practice. Some of us are still being forced to work during this period, so we are exposed to uncontrolled environments.
Bigger acts still rely on regular studios. I wonder how this forced shut down will impact the pipeline of releases in the months to come.
 
#49
It's going to change the frame of subject matter I think, a moment of clarity, a brush with mortality. Perhaps the modern rake of pop whose predominant subject is "I", is something people won't care so much of a fig about anymore.

“Our vanity makes us exaggerate the importance of human life; the individual is nothing; Nature cares only for the species.”

Aldous Huxley - Point Counter Point.
 
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#51
Dincrest said:
...and who says you can't stay home and stream a cool music performance from your couch? (I know this video is a few years old, but if these two are still together they're probably shredding like crazy with all this "quarantine" time.)

Killswitch Engage - My Curse Guitar Cover feat. Girlfriend
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An all female Japanese rock band I like was going to be on the Asian leg of the Knotfest tour, but it was cancelled. So they did a rehearsal studio performance of the set they were going to do, and live streamed it to YouTube. The video\audio production wasn't 100%, but it was still fun. They made like 100,000 yen (about $1k) off the performance from donations. It gives me some hope that this might be a trend down the road.
 
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#52
socialleper said:
I would like to think that this might cause a shift in the way people reach out to their fans and produce music. The current model isn't working particularly well. This interruption may be an opportunity for something new to happen, or it may be the putting down of a sick animal. I would like to hope that things won't go back to being exactly the same. It feels like the music biz has been stuck in a loop for 20 years.
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Truer words...truer words my friend. :):thumbsup:
 
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#53
Michedelic said:
Right, hasn’t there been countless threads about how venues were drying up/reverting to DJ’s, and how music in general has become less of a unifying cultural experience and mode of communication, and more of a secondary fashion accessory, usurped by video games and all manner of internet activity?
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Opera was the ultimate form of entertainment from the 17th through the early 20th century, and rightly so. Opera is an extravaganza of song, orchestration and theater wrapped into one amazing package. Opera still exists (thank God), but only as a shadow of its former self. Popular music, radio and television did it in, just as the internet and telephones are killing live music as we've known it.

I suppose the majority of people in the U.S. and Europe could see live opera if so inclined; not many do. Atlanta, where I live, has an opera company. I've attended several performances, and enjoyed every one, but it takes effort to actually attend and I can get my fill watching live streams and videos. The live, in-person performance is superior in every regard except convenience, but eh. I imagine this is where we're headed with live music generally.
 
#54
socialleper said:
Smaller acts definitely are, but a full album still requires people meeting up to record parts. My band is nervous about getting together just to practice. Some of us are still being forced to work during this period, so we are exposed to uncontrolled environments.
Bigger acts still rely on regular studios. I wonder how this forced shut down will impact the pipeline of releases in the months to come.
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Not trying to argue, but the necessity of a band recording as a unit diminished decades ago. Doesn’t mean that bands still don’t do it, of course, but on the other hand, with the technology that has evolved since the ADAT and Mackie 1604 appeared, the one-man-band auteur concept hasn’t been a novelty for quite some time. Bands certainly can, with proper planning, make do with bedrooms, basements, garages, rehearsal spaces, and come up with usable results. I’ve witnessed/participated in it. Sure, you may have to mix in a pro room, depending on the situation, and yeah, here in SoCal we don’t have basements, but it’s the epicenter of the home studio phenomenon. Then there’s been the attrition/scaling down of the big classic rooms, Sound City being well documented. I bought a tall rack off of CL about 15 years ago; the guy I dealt with turned out to be Dee Robb, and I ended up going down to the world renown Cherokee Studios, which he was packing up to move out to his personal home property. Blew my mind to walk through the room where, in particular, Jeff Beck’s “Wired” was recorded. If any of you don’t know of this place, check it out...
Cherokee Studios - Wikipedia
 
#55
Michedelic said:
Apples and oranges; music was huge during the war(and in the previous depression decade)with the rise of the big bands. In both eras of turmoil, that kind of dance music offered an escape from the harsh realities, in spite of those realities. The only other media was film(Busby Berkeley musicals come to mind)and radio. Oddly enough, the logistics of the war destroyed the big bands(need for men, curtailing of transportation, etc)which led to the rise of smaller combos(jump blues), which in turn morphed into rock’n’roll. As well in Country, the Country Swing outfits pared down into hillbilly boogie groups(another R’n’R tributary stream)and eventually Honky Tonk, boosted by the acceptance of electric instruments. Also, in jazz, you had the emergence of the decidedly non-danceable, more intellectual Be-Bop, even as the war was still on. But the US emerged as the premier economic power house; right now, just a few weeks into this mess, we don’t know if we may be slipping into another 1929, this is a whole new era of civilization and economics. There has already been a momentous explosion in technology and communication, the ramifications we’re still trying to assess. The idea of streaming performances has already been in place, small venues were already in decline. The music explosion of the 60’s was fueled by the massive numbers of potential consumer youth of the time, The Beatles being the catalyst. Considering the state of mass media at that time, and the element of surprise that events in those days had, that probably could never happen again. What we’re in now, there’s no comparison to anything in the past, and there’s no way to predict the future.
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You paint with too broad a brush. People are people. And we've lived staring into the face of unexpected danger of annihilation before. And we'll do so again.

Anytime you say there's no comparison to anything in the past you need to look at history a little more. I grew up during the height of the Cold War under the very real threat of annihilation. I was doing nuclear attack drills when I was in the second grade during the Cuban Missile Crisis while we were all fully expecting the Big One to drop at any moment. After an experience like that at such an early age not much seems to be anywhere that big a deal to me anymore. Everything else that followed seemed like just another hassle to get through.

Also the music boom of the 60s was fueled by far more than numbers. It was a unifying voice for a growing wave of civil discontent. If you're not aware of that then I'm guessing you didn't live through the era. And if you did live through that era and still think that then I'd guess wherever you were living was pretty far outside the mainstream. :)

BTW, the Great Depression of 1929 was caused by loss of public confidence and fear. Consider: The consumers were still there. The demand for product was still there. The willingness to go to work was still there. The dollars were still circulating in the banking system. The factories and stores were still there. The materials were still there. There was no physical real world reason why everything had to come to a virtual standstill other than that borrowers and lenders decided their problems were everyone else's problems and decided to circle their wagons to protect their dubious investments. It was a paper crisis - not a physical one. The Great Depression and Stock Market Crash is a study in human stupidity and belief in largely imaginary problems. The underlying reality was, and remained, solid throughout. Had it been otherwise it would have been the start of a second centuries long Dark Age and the good ol' USA and the rest of the world wouldn't have emerged from it as quickly as it did.
 
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#56
the federalist said:
Opera was the ultimate form of entertainment from the 17th through the early 20th century, and rightly so. Opera is an extravaganza of song, orchestration and theater wrapped into one amazing package. Opera still exists (thank God), but only as a shadow of its former self. Popular music, radio and television did it in, just as the internet and telephones are killing live music as we've known it.

I suppose the majority of people in the U.S. and Europe could see live opera if so inclined; not many do. Atlanta, where I live, has an opera company. I've attended several performances, and enjoyed every one, but it takes effort to actually attend and I can get my fill watching live streams and videos. The live, in-person performance is superior in every regard except convenience, but eh. I imagine this is where we're headed with live music generally.
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Not to mention, symphonies in general can only exist through patronage, sponsorship, and donations. Which brings me to another point; I wouldn’t think there are too many classical musicians here, that would probably be over on the acoustic bass forum, but I’m sure they are greatly concerned as well, if not more so, in terms of livelihood.
 
#57
Michedelic said:
he necessity of a band recording as a unit diminished decades ago
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As did the concept of bands. I don't think the necessity changed. I just think bands, as far as the classic concept of a band goes, has pretty much ceased to exist. And it's reflected in the music that's being produced along with the music industry as a whole. Music has become commoditized. So have musicians.
 
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