Post by blackjack on Dec 14, 2013 19:42:51 GMT -6
Especially for those who became adults before the internet existed, although everyone else is of course welcome to provide opinions too!
My question is complicated and if you didn't grow up without there being such a thing as an internet, you will have to at least partly rely on what you've heard rather than actually experienced. My question is this: Is the state of the music industry and by extension the state of professional musicians themselves and the state of local music scenes worse now than before the internet existed? Do you notice that professional musicians are having a harder time making at least a living wage, and hopefully something better than just that, now as compared to let's say the 1980's or early 1990's?
Did your area have more nightclubs that featured local rock and metal bands before the internet existed? Since the advent of the internet and its proliferation, have you noticed a corresponding decline in the numbers of nightclubs in your area featuring local rock and metal bands, as well as the numbers of people that patronizing such nightclubs, and have you also perhaps noticed that the clubs don't seem to have as many talented local bands performing there on a regular basis as they did back in the 80's and early 90's? Or even up to mid or late nineties?
I have noticed all of these things in the part of America where I live which is a suburb of Washington D.C. We were known for a pretty decent scene in the 80's and most of the 90's, although the umber of patrons in the clubs was far higher in the 80's than the 90's. A 3/4 full nightclub I attended regularly from 1993-1997 had a bouncer that told me that in the 80's their business was so good that customers had to wait in line to order a beer for up tp 10 minutes on particularly successful nights. It wasn't a rare occasion either. It was something that happened pretty much every Friday and Saturday.
That nightclub went out of business in late 1997 or early 1998. Other clubs in the area also went out of business around that general time period. Now our county has at most, one club that features local rock and metal bands but even as the only club in the area, the times I've been to it, it was not doing spectacular business by any means, just so-so business. I looked at their schedule for the month and they seemed to be having trouble finding enough bands to fill up the schedule. Many of the bands that did play there often were bands that were a far cry in talent from the bands I had seen in the mid-90's at what was then my regular hangout.
Bottom line, I've seen a very morbid correlation between the internet's advent and proliferation, and the local music scenes both here and in Maryland and in Florida, the amount of money that national bands claim to be making, and both the amount and quality of new bands coming out.
It's stunning that Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, and Slayer all released their debut albums within a year or so of each other! To this day there hasn't been a metal band to come along and knock Metallica off their spot as the number one heavy metal concert draw worldwide! Guns "n' Roses came along in the later part of the 80's (still well before the advent of the internet) and to this day they made the best run at claiming that top spot. They may have even grabbed onto it for a little while but not for very long. Not very long at all. G'nR still released Appetite For Deestruction and Use Your Illusion I and II and sold boatloads of all of them, but again that was before the internet existed.
After heavy metal experienced a backlash in the mid-nineties and the Seattle scene took metal's place as the most popular current form of hard rock, there were albums by such bands as Nirvana, Alice In Chains, Soundgarden, and Pearl Jam and most of these albums (certainly the best selling of them) were released when either there was no internet, or when the internet was still in its infancy and most people didn't use it much if at all!
Since the internet proliferated to point of being in almost as many homes as television, how many iconic bands have appeared that are truly iconic on the level of Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, Slayer, Guns 'n' Roses, Van Halen, Motley Crue, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Queensryche, Ozzy Osbourne's solo career when it was really going strong, Pantera, or bands like Nirvana, Alice In Chains, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden? And how good are your local bands, that is, if you can find a club in your area that has live rock and metal bands performing? From what I hear tour support from record companies is a thing of the past and as a result many bands have tours that had to be cancelled part way through due to financial problems, or have simply scheduled much more limited tours than bands once scheduled. A lot of bands can't tour at all and only appear at isolated festivals and shows here and there, mostly in Europe.
What has technology done to us?
My question is complicated and if you didn't grow up without there being such a thing as an internet, you will have to at least partly rely on what you've heard rather than actually experienced. My question is this: Is the state of the music industry and by extension the state of professional musicians themselves and the state of local music scenes worse now than before the internet existed? Do you notice that professional musicians are having a harder time making at least a living wage, and hopefully something better than just that, now as compared to let's say the 1980's or early 1990's?
Did your area have more nightclubs that featured local rock and metal bands before the internet existed? Since the advent of the internet and its proliferation, have you noticed a corresponding decline in the numbers of nightclubs in your area featuring local rock and metal bands, as well as the numbers of people that patronizing such nightclubs, and have you also perhaps noticed that the clubs don't seem to have as many talented local bands performing there on a regular basis as they did back in the 80's and early 90's? Or even up to mid or late nineties?
I have noticed all of these things in the part of America where I live which is a suburb of Washington D.C. We were known for a pretty decent scene in the 80's and most of the 90's, although the umber of patrons in the clubs was far higher in the 80's than the 90's. A 3/4 full nightclub I attended regularly from 1993-1997 had a bouncer that told me that in the 80's their business was so good that customers had to wait in line to order a beer for up tp 10 minutes on particularly successful nights. It wasn't a rare occasion either. It was something that happened pretty much every Friday and Saturday.
That nightclub went out of business in late 1997 or early 1998. Other clubs in the area also went out of business around that general time period. Now our county has at most, one club that features local rock and metal bands but even as the only club in the area, the times I've been to it, it was not doing spectacular business by any means, just so-so business. I looked at their schedule for the month and they seemed to be having trouble finding enough bands to fill up the schedule. Many of the bands that did play there often were bands that were a far cry in talent from the bands I had seen in the mid-90's at what was then my regular hangout.
Bottom line, I've seen a very morbid correlation between the internet's advent and proliferation, and the local music scenes both here and in Maryland and in Florida, the amount of money that national bands claim to be making, and both the amount and quality of new bands coming out.
It's stunning that Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, and Slayer all released their debut albums within a year or so of each other! To this day there hasn't been a metal band to come along and knock Metallica off their spot as the number one heavy metal concert draw worldwide! Guns "n' Roses came along in the later part of the 80's (still well before the advent of the internet) and to this day they made the best run at claiming that top spot. They may have even grabbed onto it for a little while but not for very long. Not very long at all. G'nR still released Appetite For Deestruction and Use Your Illusion I and II and sold boatloads of all of them, but again that was before the internet existed.
After heavy metal experienced a backlash in the mid-nineties and the Seattle scene took metal's place as the most popular current form of hard rock, there were albums by such bands as Nirvana, Alice In Chains, Soundgarden, and Pearl Jam and most of these albums (certainly the best selling of them) were released when either there was no internet, or when the internet was still in its infancy and most people didn't use it much if at all!
Since the internet proliferated to point of being in almost as many homes as television, how many iconic bands have appeared that are truly iconic on the level of Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, Slayer, Guns 'n' Roses, Van Halen, Motley Crue, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Queensryche, Ozzy Osbourne's solo career when it was really going strong, Pantera, or bands like Nirvana, Alice In Chains, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden? And how good are your local bands, that is, if you can find a club in your area that has live rock and metal bands performing? From what I hear tour support from record companies is a thing of the past and as a result many bands have tours that had to be cancelled part way through due to financial problems, or have simply scheduled much more limited tours than bands once scheduled. A lot of bands can't tour at all and only appear at isolated festivals and shows here and there, mostly in Europe.
What has technology done to us?
