I was looking into why I just don’t see cover bands at my local venue but this hits a bit deeper at the issue.
I wonder if how niche music tastes have become has something to do with it.
Maybe it’s the fact that it’s so fucking expensive to do anything, forcing us inside which is reenforcing itself rather cyclically. It is really hard to get excited about things when you don’t have the funds to go out and do things. I am older but would be going out way more to events if I didn’t cringe at the money I know I will be dropping on these nights out. Third real world spaces are dearly needed and people are getting priced out of them. I used to go out to music events at least once a week ten years ago.
Venues: “It’ll be $50 just to come in and stand for an hour, not including drinks, and if you want premium space that’ll be an extra 100 to actually be relatively close to the band”
People: “Uh, nah thanks, I have to buy groceries and survive, you know”
Venues: “No one wants to go to concerts anymore!”
Edit: I also searched the article, “Cost” shows up once but for artist cost, “ticket”, “entrance”, “price” never show up. What a boomer article. “These damn kids don’t want to even go to music concerts anymore” and completely leaves out the most important detail on why.
I for one support the Zoomers in killing the music industry. Maybe we will see more art again in the rubble.
Music industry has always been just garbage, I don’t see why it needs to be propped up in any way. Welcome to the Machine called it out back in the 70s. If anything indie music proves that music will always be around, we don’t need the corporations to tell us what to listen to.
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Bought concert tickets for October. Total cost for tickets was $195.20. It’s not a local show (ie: the bands have recognition beyond our town), so we have to travel to the city - 4 hours plus a $75 ferry. Plus overnight stay and food in the city. And we need a sitter to watch the kids, overnight.
So we’re pushing $600-$700 for a concert. That’s a “once every few years” thing, when we’ve saved enough and the band is one we really want to see.
Local shows are rock cover bands on a Sunday evening, usually, but I work Monday at 6am.
yup, same here. Any musician who has even relatively small name recognition tickets are now always almost if not over $200. There’s no way we can just go to concerts every week/month like our parents did, tickets used to be $20-30! Even with inflation that’s still way way less. I’d love to go to more concerts, but they need to find ways to bring ticket costs down, or just suck it up and make less profit. (I know, I know, how blasphemous)
I think you mean “third spaces” but great point otherwise.
I donno why my city hates public pavilions so much.
Ok I know why it’s because they hate the poors that hangout there.
Ah yes, sorry! Thank you!
bands aren’t disappearing. Small local bands are still cheap and great fun. I know, i’m in one. We tour locally every year and play a show every weekend throughout summer. We have to turn people down because we are so booked up. And that’s not just us, but most locals i know. People still love live music just as much as they ever did.
Thanks for making music, I love local bands.
The article is definitely one of those that pushes back on the editorialized headline.
thank you for coming out and listening! Y’all are the reason i love those 20h days of playing a show.
The article is about pop music. Not music in general. If you read far enough to see the statistics on various pop charts and musical festivals, you’ll see the point they’re trying to make more clearly.
Definitely agree with the dude talking about how niche music has gotten. And to the dude who said “all new music sucks”, get out from under your rock man. Theres just so many bands/artists creating so much music now, some is bound to be good. Its easier than ever to record a song and get it out on the internet. The bloat makes it harder to find stuff you jive with, but when you do it almost feels tailor made for your ears.
that feeling when you find a rabbit hole song with a full catalogue behind it.
I just discovered Snarky Puppy last night, and when I saw their catalog I just leaned back in my chair and smiled.
That band makes me lose my mind. The rhythm section is just amazing.
Snarky Puppy - Binky
kinda reminds me of the brass against cover of forty six & 2.
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Bands aren’t disappearing, it’s just that DIY is more inclusive from both a fiscal standpoint and enjoyment standpoint. I don’t think many bands want to grow to the point of doing stadium tours and having the stress of appeasing their labels, managers, venues, merch sweatshops, etc… To me, music seems to be about music again and many up and coming bands are avoiding the industry in favor of the artistry.
yup. this is one of those articles that pushes back on the overly editorialized headline.
I think you nailed it. Artists can lose a lot when/if they get big. They can lose creative freedom, lose time with their loved ones, lose privacy, lose control of where they go and what they do, and more. Especially with the internet these days.
The label :
“You have to pretend to be single so fans will think they could date you. We want a bad boy/girl look for you”.
“I like what you’re doing, but these sounds are trending right now, so you’ll have to incorporate that instead. Oh, our marketing team thought that this logo suits our idea for you better”.
“I don’t care that your grandma just died, you have a gig to play!”.
“We’re taking our cut now”.
The consumers : (exaggerated, but maybe only by a bit for some people.)
“How dare you try to enjoy a private date! I bought a ticket to your show last year, so you practically owe me your soul!”
“Your old stuff was better. Why would you change the sound?”.
“You haven’t changed your sound in years, you’re stale”.
“You’re so sick you can barely move? False. Musicians NEVER get sick”
I would require enough money to dissapear off of the face of the earth to ever go into that industry.
I wonder if how niche music tastes have become has something to do with it.
Probably; it feels like less that 'young people aren’t excited by bands" and more like 'to be a band that takes off the way they used to, you gotta be doin something different’. I don’t think anyone’s exactly clamoring for bands to do the same shit as your average Seether, Incubus, or Three Days Grace expies. Meanwhile, you’ve got acts like Polyphia, Zeal and Ardor, and Ghost running around out here doing actively different shit and seeing payoff on it.
Thanks for the recommendations! Already heard of ghost but the other two were new to me and are amazing.
I was referring to cover bands.
I would love to see the water level raise all boats in terms of music makers.
I’m in the midwest USA and even here you can see Hip-Hop and EDM taking over where pop and rock would’ve been the go-to. All the venues/bars that play rock look like a retirement home party now. I’d much rather dance to a DJ then a cover band playing the same shit I’ve heard a million times over the last 30 years.
Our local scene was decimated by pay to play promoters and it’s never really recovered. We would have to pay in to presell tickets and then try to sell them just to try to break even when opening at 4:30 on a Wednesday. Not exactly a good way to gain new fans.
The actual promoters did nothing to really promote the gig since they were preselling to local bands they made their money that way.
If you’re popular enough it’s not tough to sell tickets once and awhile but if you want to play monthly, your pool of potential ticket buyers shrinks since not everyone can go to a show that often.
Marketb is over saturated with cover bands. If you don’t seem then at your local venue it’s because the promoter simply doesn’t want to book cover bands. If anything cover bands are too damn popular
They’re promoted here as sing-alongs.
I live in a major city so the local venues here need a certain headcount before they’ll book an event.
There’s some very popular cover bands here but there are even less venues that can support them.
white ford bronco is the biggest one I know and their show sell out.
The article is about pop music. Not music in general. If you read far enough to see the statistics on various pop charts and musical festivals, you’ll see the point they’re trying to make more clearly.
Speaking as someone in the UK, specifically about here but it may apply elsewhere:
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everything is vastly more expensive than before, with help slashed for individuals and groups
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Brexit. Bands used to be able to tour Europe just as easily as in the UK, aside from the whole language thing. Drive to the coast, get on a ferry, drive from France. We could earn there with no issues, perform with limited issues, but now? Not any more. Anyone other than established bands have been cut out.
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Due to the cost of living, COVID, etc, venues have shut down on a huge scale. I have many locations I used to love seeing bands at which have ALL shut down. Some were around for decades prior. Where can new bands tour now? The pubs I knew that offered places to perform have now also gone, some out of business and others out of noise abation notices due to new apartments nearby.
And in my opinion really, all this has an effect on bands. Why bother putting one together when you aren’t going to be able to gig easily anymore?
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dudes out of touch music today is more diverse with less industry influence than ever
The article is about pop music. Not music in general. If you read far enough to see the statistics on various pop charts and musical festivals, you’ll see the point they’re trying to make more clearly.
the title is editorialized
There’s a place right behind my flat that does live bands 3-4 nights a week, cover is usually less than seeing a movie, never more than 30/40 people there. I know it’s tough for venues/bars to pay the bands (a proper rate) and turn a profit some nights, but I really reapect the event-led places that keep it up.
Technology supporting solo artists hits close to home.
It was certainly a larger factor in my decision to quit playing in bands, that composing/DAW software allowed me to make music in a similar fashion.In many ways, it’s better than playing in a band, because you can make exactly the music you enjoy and play not just one instrument, but a whole orchestra.
Obviously, this is far easier said than done and there’s many awesome parts of being in a band, too, but I can definitely see this being the preferred alternative for many people.
Pretty much how Trent Reznor started out. Still used guest members for live shows and touring, but I think he played everything himself in studio with Pretty Hate Machine and The Downward Spiral.
Maybe it’s because I’m old, but modern music SUCKS (yeah, blanket statement. There will always be exceptions, I know). It all lacks that organic warm feeling that elicits that feel good thing music used to bring.
I honestly don’t think niche music tastes have as much to do with it as much as music seems to have become exactly like movies. Rehash something from the 80s again and call it new or like all the marvel/dc mcshit.
This is honestly just a bad take. If you don’t hear any music currently that doesn’t sound the way you like it then you aren’t looking in the right places. More music is being produced now than any other time in history, blanketly saying “all music now sucks” shows more about you then the current state of music.
Yeah I agree with you. I’m 40 now but grew up listening to music all the time. I’ve got a bunch of kids now so it’s hard to actively find new stuff on my own. I just subscribe to satellite radio and they do a pretty damn good job of finding good stuff. I just add to my library, and get more recommendations. Works well.
That’s good! I’m in my mid thirties and I’m always reminding myself “new music doesn’t suck, trends change”. Just like how our parents hated our music because it was edgy and different, current music is edgy and different to them and that’s what makes it appealing to the younger crowd. I don’t understand why people have to be so cliche and shit on music, you can both not like a type of music and still not make fun of people who like that music.
For sure! The way music is recorded now sounds much better than we were growing up too. Guess that’s why there’s all these remasters these days.
I told myself when I was a teenager that I’d never be one of those people that trashed on others music tastes. I was a big nine inch nails, manson, tool fan and I’m sure most people hated that music at the time.
I’ve kind of gone both ways on this one. Some albums like Zeppelin I both like a good vinyl version that has the pops and clicks for nostalgia, while also liking a pristine 24-bit high definition flac copy that lets me here every pluck on the guitar perfectly. I don’t think there’s a “better” one for sure, I think it’s people’s tastes there.
For sure on the older bands, kids these days are calling NIN and Manson “old people rock” and there are already gen Zers who say “I don’t like today’s music man, I listen to NIN”, like bro, we old now lol
Yeah soon they will be playing the edgy music we listened to in grocery stores. They already play Nirvana.
It get torn at times too about whether I like nostalgic recordings or the remasters. Just last week I was trying to debate which version of Pretty Hate Machine to add to the library… the original that I owned and knew inside and out, or the 2010? remaster which was louder and had some cool audio effects.
Ended up going with the remaster lol. I don’t have anything that can play vinyl and I’m sure if I did my kids or cats would break it. I do love the sound though.
they will be playing the edgy music we listened to in grocery stores.
Green Day is muzak in the local dead mall.
yeah for me personally vinyls go on the wall and I store my high quality ones digitally. A fun project has been adding NFC tags to my vinyls though so you can hold a phone up to a vinyl and it’ll start playing
lol I shit on music? I made fun of someone? Seriously? Please, please point out where. I made a statement about personal taste, that wasn’t directed at anyone in particular.
I also pointed out something everyone that’s shitting on me (yes you too) missed. The organic nature of music is gone. The organic sound and feeling have been replaced by drum tracks, auto tune and digital all the things are gone.
I promise it’s not a “music is so hardcore/edgy now” thing. That would be rich though.
modern music SUCKS
There you go. Saying that means that you think people who do like it have “sucky” taste. Better wording is “I don’t care for modern music” which shows that you personally don’t care for it. You can’t just say “Hey everyone all of your favorite modern bands suck” and then get upset when people don’t agree with you. If you can’t take the criticism, then don’t give it. No one asked for it anyway.
No, I didn’t say anyone that listens to modern music is a fucking moron because it sucks. I gave my personal opinion, and even qualified it with I know it’s a blanket statement and there are exceptions. Those two things are not the same.
Didn’t expect everyone to agree with me, however I was replying to someone else’s opinion on the state of modern music/concerts, which included my opinion and differed. That’s how forums work.
ugh okay, last reply to you because I don’t have all day to go back and forth. No, your first comment was a blanket “Modern music sucks”, and then when people started calling you out you changed your tune to “That’s just like, my opinion man”. Again, saying “All modern music sucks” comes off in an arrogant “My taste is better than yours” way. You know that because you changed your wording to “In my opinion I don’t like modern music”.
But don’t take my word for it. Reddit has an entire subreddit dedicated to the cliche of “Music back in the 70s was better”, “I only listen to Queen”, “Man music today is just so fake and unoriginal”. (I won’t link it directly because reddit bad, but it’s
lewronggeneration). It’s a freaking trope now, and most people are sick of it. It is not original, it is not new, I know because I said the exact same crap 20 years ago when I was in high school about the same bands. Then I grew up and realized that people can like different things and music is not better or worse now, music is just music. I may have different tastes but that doesn’t mean that this music good that music bad, and that I sounded like a douche when I said all of that.To close out, as both a huge Queen fan and as a huge Taylor Swift fan (yes, it’s actually possible to like both), I’ll leave you with one of my favorite things to post to people who insist “music sucks now it was way better then”
Coming off as a bit aggressive here dude.
I understand what you mean, it’s a reasonable conclusion for anyone to come to.
sorry if I came off as shitting on your finly crafted retort.
baby metal is awesome.
have you heard the hu yet?
Mongolian metal.
Omg. Yes. Amazing.
How about Hillcrest college marimba band?
That’s another reason I am thinking niche music has killed the cover band.
There’s no way a band can cover a wide enough range of todays music to make a $5 ticket viable.
Or, maybe I just don’t like modern music as a whole. I know it’s hard for people to grasp , but it’s very possible. As I said in my original reply, there are exceptions, but as a whole, no.
More of something doesn’t mean it’s good.
Please do tell me, where should I be looking. I use pretty much all of the major music services (for different things) so what other super hidden special places should I be?
I understand the sentiment but I disagree. I’ve found the best music ever from producers and bands formed after my 20s and 30s.
I just won’t be seeing them in local venues anytime soon because almost all of them are from outside of the US and aren’t in the “top 40” spotlight.
@AttackBunny @JoYo modern music always sucks. the reason why the music of the past seems better is because nobody remembers all the chaff that populated the charts.
We also don’t have time to listen to all current music.
It’s not that we don’t remember it, we’ve never even heard it.
Oh trust me, there is plenty of older music that I hate, however, I could throw a rock from about any song/band and find one I like. Now, not so much.
I agree with many comments here saying this is a bad take, but I’m generally curious on how you’re arriving to it.
How do you find “new music”? What is your approach?
Satellite radio (Sirius XM) works for me
Apple Music, Amazon music, pandora etc.
It’s all just so…… fake. Everything is auto tuned to shit.
Drum machines of the 80s were equally shit sound imo. It happens every generation, but modern music seems to have nothing organic about it now.
I don’t think it’s a bad take, it’s just that verbally speaking, I don’t like modern music. As I said in my original reply, I know there are exceptions, but blanket statement holds true for me.
one way I tweaked my algo suggestions is by asking the fediverse for non english language bands that I might have missed.
that opened the floodgates for all the genres I enjoy.
I accidentally found “baby metal” that way. It’s great. No idea what they are saying though.
I think a fair addendum would be popular contemporary music. Plenty of artists from the good old days are still making music true to what they were writing for. Whether they are popular or not though, I think something important to remember is people like you or I who go after making music.
Check out local performing arts centers, especially youth performance ones. You also can find some interesting stuff at open mics. I think there’s an amazing space for music for artists who have never even tried to get an outreach of even 100 people. It’s not modern music that’s the issue but the modern music industry and discoverability.
I definitely don’t disagree with you but as I said, I think it’s fair to try to adjust your phrasing to specify :)
Fair. What was trying to comment on, more than the actual style of modern music, is that the warmth/soul is gone from modern music. Everything is digital/auto tune now.
It’s like your favorite album (vinyl) you remember listening to over and over vs the digitally remastered version. yeah the digitally remastered version is cleaner, but it’s lacks its soul, to me. Or the difference between seeing a really good musician live, vs listening to the recorded version of the same show. It’s not the same.
There are some catchy modern pop songs. They get stuck in tour head well. That’s the point, but am I going to be going looking for that song in 5years? 10? Not likely.
It’s not that music from the last 20 years sucks, more that it is just more of the same. There aren’t many bands you can listen to today where there sound isn’t that of a prior era, maybe slightly redone. When was the last real new musical genre? 90’s electronic, hip hop, R&b? 80s brought us alternative grunge and synth music. 70’s disco and prog rock and so on.
That’s kinda part of the problem though, isn’t it? Music used to evolve. There used to be distinct generations and genres, and sounds, character, and feelings, and everything. Now it’s just more and more of the same. It’s stagnant I guess is my issue with it. It all kinda sounds like a bad rerun of a crappy early 2000s pop song with no character.
Absolutely. I don’t see a future where people go out to a 2010’s night like they would go to a 70’s night today. There is just no distinguishing character.
Now all the ‘new’ music is competing with similar oldies and there is nothing to rally around with friends anymore.
