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| Home / College Guide / Death of the Rock Band |
| Posted on Friday, March 06 @ 00:00:11 PST |
music itself isnt dying and im not here to make some bullshit haphazard claim that it is in any capacity.
id go as far as to say that, now especially, it is all around us. when times are uncertain, we strip ourselves own to the bare bones of basic human instinct, because in the end, thats what has gotten us to where we are. theres something so romantic about art and music being part of what makes us human. what makes us, in a sense, superior. its why we believe in a God, really, and why so many of us continue to toy with anthropocentric ideals.
but we are not above it all.
were smarter, steps up from the ape in intellect alone. that does not make us better, it simply makes us faster, more sensitive, better equipped to shape the world to our image. we mimic the divine. i do not deny that we are creators too in our own way.
but the question at hand that im currently losing my marbles over isnt whether man is superior, or if mind over matter is what makes us so. its the one that asks when art being everywhere isnt enough anymore, when it only serves to leave us high and dry.
there is no shortage of musicians. the beauty of advancement is that everything is within reach, that the next hayley williams picks up a microphone and that the next elliott smith picks up a guitar.
human potential is realised. it is not wasted, and maybe that is enough. maybe the sacrifices that have inevitably come of the digital age are all worth it because we can all have it all, in this respect.
times are bleak. it is a terrifying world that we are living in and it feels like absolute shit growing up in it knowing that you actually can do everything right in high school and everything right in college and end up in the same place you wouldve had you not strived for greater things. we are all a little bit doomed and trying not to let that fact consume us. because thats when well stagnate and it will catch up to us.
as a musician, the hardest thing to reconcile with has been the fact that im going to be a guitar hobbyist until my deathbed. that if i want to be somebody beyond a local celebrity, i have to let my calluses heal and make a change in a different way. ill be doing it through gritted teeth all while cursing the day i was born to parents who didnt set aside a trust fund for me to live off of while i drop out of college with my stoner girlfriend and make shitty pop punk music until i join the 27 club while on a spelunking excursion with the rest of my friendgroup/polycule.
i say that its so unfair that i need to actually do shit beyond creating and creating and creating but its most of our fates. being a musician and also making money dont really go hand in hand. especially now.
its never really been easy but music itself is changing so much nowadays.
the idea of a mainstream band getting popular now and making a liveable wage in the 2020s really is a foreign concept. i know that there are likely exceptions, but there is an exception to every rule and i frankly dont wanna hear it.
genres are different. the genres and albums making it into musical canon have practically all happened by now. innovation is kind of just... gone. solo artists have dominion over the industry. labels are dedicated to branding, and its a hell of a lot easier when they have one person and one person only emptying their pockets.
the bands in western music that are popular now are the same bands that were popular 20 years ago.
every band is trying to go retro and every band is trying to do what another more talented group of guys already did 20+ years ago while also doing it worse. i cant even blame those poor saps because were conditioned to gravitate towards the familiar and theyre not necessarily using the wrong approach.
so ill still check out the bands that promote their shit with the tagline were the next my chemical romance (theyre not) simply because i have to commend them for trying to make it when both the people and the numbers are against them.
im just pissed about it because its starting to feel like in order to make it, you either need to be an absolute powerhouse who can write sing and dance impeccably from the womb or have enough people backing you financially that a record deal is a cheque away.
band dont make it anymore. the intimacy of sharing a stage and clawing your way to fame together is lost on us and it really is a depressing thought.
i guess what i want to close with is that we need to understand why we do what we do. i want local scenes to thrive and i need people to keep art alive because late stage capitalism is taking that from us just as much as i want it all to be easier for us.
music should be a refuge. so i guess in the end, thats what the point of it all is.
i just wish we could all reap the rewards in a tangible way.
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