First, kudos to your friend for asking questions about the dance scene. I'd like to harrumph and mutter something about how in my day we had to figure it all out on our own, but the truth is, I'd have loved to have had someone point out where to start. Mostly to avoid the "exclusionary, all-black everything, culturally homogenized view of dance music that treats Berghain like Temple Mount." (amazing bit of wordsmithing, BTW).
Shows can be tricky. I'm lucky in that (weather permitting) I can bike to almost any venue here in Madison. I also don't drink too much, so that helps cut costs. But I've made a lot of the same decisions you have-- deciding day of not to go, having something come up, etc.
On a larger scale, society has been conditioned to think all "content" should be free, including shows. Ticket master charging usury rates for A-list shows just makes it all worse. I don't have any answers here, I just know that most bands deserve better than what they're getting.
Thank you! I wouldn't consider Shawn Reynaldo a friend, he's a writer I follow and, honestly, read semi-resentfully as his style has some routine issues which highlight the benefits of having an editor. At the same time he is willing to openly question and wonder about the economics of dance music in a way that others won't, which is nice.
Or, if you were referring to my friend's sibling there, yeah, while self-discovery is great it's also helpful to have someone more in the know point you in the most promising directions, help you avoid certain issues/common mistakes and all that. It's nice to be considered a resource for that kind of stuff too.
(I'd also like to thank my internal editor for deciding to cut a followup parenthetical about how I'm still a little bitter about not getting into Berghain there. Probably for the best.)
Yeah, the relationship between alcohol and me individually, and the music industry in general, is a larger topic than what I felt like including here. I have major ethical concerns about the promotion of alcohol consumption in general, and its presence within music culture and the impacts that has. I don't like that venues rely on bar sales to stay in business, but I'm not sure how that can be fixed either really. And on a personal level, while it's never my intention to get blackout drunk at a show, in order to try to get the buzz I'm looking for I usually wind up spending more at the bar than I did to get in. Which factors into my show-going considerations, for sure. (Not having a car or regularly needing to figure out how to get to a transit-starved location for a show, I don't need to factor in things related to driving, thankfully.)
And on the larger scale, the devaluation of content relative to its access is a major issue. No need to restate the financial issues with streaming, it's enough to say that established, professional artists still struggle to make a stable middle-class living off of their work that one would assume they have based on name recognition, and that's messed up. America is the richest nation the world has ever seen--and somehow it can't supply a decent standard of living to the vast majority of its people, artist or not? Where is this money going, and how can we redistribute it more equitably? The vampiric predation of Ticketmaster is but one of the most obvious manifestations of these issues.
First, kudos to your friend for asking questions about the dance scene. I'd like to harrumph and mutter something about how in my day we had to figure it all out on our own, but the truth is, I'd have loved to have had someone point out where to start. Mostly to avoid the "exclusionary, all-black everything, culturally homogenized view of dance music that treats Berghain like Temple Mount." (amazing bit of wordsmithing, BTW).
Shows can be tricky. I'm lucky in that (weather permitting) I can bike to almost any venue here in Madison. I also don't drink too much, so that helps cut costs. But I've made a lot of the same decisions you have-- deciding day of not to go, having something come up, etc.
On a larger scale, society has been conditioned to think all "content" should be free, including shows. Ticket master charging usury rates for A-list shows just makes it all worse. I don't have any answers here, I just know that most bands deserve better than what they're getting.
Thank you! I wouldn't consider Shawn Reynaldo a friend, he's a writer I follow and, honestly, read semi-resentfully as his style has some routine issues which highlight the benefits of having an editor. At the same time he is willing to openly question and wonder about the economics of dance music in a way that others won't, which is nice.
Or, if you were referring to my friend's sibling there, yeah, while self-discovery is great it's also helpful to have someone more in the know point you in the most promising directions, help you avoid certain issues/common mistakes and all that. It's nice to be considered a resource for that kind of stuff too.
(I'd also like to thank my internal editor for deciding to cut a followup parenthetical about how I'm still a little bitter about not getting into Berghain there. Probably for the best.)
Yeah, the relationship between alcohol and me individually, and the music industry in general, is a larger topic than what I felt like including here. I have major ethical concerns about the promotion of alcohol consumption in general, and its presence within music culture and the impacts that has. I don't like that venues rely on bar sales to stay in business, but I'm not sure how that can be fixed either really. And on a personal level, while it's never my intention to get blackout drunk at a show, in order to try to get the buzz I'm looking for I usually wind up spending more at the bar than I did to get in. Which factors into my show-going considerations, for sure. (Not having a car or regularly needing to figure out how to get to a transit-starved location for a show, I don't need to factor in things related to driving, thankfully.)
And on the larger scale, the devaluation of content relative to its access is a major issue. No need to restate the financial issues with streaming, it's enough to say that established, professional artists still struggle to make a stable middle-class living off of their work that one would assume they have based on name recognition, and that's messed up. America is the richest nation the world has ever seen--and somehow it can't supply a decent standard of living to the vast majority of its people, artist or not? Where is this money going, and how can we redistribute it more equitably? The vampiric predation of Ticketmaster is but one of the most obvious manifestations of these issues.
I was referring to your friend's sibling. :)
I wish I had a better answer for how to fix the revenue model for bands/venues.