United States

Okay....I admit it...it was me.

I killed live music in the parlour with a candlestick. I just couldn't take that Freebird song another time!

I AM NOT AN ANIMAL!!!!

I was in MD when the drinking age went to 18. It was the same year I turned 18, I do believe. When I turned 21, they returned to a 21 year old drinking age. This was around '73 to '77 or so.

Ppl were going out for live music far longer than that 3-4 year period, though.

Bands had packed the house for decades before that. Now they don't.

So, to sum up what's been said thus far, what's the difference between now & then?

More cops on the road & a vendetta against drinking & driving.

Higher costs all around in a shaky economy.

Less danceable popular music, & the stuff that IS danceable falls more into the rap/r & b (disco?) category than in r & r. Much of this is simply too hard to cover with the traditional rock band set up, or is ignored or even demonized by the usual rock musician.

Bands have stopped trying to entertain.

Alternatives like DJ's & karaoke are easily available & cheaper than whole bands, & just as entertaining, if not more so, than the modern rock band. There is also the fact that DJ's & karaoke rarely if ever get too loud for the venue, so you can always order that drink without losing your voice to shout it out.

Higher costs for the bar owners to even HAVE live music.

I think the divisive nature of our own attitudes & tastes also has a hand in it. Back in the days we're talking about, bands would play Skynrd & Eagles (country) back to back with Beatles & Kinks (pop) & Who & Aerosmith (hard rock). Today, if you like country, you aren't supposed to like anything else. Same goes for any other genre. We've gotten ourselves so tied up in pidgeon-holed categories that we've lost our acceptance of diversity. Thus, a blues band is expected to play only blues. A rock band only one form of rock. We've gotten boring. The audience will accept a wide variety of music, as long as it's danceable, yet as a rule we don't deliver that variety. A good band can play any type of music, & should perhaps show those skills off when they play live, to keep things interesting.

Perhaps it is time for us to look into the alternative venues to peddle our wares - festivals, co. picnics & Xmas parties, fairs, church events, private parties, "concert in the park" series, & the like. (That is, if you can convince someone to hire you for these without having an established fan base!) Once you have established interest or a following there, you can throw a CD release party in a bar, & the ppl will come.

If, at this point, you are indeed entertaining & danceable enough, you can start to get the better gigs at the bars that DO still pay for live music.

Unfortunately for some of us, the music must be suitable for ALL ages at these affairs. None of that cussing stuff or heavy sexual innuendo. Keep it innocuous & yet entertaining. Tough on a Tool/Korn/Slipknot cover band, I'm so sure.

Philby,

I cant comment on the BMI ASCAP fees or how they are distributed cause they dont affect me. Its kind of like complaining about speed limit laws. SUre I dont like the way it works unless Im a songwriter then it might matter to me, cause that is how they get paid. I would imagine most bars dont pay the lisencing fees, but the article you found was someone being made an example of. From a bars standpoint it is just one of the cost of doing business, and probably has no affect on me as a musician. Unless of course they decide to quit live music because of the fee, but I think that a bar that even plays a jukebox is supposed to pay the fee. I may be wrong, its been a while since I studied music law, but in the early 80s I think if you were a restaurant or a bar or a clothing store for that matter, in order to play music for cutomers you had to pay a fee. So I dont understand why you care that much about it, I mean, it really has nothing to do with you unless you have some hit songs written.


Ive said before in this thread Live Music is alive and well, you just have to find where you fit in. Ive found in my area there are a handful of bands doing what it takes to get out and play. Whenever I hear a musician say Im going to play what I want and they will love it anyway, I know that 99.99 % of the time I will not hear this person doing any worthy gigs. Ive made it a habit lately to stay away from the musicians with this attitude cause it kind of infects you to the point that you feel more important than an audience.

In any business the Customer Is King, forget that and you will not last. The same goes for musicians, forget the audience and what they want and you will not be playing long.

Phil, please don't put Tool with those bands They're on a different level of musicianship.

JW, I disagree. That's called selling out: giving up your musical standards for the media and/or bigger audience. If I don't like a certain type of music, I sure as hell won't play it. I wouldn't like it and THEY wouldn't like it. Lose/lose situation. The 2 songs on my profile are proof of some sense of diversity. I'm a rocker at heart... grunge, metal, and modern rock (the early good ones). However, one of the songs is Neo-soul (I rocked it a bit) and the other is an 80s hair band kinda ballad.
Unless they like my music (the full span), they won't enjoy it.
Just sayin'.

Sorry Andrew. I was mentioning them for lyrical content, not musicianship.

But, I gotta know - is Tool better or worse than the other two?

Can't seem to get into any of them, myself.

JW - I think live music has a different cost (higher or additional) than the one for juke boxes & TV & radio.

One of these days, if I get interested enough in the subject, I'll look it up on this infernal machine, & then I'll know.

I really don't care enough about it, either, except that it seems to be yet another hurdle that a small business has to jump to do thier biz. Far too many of those, imo.

Yea. Well, music is always down to opinions n tastes. There's the good, the bad, and the godly. Tool's more than great, imo. But some, like you, may not get into their type of music/message/spiritual thing.
So yea: Tool > Slipknot + Korn

I have to lay some blame on the industry exec's who decided that a band that sounds like an allready successful band is a better buy for them. IN THE 70's when you turned on the radio, if you heard 80 band's, you heard 80 "different" sounds and styles. IT WAS ENTERTAINING! now in 80 band's your more likely to a few style's and IT IS BORING! they have sucked the art right out of the industry and replaced it with packaged programming.
cheezy ass greasy kid stuff mostly
Hayden

Out priced themselves and us right out of a job. Tickets used to be reasonable. Not any longer. To many fingers in the cookie jar.

Out priced themselves and us right out of a job. Tickets used to be reasonable. Not any longer. To many fingers in the cookie jar.

^^^ Great point !
In the 70's tickets to see the 'Stones or other popular acts were
12.00 or thereabouts. A kid with a paper route could easily afford
that price.

.... Yikes.... I must be real old then.... I remember paying , $7.50- $8.00 to see any show and the cool jerseys were only about 5 bucks... I miss my Pink Floyd jerseys....

Or jump over the fence and enjoy the view from the top FOR FREE

heh... remins me of the time I piled my whole band into the trunk of my old, beat up Chevy Impala and snuck 'em all into the drive in every weekend after practice for free.. We were to young to go to bars so we'd all sneak in a six-pack and a dimebag of weed... ... aaahhhh..the good ole days!... Just don't ever tell my 2 teenage boys that one!

Back home, I used to do that.. wait 5 minutes in.. and sneak in n sit far.. I had good eyesight back then
But when I had the money to spare and the intention of helping out the bands, I did pay. When it's the first time listening, I just hop over the pants-ripping fence and enjoy the music

Ah yes even the paperboy could get in (I still have some jerseys from the 70's in a box) Why did the paperboy always have the best weed?

Because I rolled it in newspapers!

wait, frick, plz don't tell the FBI........

ps- marylin manson may have been right when he said, "rock is dead"

emo killed it.