Musician Forum - Band Discussion Board - BandMix

With the advent of all the talent/idol shows more canned music and the continuing monopoly of big business on the music scene in North America in the past 10 years a person, a musician can't help wondering what has happened to the real music scene? The grassroots from the ground up from playing open mics to bar gigs and everything in between music scene. There is not the demand for live bands anymore that there was 20, 10, 5 years ago. There is a musical evolution happening and I understand that. Tastes change and new and interesting styles emerge and evolve. I fully support new genres and enjoy seeing and hearing new expressions. But when I see so few musicians available in my area and even a drought in a city like Vancouver it is a cause for deep concern for me as a practising musician. It used to be that almost every pub or bar had a band (or DJ) to be fair on the weekends. Thursday, Friday and Saturday booked soild. I know seasoned players with 30 years experience who don't work every weekend but they try hard to which means playing in 3-4 different bands somewhat like myself. I don't play every weekend and I sometimes fill in for those established guys when they are busy playing other gigs.
I feel as if sometimes Idol and Talent discourage musicians form getting out and playing in public as they may not be that amazing singer or player they are seeing and hearing today. We all see what happens to the ones who are not at the acceptable level. There is a standard and there well should be who wants to listen to out of key and off the rails? But doesn't anyone play just because they love to anymore? Do we all have to have stars in our eyes and expect to become rich and famous and if we can't well lets just not try??
I'll admit playing and practising is hard work setting up and tearing down and all the bs that goes with it rarely evens out for the money I make. But I don't do it for the money I do it because I love to play and I love top perform for people as much as I love to play at home by myself in front of my computer.

as long as you are happy playing for basically free, than that is all that counts.. if you are doing it just for ego gratification then you need to see a shrink..imo..

Why is it most musicians over 40 feel this way?

RGMixProject wrote:Why is it most musicians over 40 feel this way?

Because now they have a wife, kids, and a mortgage....and economic reality has set in.

But it also means they can get on with life and just enjoy music as it's own reward.





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they also make fuel out of sh*t so there is hope for you too

they also make fuel out of sh*t so there is also hope for you too
dane ellis

I said this before and ill say it again... The gold rush didn't generate its revenues from Gold... It generated from shovel sales.
The music culture has taken on a new look and feel... Imagine if everybody bought a white coat, a doctor's bag and a stethoscope (damn , that ryhmes), but not everybody was a real doctor. Well that's exactly how the music culture works. Everybody and their mother is walking around with a guitar as if they were gonna move the world with some trite piece of sh*t lick or three chord soliloquy.

I think, as a rule of thumb, if yo have a day job, and its not music... you pretty much have reached the end of the road for celebrity candidacy. What remains is how much you love just making music..

Im just at a point that I love making music whenever I get the chance too, even if its in my music room.

To the Poster Good Luck in your musical endeavers, my only advice is to have a plan B as in a real occupation, just in case things dont go as planned.

I much prefer going into my music room and picking amongst my guitars which I want to play instead of being stuck playing a Squire Strat cause its all I can afford.

There's still plenty of places to play out - they just don't pay sh*t these days at 90% of them.