“So, what’s the music scene like in your town?” Sometimes, this is as much a question as it is a challenge depending on who you ask. Everyone has an opinion. Within the same musical community, you can get widely divergent responses to this question. A “music scene” can be defined in many different ways, from the number of venues available to perform, to the willingness of people to forgo wine and Netflix and venture forth into the night. The other half of the equation is, of course, the talent pool and number of bands that are show-ready and able to go out and lay their thing down. How deep is the bullpen of those who can front a band? What’s the ratio of guitar players to bass players and drummers? Are all the things lining up required to sustain and nurture a music scene in your town?
There are few things as home-grown, community-oriented and grassroots than a local music scene. Local music scenes are labors of love, social-networking and community activism. Only a handful of places in the world could be described as record company showcase towns: large, global cities with a music industry presence where an upcoming band or artist can hope to make the right connections. Those without a passion for music can legitimately question the return on investment. So, what’s the motivation to play out? The meme about $5K in gear in a $500 car for $50 and maybe a free bar tab has some truth to it. It’s difficult for those on the outside to understand what drives and motivates, not only the musicians and bands that make up a music scene, but the notoriously risky and complicated business of running a bar, club venue or restaurant as well.
When you consider all the conditions that have to line up for a self-sustaining music scene, it’s pretty significant that one can exist at all, even if it’s one worth complaining about. After all, in some places it just makes sense whether the location is a college town, tourist destination or global city. However, there are many communities that don’t have the aforementioned things going for them. Granted, after a certain threshold is reached, you have the types of institutions and businesses that make for a diverse community, density of population and people that want to be entertained. For many, dinner and a movie will suffice but the kind of circumstances that come together to nurture a legitimate music scene? That can’t be all that common, can it? Maybe the way to answer this question is to first define what defines a “music scene” and what makes one “legitimate.”
As I write this, I realize that the only way to explore this is to reflect upon my own experience. But I’m curious about yours too. Working in a music store selling guitars for a living for many years has allowed me to meet a wide range of people who share a similar interest in playing guitar with varying degrees of ability. I’ve sold young people their first guitar or bass and watched them grow into professional musicians. I have customers who are serious hobbyists and those who study the guitar as a means of cognitive therapy for young minds and aging brains alike. The approach to learning to play runs from the formal study of music to “the hunter-gatherer” method, as so well put by guitarist Dave Fiuczynski. I get to meet, connect and do business with all kinds of people, but as a long-time guitar player who has been in a dozen bands you’ve never heard of, I share a common experience with my customers who negotiate the economics and considerations of being in a working band with all the associated responsibilities.
Due to circumstances beyond my control, I was born in Manhattan, NY and in my early twenties played in clubs that don’t exist anymore like Danceteria, The Elbow Room, CBGB’s, etc. I went to see bands everywhere, was a fly on the wall at The Ritz, The Cooler, Mars and still only scratched the surface of the NYC music scene. NYC is, by every metric, a music industry/showcase town and global city. However, my move to Evansville, Indiana in 1999, due to circumstances very much in my control, gave me more experience and opportunity to play for more people than in my early days. It’s counter-intuitive, but this move to fly-over country, my home in “The Crossroads of America” has a music-scene with deep historical roots that I knew very little of until I relocated here. I knew two guys that gigged every weekend and were making dough and I made it a point to break into the scene and do the same.
Having an audience to play for, buy food and drink, and choose to invest their disposable income of entertainment dollars, drives an economic engine whose moving parts rely on actors with complicated lifestyles, to say the least. Nightclub owners and musicians are famous for things other than punctuality and professionalism. But, at the top of the game, that’s exactly what sets a well-run bar/club or band/musician apart from the rest. When the right components line up, and the consistency, predictability, and stability required to plan and book ahead with some certainty, a self-sustaining and “legitimate” music scene may be said to exist. At the end of the day, capitalism rears its ugly head: overhead needs to be met whether its rent, booze, payroll, strings, or equipment.
Do any of these factors come into play in your local music scene? Again, legitimacy is a relative term and I can only share my limited experience with two very different, but active examples. No doubt there are scenes in which none of the economic factors I raise are relevant: DIY Punk, Metal, and Hardcore underground scenes personify the anti-establishment, non-conformity to the commercialism that underlies the economic considerations I mention above. From backwoods roadhouses and juke joints to suburban garages, underground clubs, and venues dedicated to high-production values and the all-mighty dollar, music scenes are part of our culture and I’m convinced that like anything else, you get what you put into it and it is what you make of it. Tell me about yours.