Americans Buy Themselves Out Of The Potential For A Rich Culture
I was at the corner of Fillmore and Geary sorting out what I was going to do with the extra ticket to the sold out Aesop Rock show I was about to attend. It was a comp ticket and I was hoping to give it away to some cool kid who was without. Ticket clutched in hand, I wandered over to a group of people hanging out on the corner and muttered 'I've got a ticket', seconds later the ticket was snatched out of my hand by a large imposing dude who proceeded to finger a wad a cash and push a twenty dollar bill in my hand. Someone from the crowd implored 'ma'ma! ...." the scalper who'd swiftly taken matters in hand was large, my frame a mere sliver to his, I decided to call it a wash and walk away.
Rattled and scattered, I walked in to the venue. The dance floor was littered with white kids wearing the variety of hats only seen at a hip hop show. The opening act hit the stage and started in. Two guys with mics, some bloke behind the turntables and a sold out crowd. The math started running through my head; I wasn't sure what kids were paying for tickets as I'd not paid to get in - in fact one might argue I'd made money off my venture out to see Aesop - but for the sake of argument let's say at least $20 a head and there's no crew for these gigs as there's next to nothing to setup. The venue, the label and hopefully the artists were going to make a killing.
I thought about how many times I'd paid $20 or more to get into a show where there was a least 5 people on stage performing music that no doubt cost more to record than your average hip hop record. Hip hop is cheap to make particularly when you throw out the need to pay for sample clearing which from what I understand is de rigor for underground djs and mcs these days.
And yet, the cost of admission of hip hop cds or live performance? Same as a 6-7 piece instrumental ensemble.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not dissing hip-hop, no my thoughts went something like this .... not only do Americans cash in more often and faster on genuine, authentic artistic expression, which with the advent of new technology has become cheaper to create, but we do it in such a way that forms of expression and their audience have little incentive to grow and evolve together over time.
I was most likely one of the oldest members of the audience at the show last night clocking in at the ripe old age of 32. The kids on stage opening were most likely under 30 - most of the audience under 25. The openers weren't bad but there they were on stage at the Fillmore opening to a sold out crowd - their knowledge of music - I'm guessing not particularly sophisticated and how many others just like them - we're a hip hop nation with many a young mc well versed at slinging rhymes in baggy pants but what else?
As these thoughts passed through my head I thought about jazz, blues and r&b musicians who, like a fine bottle of wine, only seem to get better with time. I thought about the cultures of Cuba and Brazil and the likes of Ibrahim Ferrar of the infamous Buena Vista Social Club who has surely only cultivated subtlety of style based in long standing musical traditions over time. And then I wondered where my 30+ brethren were lurking on this fine Thursday evening. I know about Aesop and other independent hip hop artists through a long love affair with music and time spent working in the industry with other rabid music lovers who know how to find gems outside the sea of trash that is American mainstream culture. Many of my would be contemporaries do not hold these advantages and while on some level the 'specialness' of my ability and resources to employ in the process of wheat sort from chaff appeals to my ego it does nothing to unite me with people like me - those who would constitute a 'community'.
This led me back to the dollars. Many of my would be mates income requirements are starting to include mortgages and baby sundries. As those add up why wouldn't one knock off the cost of admission to watch some punk in baggy pants gesture and hollar into a mic? Makes perfect sense to me. Again, not a knock on hip-hop, but acknowledgement of a question that must be asked 'what the fuck are we paying for when we drop $20 plus on a show'?
Kids with disposable cash and little or no rent don't give a fuck, they're biggest worries may boil down to some car insurance payments and extra curricular marijuana acquisition. But those worries, or lack thereof, have a finite lifespan. Thus, the crux of the American problem, we build our culture around disposable incomes with at best a 15 year time frame at the *beginning* of our people's lives.
How rich does a music need to be if it's only ever enjoyed by an audience that's under 30? How rich can a music be if it's only ever created by artists who's culture reference points span 20-30 years of life lived when the average American lifespan in somewhere in the 70's?
Money fucks art and capitalism is no friend of culture; these things we know but do we consider how deeply they impact the psyche of ourselves as a people?
I was at the corner of Fillmore and Geary sorting out what I was going to do with the extra ticket to the sold out Aesop Rock show I was about to attend. It was a comp ticket and I was hoping to give it away to some cool kid who was without. Ticket clutched in hand, I wandered over to a group of people hanging out on the corner and muttered 'I've got a ticket', seconds later the ticket was snatched out of my hand by a large imposing dude who proceeded to finger a wad a cash and push a twenty dollar bill in my hand. Someone from the crowd implored 'ma'ma! ...." the scalper who'd swiftly taken matters in hand was large, my frame a mere sliver to his, I decided to call it a wash and walk away.
Rattled and scattered, I walked in to the venue. The dance floor was littered with white kids wearing the variety of hats only seen at a hip hop show. The opening act hit the stage and started in. Two guys with mics, some bloke behind the turntables and a sold out crowd. The math started running through my head; I wasn't sure what kids were paying for tickets as I'd not paid to get in - in fact one might argue I'd made money off my venture out to see Aesop - but for the sake of argument let's say at least $20 a head and there's no crew for these gigs as there's next to nothing to setup. The venue, the label and hopefully the artists were going to make a killing.
I thought about how many times I'd paid $20 or more to get into a show where there was a least 5 people on stage performing music that no doubt cost more to record than your average hip hop record. Hip hop is cheap to make particularly when you throw out the need to pay for sample clearing which from what I understand is de rigor for underground djs and mcs these days.
And yet, the cost of admission of hip hop cds or live performance? Same as a 6-7 piece instrumental ensemble.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not dissing hip-hop, no my thoughts went something like this .... not only do Americans cash in more often and faster on genuine, authentic artistic expression, which with the advent of new technology has become cheaper to create, but we do it in such a way that forms of expression and their audience have little incentive to grow and evolve together over time.
I was most likely one of the oldest members of the audience at the show last night clocking in at the ripe old age of 32. The kids on stage opening were most likely under 30 - most of the audience under 25. The openers weren't bad but there they were on stage at the Fillmore opening to a sold out crowd - their knowledge of music - I'm guessing not particularly sophisticated and how many others just like them - we're a hip hop nation with many a young mc well versed at slinging rhymes in baggy pants but what else?
As these thoughts passed through my head I thought about jazz, blues and r&b musicians who, like a fine bottle of wine, only seem to get better with time. I thought about the cultures of Cuba and Brazil and the likes of Ibrahim Ferrar of the infamous Buena Vista Social Club who has surely only cultivated subtlety of style based in long standing musical traditions over time. And then I wondered where my 30+ brethren were lurking on this fine Thursday evening. I know about Aesop and other independent hip hop artists through a long love affair with music and time spent working in the industry with other rabid music lovers who know how to find gems outside the sea of trash that is American mainstream culture. Many of my would be contemporaries do not hold these advantages and while on some level the 'specialness' of my ability and resources to employ in the process of wheat sort from chaff appeals to my ego it does nothing to unite me with people like me - those who would constitute a 'community'.
This led me back to the dollars. Many of my would be mates income requirements are starting to include mortgages and baby sundries. As those add up why wouldn't one knock off the cost of admission to watch some punk in baggy pants gesture and hollar into a mic? Makes perfect sense to me. Again, not a knock on hip-hop, but acknowledgement of a question that must be asked 'what the fuck are we paying for when we drop $20 plus on a show'?
Kids with disposable cash and little or no rent don't give a fuck, they're biggest worries may boil down to some car insurance payments and extra curricular marijuana acquisition. But those worries, or lack thereof, have a finite lifespan. Thus, the crux of the American problem, we build our culture around disposable incomes with at best a 15 year time frame at the *beginning* of our people's lives.
How rich does a music need to be if it's only ever enjoyed by an audience that's under 30? How rich can a music be if it's only ever created by artists who's culture reference points span 20-30 years of life lived when the average American lifespan in somewhere in the 70's?
Money fucks art and capitalism is no friend of culture; these things we know but do we consider how deeply they impact the psyche of ourselves as a people?
posted by Stacia @ 6:38 AM
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