Comment by 9rx
3 days ago
> The 17-year-old meanwhile may never get to go to a show of any of their favorite bands
Back in my day 17-year-olds, especially those who would want to attend concerts, were interested in discovering music. Some of those discoveries would absolutely be artists selling out stadiums where tickets can sell for 10x face value, sure. But some of those discoveries were artists relegated to playing in dingy bars where a cover charge would be unthinkable. One might not have been able to see all of their favorite bands (i.e. the most famous among them), but seeing some of those artists would be quite realistic.
Does what you are saying imply that music fans today have converged on listening only to a small group of superstars despite music discoverability never being easier?
I think that's a great question! I however don't know any youths so I have no idea how what we called "The Scene" operates today -- other than it has to have changed a lot, since we had to discover bands by word of mouth or by noticing the bands who opened for the more popular bands. Sure, we had Napster and KaZaA, but we needed to first know what to search for.
Maybe teens today discover bands from the 20% of the time that the "music" credit on TikTok isn't incorrectly "<account_name> original audio" or from Shazaming what they hear on TikTok. But I agree with you actually that whatever happens with the arena superstars it's a good thing if young fans discover and connect with the smaller acts touring in small venues.