https://www.theguardian.com/cities/...usic-cities-austin-nashville-new-orleans

Thanks for the article. I will read it soon.

I just did an interview here in Indy on this topic as we've suffered through this phenomena (assuming the article is what I think it is). Our big artist/music center of town was once a run down hell hole which was adopted by the creative community who could afford to live and work there and sure enough clubs opened, then larger ones and then a strip of clubs where live music flourished for more than a decade before it became corporate little by little and then the clubs on the strip all went to DJ's and a beloved music venue called the Patio shut down which was an important developmental stepping stone for local and regional artists and home to touring acts big and small. The other large venue was all that was left but ended up taken over by theme nights with dj's to make bigger bucks and barely had live music by any local acts, only touring artists and then another corporate venue opened up down the street where Prince famously did a surprise concert one year and which was off the strip area which took a lot of energy away from the prime area of the scene even further. Now it's all that's left and the original scene is dead but meanwhile all these rehabs into beautiful homes or worse, just huge inflation of the same old houses to prices way above rational market surrounded the scene and strangled it.

Now a new are has risen up but we see the same thing happening much faster. Rehabs housing (which is good for the neighborhood, there's even a rehab show on TV on HGTV based out of there) is pushing all the poor people out along with the artists and musicians and what little music scene was beginning to grow likely will never get to thrive like it's predecessor and I am not sure a new music scene will ever catch on again in this large but sports focused city. It's great to see run down neighborhoods rise up with safe quality housing, but it just pushes all the poor people elsewhere and crime sadly follows but in this case the energy and money from the artists scene no longer follows as well so all you have is crime and poor people and no culture. It's pushed down now south of town almost out of the city limits. Of the 50+ places I either played shows or saw my friends or favorite local bands play I think only 2 of them still exist today. So they've all come and disappeared in 25 years.

I can only imagine the same thing is happening everywhere else. Sad.

Brian

Live music on a national scale at least is becoming more of a museum draw, than a necessity. I guess gentrification is playing a role here, but I think it's broader than that.

People always talk about how everybody was glued to their TV sets when the Beatles played Ed Sullivan, and how it created generations of fellow musicians trying to do the same thing. When you only have 3 Channels on TV, the majority of people worked during the day, no internet, no social media, the odds are greatly in your favor of reaching nearly everybody.

Imagine the Beatles started today, they'd make their US debut on the Stephen Colbert Show! Wooo Hoooo. You might get a few million watching, but not half the country.

Anyway, I think if the demand for live music was overwhelming, it would be there. Live gigs are hard to find for musicians these days.

People are too consumed with their technology to care. People believe they are highly important because of facebook and internet presence, and that satisfies them. Music used to speak for people, now they speak for themselves.

The best seat in the house for a ball game or a concert, is always your massive TV screen, with unreal sound. ANd if you feel like your missing the people, you just click on facebook and speak to people as you go.

Yeah, the net benefit of ever newer tech I think is diminishing and may now clearly be a deficit and getting worse.

My day job is architect and small inner city townhouse builder. I almost always build in run-down neighborhoods that are gentrifying. The city cores which used to be essentially abandoned and economically depressed are now where a lot of people want to live for convenience and proximity to numerous amenities. And businesses want to be where people with disposable income live. That trend is not going to reverse anytime soon.

The way cities protect certain things like "musical districts" is through the enactment of historical preservation districts which maintain and limit what can go on in an area. That doesn't necessarily stop rents from rising though.

it happens out of the cities also. 70 miles or so west from Austin is Fredericksburg. Quaint but tourist saturated town with a German immigrant heritage. They have a main street with exterior patios providing live music. Never was an issue until people started retiring out there...and then...complaining about the noise. Big dust-up about it a couple of years ago.

As for me....I'm fine with run-down areas of town being upgraded, but I like for music districts to be left alone. Problem is...no one ever calls me and inquires about what I would like to have happen.

Where I live in Sebring Florida there are no places to play at all. Maybe a few bars outside of town have it. There are large venues for shows and some more well known but second tier groups and singers but that's about it. For some band or singers starting up now there is just no place for them to play to get some exposure. The Beatles would have a hard time making in today's music world. I played a lot in Central Park as a young guy and played for tips. Did OK and even wrote a song called I WAS A STAR IN CENTRAL PARK...

I'm not a linguist, but where the hell did this word "Gentrification" come from? I guess I shouldn't sleep so much and spend more time awake reading the Dictionary. Just being fecicious, or is that spelled facetious..

Best guess is that it is rooted in gentry or whatever word that gentry is rooted in.