The State of Music Today

This is an excerpt from a longer essay that I thought would be suitable here, the rest of which is available at my other blog:

Music, as well, has hit a period of stagnancy. Though many argue that there are groups out there creating sounds that are both good and fresh, such music is not being heard by or broadcast to the mass market for the most part. Even if it was being put out there, there is a huge portion of the listening audience that prefers to hear the same songs and artists that have already been on the radio for many years. Of the list of the top 25 highest grossing tours of 2010, eleven of those acts have been performing for over twenty years (two more, the Dave Matthews Band and Tim McGraw, are also close to that mark, with the former having been formed in 1991 and the latter releasing his debut album in 1992). There are only four artists on the list who’ve debuted within the last three years:

February Shiver

I, for one, am sick and tired of being surrounded by snow. The plus side to being stuck at home all the time, however, is lots of new material at JohnnyMac Music. In addition to the tracks online, there are a wealth of potential rap backing tracks being compiled and prepared for collaborative efforts, anyone interested can feel free to contact me about hearing some samples. At this point, I'm going back to writing, waiting for this stuff to melt already, and contemplating a move to Chile. Average annual precipitation of 14mm? Yes, please.

The Space

Lots of exciting changes are going on at one of my favorite local CT venues, The Space. Aside from their snazzy new website, there's the brand new Outer Space venue, officially open this month. This second venue is right next door to the original Space, and boasts a beautiful sounding, intimate venue complete with a brand new bar. Their heralded open mic night has been transferred to the new venue as well, and now occurs every Wednesday night concurrent with a regular show at the other venue. It's nice to be able to move back and forth from one venue to the other and check out such a wide variety of talent in one night. So if you haven't been down to The Space in a while, you owe it to yourself to come check out the new set of twin venues.