The most nepotistic industry in the world excludes people from poor backgrounds? Good gracious me, I would never have guessed.
HaveYuHeardAboutCunt on
Housing theory of everything strikes again.
Stewart lee talked about this recently as well.
CosmicBonobo on
I don’t know if it’s just the music I follow, but I’ve found it more that the music industry is worried by how the Internet and technology has democratised and decentralised music production.
If you want to make music now, you can record an album in your bedroom and get it straight out onto the Internet without having to go through a record label to fund, produce or distribute it physically.
Xercies_jday on
You can anger him, but it’s not going to be that bad.
Ill_Refrigerator_593 on
I’m far from “with it” with more mainstream music these days but it does seem be mostly that made by posh people I have inflicted on me.
Same with acting, there’s a small cohort of working class actors, often London based, but most of the younger generation seem fairly posh.
bars_and_plates on
I feel as if some variant of this story comes up over and over and it seems like a bit of a tautology to me.
There are some British subtleties to it, but in the general case, we define working class as someone who does not have much wealth and has to work to live.
If you are not a blockbuster success in the music industry it simply is not profitable enough to live on.
The same is true of things like say, fashion, or the arts more generally. Yes, it’s hard for someone without money to get into fashion. But there isn’t even an “in” fashion in the sense that people think about. You get “in”, and you’re in the world, but you _still get paid basically nothing_ unless you own the brand/label/whatever yourself. At every tier of it, percentile wise, you are getting paid far less than in other industries.
It is more like a hobby for rich people who derive most of their income from capital rather than an actual job, it shares more similarities with e.g. “trying to go skiing” – you can do it, you just can’t really easily get paid to do it, the number of people who actually get paid proper money to do it is a rounding error.
Yes, there are exceptions, some bands do “make it”, but the fact that almost all of them are known and public and “big” is proof in and of itself that it’s rare.
I would contrast it with something like law or finance in which it feels like more of a valid complaint because the issue is at entry level whereas once you’re in it is a real job and you make real money. Music, fashion, arts in general aren’t really like that, if you are skint and you manage to get in you are… skint. Unless you end up selling out stadiums you are probably living like a student forever.
pajamakitten on
Money comes from touring these days and working class people cannot just tour around the country anymore to pay the bills. Middle class people can take that time out of work because their family will help out financially in the meantime.
GhostCanyon on
I work in tech in the music industry and let me tell you, he’s absolutely right. In every facet of the music industry having well connected, rich parents is the only way into most areas of the industry
Psittacula2 on
It is after all a money making industry.
If you want to produce art then produce art for art’s sake.
9 Comments
The most nepotistic industry in the world excludes people from poor backgrounds? Good gracious me, I would never have guessed.
Housing theory of everything strikes again.
Stewart lee talked about this recently as well.
I don’t know if it’s just the music I follow, but I’ve found it more that the music industry is worried by how the Internet and technology has democratised and decentralised music production.
If you want to make music now, you can record an album in your bedroom and get it straight out onto the Internet without having to go through a record label to fund, produce or distribute it physically.
You can anger him, but it’s not going to be that bad.
I’m far from “with it” with more mainstream music these days but it does seem be mostly that made by posh people I have inflicted on me.
Same with acting, there’s a small cohort of working class actors, often London based, but most of the younger generation seem fairly posh.
I feel as if some variant of this story comes up over and over and it seems like a bit of a tautology to me.
There are some British subtleties to it, but in the general case, we define working class as someone who does not have much wealth and has to work to live.
If you are not a blockbuster success in the music industry it simply is not profitable enough to live on.
The same is true of things like say, fashion, or the arts more generally. Yes, it’s hard for someone without money to get into fashion. But there isn’t even an “in” fashion in the sense that people think about. You get “in”, and you’re in the world, but you _still get paid basically nothing_ unless you own the brand/label/whatever yourself. At every tier of it, percentile wise, you are getting paid far less than in other industries.
It is more like a hobby for rich people who derive most of their income from capital rather than an actual job, it shares more similarities with e.g. “trying to go skiing” – you can do it, you just can’t really easily get paid to do it, the number of people who actually get paid proper money to do it is a rounding error.
Yes, there are exceptions, some bands do “make it”, but the fact that almost all of them are known and public and “big” is proof in and of itself that it’s rare.
I would contrast it with something like law or finance in which it feels like more of a valid complaint because the issue is at entry level whereas once you’re in it is a real job and you make real money. Music, fashion, arts in general aren’t really like that, if you are skint and you manage to get in you are… skint. Unless you end up selling out stadiums you are probably living like a student forever.
Money comes from touring these days and working class people cannot just tour around the country anymore to pay the bills. Middle class people can take that time out of work because their family will help out financially in the meantime.
I work in tech in the music industry and let me tell you, he’s absolutely right. In every facet of the music industry having well connected, rich parents is the only way into most areas of the industry
It is after all a money making industry.
If you want to produce art then produce art for art’s sake.