Support Local Music Before It Is Gone

 

Downtown Iowa City

Hey there everybody sorry for today's post being so late I happened to be treating myself to an afternoon out away from everything.

Anyways today I'd like to share my thoughts on a trend I have seen throughout the past few years in Iowa, the slow decline in live music.

It seems that as each year passes more and more bands are sitting around without work in this state. There are some great bands who get booked up for six month periods and there are other great bands who get few bookings in that six month period. Why is this the case? Why are these good bands sitting around doing nothing?

Well in my opinion there are a few factors. First off nobody has the money to book bands. The way the economy is many bands who mainly book into bars and clubs are being left out in the cold because the owners can't afford the price of live entertainment. That and secondly why book a live band when you can have a disc jockey come in and play anything right? Sorry wrong answer.

Disc jockey's and mainly karaoke have killed a lot of business for local bands. Sure the music scene in Des Moines, Iowa City, and the Quad Cities is pretty good still but even there bands are finding it harder and harder to play out every weekend.

Due to that there are a lot of bands that end up leaving the state if they have dreams bigger than just playing as a garage band the rest of there days. They pack up and head for musically rich cities like Austin, San Francisco, Chicago, Atlanta, Memphis, Nashville; places where they have a better shot of getting noticed. Because lets face it playing even in Des Moines, you will be hard pressed to find a way to something bigger and better.

So what really is the live music scene in Iowa anymore. Is it musicians taking pay cuts just to play in places and get there name out there? Or is numerous acoustic trios playing coffee shops around the state? Or is it numerous open jam sessions inhabited by guys who could be big somewhere else?

Honestly I think it is all of these and I hate to say this but Iowa will most likely never recover from this trend. So faithful Iowa music lovers, enjoy what you still have and support local music any chance you get. Maybe moving away from DJ's and karaoke shows would help too. I'm just saying.

Until next time keep on rocking away music lovers,
JAS

Photo from Flickr/Creative Commons, Alan Light