Death and Rebirth

It’s been a wild time for Australian Music… We have lost countless artists, programs, funding, platforms and many many opportunities to many different reasons and ultimately, proved that music in Australia is one of the toughest industries to involve yourself in… BUT…

We have proven throughout all of this that we are also one of THE MOST resilient music industries in the world!

Yes… Sit back, grab a warm cup of the good stuff and enjoy another wild brain dump from Mr Chub Shady esq…

I can go on for decades talking about how live music (the type played by actual musicians) used to be the primary source of entertainment at a pub right up there with footy, beers and a cheeky pub hookup BUT over time, we all know that innovation in technology, funding cuts, venue “sold a lot more beer but can’t afford the budget” cuts and the humble, yet for the most part, undercutting “Disk Jockey” has killed the live music scene…

I could also go on about how the punters attending seem to have less of a f$%k to give for new original music these days and are STILL obsessed with old mate Dazza’s cover of Horses… But how is this going to help?

The way we should be thinking is Innovate or step the F%&k aside… Which is EXACTLY what Australian Music has done…

Step back a few months for a minute… CoVID hits because some arsehole ate a bat/released it from a lab/created 5G/didn’t vaccinate/voted against TRUMP/took a s$%t in the neighbours pool (actually I don’t know why but yeh… Some wild theories out there)… The music industry grinded to a halt and immediately thousands upon thousands of musicians were losing work left, right and center.

The governments response? 

Help everyone BUT the arts… Seriously… There is a grant, payment or resource available for everyone BUT the arts industry and it is in-excusably ridiculous! BUT you don’t see muso’s carrying on like the majority of the country about how hard their life is… They sat back, did a little bit of a google search… Then sold out the country on microphones, audio interfaces and webcams.

Then the “Streaming Festival” was born…

Some are big, broadcasting the whole thing on one connection with high quality sound and video, some are bit more humble with their ‘iPhone in the corner’ vibe but all in all, the music industry just took a massive level up in skillset thanks to this and it’s only going to cause bigger and better things for music on the outbound of all the craziness this year has given us!

If you haven’t managed to do some form of skill development during this crisis, don’t stress, there is a lot of people out there doing great things for other musicians as well!

The industry has banded together during all of this and the outset is going to bring a new wave of production, delivery expectation and a new reason to tell a venue to F%&k itself when it offers you peanuts for your years of honing your musician skillset.

Anyway… Enjoy your Sunday you rad f%&kers and I’ll see you next week for another exciting episode of theShade 🙂

-Shadey Out…