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The Death of the Middle-Class Musician

(thewalrus.ca)
300 points pseudolus | 5 comments | 28 Jun 25 22:06 UTC | HN request time: 0.307s | source
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Projectiboga ◴[29 Jun 25 01:30 UTC] No.44409650[source]▶
What has been developing for awhile is that musicians are coming from richer backgrounds on average. They can dally around trying their hand as a working musician and can fail and not be destitute. The age of a working class or lower class musician is waining.
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absurdo ◴[29 Jun 25 03:17 UTC] No.44410088[source]▶
That has been the case for a very, very long time. Classical music is basically one big orgy of wealthy people. Musicians born into families of musicians that were well off. Same goes for other artistic pursuits such as painters etc.

I found very little actual insight in this article. I think musicians have been struggling for decades and the parents have known for at least as long to tell their kids to get a degree regardless of their talents. Schools like Berklee are… questionable at best. Lots off nepo babies just taking a few years to fuck about, basically.

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1. analog31 ◴[29 Jun 25 04:26 UTC] No.44410349[source]▶
I've played with Berklee-trained musicians. It's a mixed bag. They won't turn you into a great musician against your will. This is true of any education. And you have to already be **** good when you apply in order to make full use of the opportunities that they offer.

Oddly enough Berklee is considered to be a jazz school, but the players from there who I consider to be real stand-outs (performing at an international level, or well on their way to doing so) have chosen to earn their livings outside of mainstream jazz.

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2. pclmulqdq ◴[29 Jun 25 04:29 UTC] No.44410358[source]▶
Mainstream jazz really doesn't make money. Also, Berklee is also really strong in the broader field of "Commercial Music" which includes things like film scoring and pop-oriented genres.
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3. dfedbeef ◴[29 Jun 25 04:57 UTC] No.44410461[source]▶
What is mainstream jazz
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4. chickenzzzzu ◴[29 Jun 25 05:24 UTC] No.44410556{3}[source]▶
Kenny G, of course. I saw him rummaging through the dumpster in Kirkland just a few days ago.
5. pclmulqdq ◴[29 Jun 25 05:38 UTC] No.44410595{3}[source]▶
What you get in a jazz club.

The "live from Emmet's place" series that you can find on youtube has some of the best jazz players today playing mainstream jazz.