Whither indie amidst depression?
(posted on 2009-01-13 15:17:00)
Indie economics is a curious thing, and I'm curious about how it will hold up during the impending economic doom. Predicting the future is fraught (hence the doom) and I can foresee several very different scenarios. I've been discussing this with people and have heard a range of views including:
- Recession, what recession? It's all a scam by big business to get bail-out money, and the economy is imaginary anyway.
- Creatives are well and truly fugged, even more so than the mainstream who have jobs making essentials like food.
- While the climate-wrecking mainstream economy goes down the plughole, indies will continue to make our living as we always have. Short form: we're used to being broke.
1. recession, what recession .. You hear variations on this a lot, especially at parties and gigs. But it seems an unlikely position, with 100% of the world's governments predicting major disaster in 2009. Indies are an optimistic lot, and society tends to admire optimism (a tendency I find odd, since every disaster is preceded by it). It's also said that generation Y doesn't believe in recessions, because they've never lived through one. Because culture-towns like Melbourne have supported a large number of gigs and galleries for 10 years, and musos and artists have found casual unskilled work without too much trouble, we've been coasting along in something of an art boom. Will this still be the case when the family guy next door is competing for your dishwashing/phone-survey job, and your unemployed fans can't afford to buy beer or music? (Does anyone still buy music anyway? That's a separate debate.)
2. we'll go down even harder than the mainstream .. The argument for this point of view begins at the end of the last paragraph. Youngsters focussing on nascent art/film/music careers tend to earn their food and rent money from the kind of casual jobs that might disappear the fastest when no-one is spending, ie hospitality, retail and so on. And when career workers fired from day-jobs are desperate for that same part-time work, creatives may get a smaller share of a smaller pie. On the other hand, these two social groups tend to live in different circumstances. Many mainstream workers are supporting a family and a negative-equity mortgage. Job-loss for them is an instant disaster and these people are, rightly, worried about 2009. Indies without children, already living on next-to-nothing, don't have as far to fall. Some might go live with mum and dad for a while. Obviously there exists a range of circumstances, and mileage will vary. The parent option may not be feasible for over-35s.
3. art is immune from economics .. This seems obviously wrong, though a lot of people are saying something like it. It depends whether you depend on art for your income, and by definition most indies don't. If you have a job, and keep it during the recession, art/music/etc is your hobby and there's no reason it can't continue to be. And a mighty fine hobby it might be when all around is bleak. Indie has been going in this direction for years anyway. Rents have risen significantly relative to wages, bands can't afford cars or practice rooms, and no-one's really making a living from music. When you take costs into account, few even break even. Frankly I like the idea that music/art/whatever is done for love, not money. I know every 18-year-old yearns to 'make a living from music', and I have had disagreements with a few would-be-rockstars on this issue, but in my experience, when people treat music as a career, it leads to a preponderance of 'music about musicians', culture made by people who know nothing beyond sound-checks and the tour van. It's boring and irrelevant to workers. Part-time art is the best art, as it's by, for and about real people. But what happens to part-time artists who lose their day-jobs in 2009? Do our art careers flourish, with extra time devoted to it while we live on the dole? Not unless we're prepared to move to Colac, I suspect. I've heard some say that there will always be a demand for art (or at least entertainment) during a depression - however most of the paying customers would presumably be the well-to-do - do we really want them as our only audience?
Indies are ahead of their time when it comes to economic disaster. The rental crisis gripping Melbourne since 2006 has meant that anyone who's not a full-time earner of a good wage is being squeezed out. So many times last year I heard: "when my lease came up for renewal they jacked up the rent and I have to move further from the city". There is a shortage of accommodation, and renters with good jobs are willing to pay more. Landlords know this and are hiking up rents as fast as the law allows. Indies, who forego some of their earning time to make art, can't compete against full-time workers, and the latter have snapped up the inner suburbs where culture can most effectively be produced. This happened in Sydney in the 80s, ending that city's reign as Australia's music capital, when all the bands moved to Melbourne. Where will we all go next - Adelaide? Some have suggested Hobart or Bendigo - we could do worse. The irony is that inner-city property values only rose because creatives moved there in the first place, looking for cheap rent in what was then an undesirable area. The indie scene has become a large, unwitting, property-value-raising machine that moves from suburb to suburb, improving neighbourhoods with enthusiasm, aesthetics and social capital. Economically speaking, we are an early stage of gentrification. We move to cheap rent and improve it to the point where we can't afford to live there, whereupon we are turfed out in favour of big-earners who want in, now that it's groovy. This is such an established process (witness Carlton, Fitzroy, Brunswick, Northcote, Newfarm, West End, Newtown, Darlinghurst, Williamsburg ...) that I expect landlords in as-yet-ungentrified suburbs are competing to be the wandering creatives' next homeland. Preston welcomes indie rockers. Just import some good baristas and open a venue, guys - we'll see you in a few months.
Have you noticed that as the financial crisis moved onto the front page last year, the environmental crisis disappeared from view? I was living in the US during the election campaign and I swear the environment was not mentioned once, by either candidate. It illustrates a problem with 'old thinking': the belief that the economy is only healthy if it's growing, meaning more people consuming more resources to make more crap to be sold at Harvey-Normans. When the economy is 'growing healthily' we wring our hands over the damage it does to the environment. Then the recession is the disaster and the environment is forgotten, as governments scramble to get people buying crap again. I have argued in this blog that it is only the owners of businesses and real estate who want endless growth, because it pushes up the selling price of businesses and real estate. During periods of growth, owners get to make money simply by sitting and waiting for values to rise. For the rest of us, too much growth is a disaster. It is the cause of the coming environmental crash, which may make the stock market crash look like a walk in the park. The key to solving both problems at once is sustainability. Instead of endlessly expanding consumption, we only produce what we need, and stay in equilibrium with the environment. Owners of things won't make money as easily, and will be the reactionaries in this revolution. Sustainability is easier to say than do, sure, and will require significant systemic change. I refer you to specialist authors on sustainability. The wikipedia article is a good starting point. One message that the unfolding crisis is sending us is that we should each be responsible for finding something worthwhile to do, instead of just producing any old crap for which there is a demand. When times are tight, if something is crap, demand for it will stop soon enough. Environmentally speaking, this may prove to be recession we had to have.
The Age had an article just before Xmas that illustrated the wrong way for musos to think about the downturn. Cover-bands were complaining of a lean holiday season, because recession-fearing corporates weren't hiring them to play at office parties. This is like Harvey-Norman complaining that consumers aren't buying enough plasma TVs. It's sad, but only for the complainer. The world will be better off if there are fewer plasma TVs, and corporate parties.
It's time for creatives to lead the way on sustainability, rather than worry that their bottom line will be affected when the masses consume less alcohol or plastic discs. Instead of competing for the ever-shrinking disposable dollar, let's beat our guitars into ploughshares and produce things the world really needs.
reply 1 from David Nichols: Have you sent your manifesto to Pluto Press yet? Not that I don't agree with everything you say, because I do.
reply 2 from FJSG: plenty of good baristas in Bendigo
reply 3 from what's your name?: I recently watched something on TV on British pubs that were lowering the prices of pints to 99p in light of the fact that 5 pubs a day close in Britain. While the division of opinion that the price drop attracted was probably not black and white, in essence middle class commentators bemoaned the incentive for poor people to binge drink and live unhealthy lives while working class commentators welcomed the drop since it meant that poor people did not have to sit at home in isolation and drink cheap supermarket-bought booze in isolation. Instead, they could continue to drink in company and, in effect, could afford to socialize. I suppose this commentary is intended to suggest that the crisis that affects indie bands in terms of punters not drinking enough booze (as well as purchasing music...bt perhaps we can 'blame' the internet for this double-edged sword of access to the world's music & musicians in an instant and non-mainstream dissemination of music etc but, on the other hand, the almost irresistable appeal of getting all and any music for free) is perhaps a social crisis as poor people are forced to drink (and play music) at home and in isolation. once preston is reached - as it has been - by the forces of indie, there are few suburbs beyond it that offer high streets and venues. what then? these suburbs, however, offer cheaper rents in the main and backyards for vege gardens. So what? I'm not sure. To some extent, the rental crisis and inner city aspect was also caused by manufacturing industries moving out to the outer suburbs (for cheaper rents and larger premises) and taking their workers with them so they are closer to their workplaces etc. Then, rockers and artist took advantage of these premises as you say. Great article, Greg, and apologies to all those who read this piece of mine and now want those 5 minutes of their life back.
reply 4 from casey: Great post Greg. You should get talking to my friend Karl Fitzgerald - he hosts a radio show called Renegade Economists (5.30 - 6pm Wednesdays on 3CR - 855AM You can stream it from www.3cr.org.au) and runs free classes called 'Economics for Activists' About time we took matters into our own hands. I don't want to leave Melbs, dammit! Or get a 'real' job. Check his work at http://www.earthsharing.org.au
reply 5 from mark.h: Greg - I also agree with what you say here. Some thoughts: anyone at a party in Melbourne saying there is no economic problem whilst living in their comfortable little art bubble should immediately be cast forever into the Yarra unless they can wake up to a world without art, beer and gigs as a sole means of existence ! It is true that the poverty kids move into cheap places, create 'atmosphere' which real estate agents then stick their teeth into down the track. The flipside to this situation is that artists love to complain and would not have the incentive too create if there was not these social/economic obstacles to negotiate. So you can have a protest whereby all art inclined humans move into new 'cheap' part of town and do nothing. No art, no gigs, no parties, no vegan cafe's etc... no nothing. Just shopping But of course this will never happen and art will always exist and always be made. The tide is shifting, especially with regards to music. The entire musical output of art in the 20th century was 'warped' by commerce. From the very start of that century this form of artistic expression became a commodity. So you had varying reactions to this - the embrace (so called 'mainstream' music, 'indie labels' etc..) the reaction (so called 'avant-garde' 'outsider music' etc..) but all were intrinsically tied to the $. We have a situation where what little money is left for 'fringe' music is dying out. Music, everything about it; the conception, the creating, the recording, the release are all a luxury for those with spare time and spare money. Being in London this is highlighted further as the nature of this city hinders free time and the cost of living provides little opportunity for people to entertain the idea of creating some masterwork, let alone acting upon it. (oh and what's your name? ... the 99p pints here is only one pub chain and only one type of (shit) beer, otherwise it's still b/w £2.50 - £3.50 at most haunts! Also, i am not sure they are closing so many pubs in London as such, that would be the only thing to get these people out of their passive robotic worker 'must drink copious amounts of lager to cope' existence - ie: it would be mayhem!!) So possibly this is why musical output in this country for recent years has been limp, hedonistic, bland day glo party nonsense (the world's going to blow, let's get wasted kind of thing). Ironically, where the rock kiddies are embracing ecstasy and group utopia, underneath this the electronic scene, once euphoric is now super edgy, paranoid, dark and social aware of a collapsing economy or in the very least that, 'something is up'. Art/Music can help people understand or articulate their environment. It is no need but it is 'needed' (in a way, even as a means of communicating collective anxiety for example, this helps people relate/understand) Regardless of social/economic woes art will exist, whether commercial backed or backyard defiance art will never stop. People will still make art in 1000 years, the current crisis will just make people re-adjust personal values and ask why they make art in first place. And possibly, this could lead to more socially conscious 'creatives' whereby priorities are shifted away from door lists and riders and for a start, at least, some thorough research and understanding reagrding what is going on in the world economy today, how 'we' got to this point and where to from here (a wonderful horrific tale if there ever was one!!). Personally the less artists complaining 'woe be me' that they can't live off art, the better. Just get on with it and be aware of the 'real' world around you. YOU latte lapping bubble human YOU!
reply 6 from James Earthenware: That blog was incredible! Well done! I guess one possible contention I could add is, that while artists do "improve" their environs, I think traditionally they inhabit inner-city areas, and since manufacturing and farming industries have died out there's not much work to do in the outer-suburbs anymore. That's why peak hour is busy going into the city mornings and out of the city in evenings. So, my point would be that it's a matter of convenience for these "workers" to move to inner city so they save money on petrol/time etc. My case in point would be that when they DO move to the inner city they complain about "violence", "graffiti" and "noise" from the clubs and bars. Hence you have ludicrous policies like 2am lock-outs to appease these yuppies and cashed up bogans who are only used to the peace and tranquility of suburban living and hence the bars are sent broke installing sound-proofing technology and paying for security to keep meat-heads out. I think if all the artists moved to say Dandenong...or Pakenham...I don't think it would suddenly become gentrification-worthy because there is just no infrastructure there to support artists, and even if there was, the punters would only want to see Cold Chisel cover bands...or watch football...not original indie music. Of course the artists could spend more time making art...but it would be like a tree falling in a forest since they would simply have no outlet for it. Although there seems a big art scene in Newcastle, I spoke to people complaining how they were abused while traveling to and from events/workshops. Perhaps this is the kind of tension that inspires great artists though. (As you or another comment mentioned). I guess there would be a fourth way...some artists might be able to poach high-paying jobs and entrench themselves in the inner city. ie: Triple R is well and truly entrenched now they have purchased their premises. Perhaps some artists who did make money during the boom period could have secured or inherited infrastructure as well. Considering this, maybe a huge economic crisis will just cause a "fragmentation" or "decentralization" of the artistic community. Some will be able to stay...some will have to move back to live with parents.
reply 7 from Andrew: okay, you're describing gentrification. Now this is an economic process, and it points - possibly - to how Creatives/Indies are still part of capitalism - a first wave perhaps. If there is to be some kind of change, maybe making art that's more politicised in terms of the strategies it might use to exist could become important. I'm finding something interesting in gigs I put on in Hobart - make them free to get in and don't have them in a pub. Try and find a place where one can sell beer and sell food - and do it. you might make enough money to get ahead. Of course, I'm living in a small community and I'm a practiced networker who can find a room, a PA and the legal permission to sell booze for nothing. I'm not sure how it applies to you Melbourne types, but I note that forgetting about standard ways of doing things and actively trying to cut corners and costs can yield useful results in these harsh economic times. I've directly gone to community organisations and asked them if they can help in ANY way and gotten useful support along the way.
return to the main blog page