iPod Killed The Subway Star
There are a few bands on constant rotation at the 59th station. I pass them every day on my way home from work. These bands range any where from a solo steel drummer or bassist to a full-on 4-piece jazz group. Are they good? I have no idea. I’ve never heard them. I’ve never heard them because I’m always wearing my iPod. So are about 75% of subway commuters.
Subway performers must LOATH iPods, Apple, Steve Jobs. I mean seriously. The record industry may have its quarrels with MP3 culture, file sharing, etc., but I doubt anyone feels the sting as much as subway performers. I feel legitimately bad for these guys. Yesterday there was a full jazz band playing. I looked around and, I swear, like 90% of the people in the station had headphones on.
And it’s not a money thing. I wouldn’t be giving these guys money anyway. I mean, maybe once in a while, certainly not every time I see them. But as a fellow musician, I know it’s not the money, or lack thereof, that matters. What matters is the fact that NOBODY is listing to them. They’d be better off posting their shit on Hype Machine…or SOAP!
My advise to subway performers: Try incorporating some sort of visual aspect into your performance. Dance around a little or dress up or something. The subway performing community suffers from a severe lack of style. There is absolutely NO CHANCE that I’m going to take out my ear buds for some scraggly-looking hippie with Predator dreads playing a Darbuka. Sorry dude, you may be a sick Darbuka-ist, but it ain’t happening. You’re gonna have to work a little harder for my attention (read dollar).
Maybe the subway performer’s crisis is a testament to our hyper-capitalist, technologically-reliant, Adderol-addicted society. Maybe it’s a study in Darwinian natural selection. Maybe there is no crisis and I have no idea what the hell I’m talking about. Alls I’m saying is that these people better evolve soon or they’re gonna go the way of Yangtze River dolphin, ya hurd?
