It's no secret that music (especially rock n' roll) is a very difficult business to get into these days - a lot more so than it used to be. One high profile rock star who feels that it's about time that up and coming bands got a real leg up is Beatles drummer Ringo Starr.
Starr, who has been working hard to get local bands over the years noticed feels it's time that the industry and venue owners need to start pitching back in to nourish all the new undiscovered talent in order to give people more of a chance to hear the kinds of music that might really strike a chord with them.
In a recent interview with Bloomburg Business Week, Starr says:
“I go crazy, because if you want to open for a well-known band you have to pay – management makes you pay. Who is giving back? I did a Ringo tour once and had a local band at every gig open for us just to give them exposure. Nobody is helping anybody. For an artist starting off, there’s no clubs for them to play in. The venues have gone down. It’s very hard now. It’s easier to become a celebrity on a TV show as a band for four months than work solidly. People think it just happened – we just woke up one morning and were Beatles. That’s not true. We worked very hard with the venues and put in the time."
Personally, I agree with Starr. With how many venues have closed or make you pay in order to open for a high profile act it's amazing that anyone ever gets noticed enough to make it even semi-big. It's probably a big reason why you have to dig hard to find even a little bit of good music these days. No one is willing to give those with legitimate talent a leg up. It's sad, really. Music these days doesn't actually suck, but you wouldn't know because no one seems to want to give the new bands a break these days like they used to.
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