Listen: Across the Music Scene in a Pandemic

Before the Pandemic Set In

Wow, I am so excited to see my friends for the first time in years. I did not think it would be this soon, but I am extremely glad for it. In a little over a month, April 18th, I will be seeing my friends in Marigold perform live for the very first time. The excitement is boiling up inside. I can barely contain it. Nothing else matters, I have to see this concert. With each passing day, I get more and more anxious, but it is less about my excitement.

My parents keep pressing me that there is some sickness going around, and I have had quite enough of it. It seems to be that a virus is spreading throughout the world. Oh well, there are viruses everywhere. It certainly can not be that bad, right? Ah, just let it be April 18th already! My friends from school and I are ready to go right now, and nothing can stop us!

In the span of a week, the world has simply stopped. I do not understand, how could this happen? School is online, and now I only see my friends online. Countless shelves at the store are completely empty, mostly the toilet paper shelves, as well as canned foods, and bottled water. It looks like the apocalypse. People jerk away from each other if they feel they are too close, almost zombie-like. The overall atmosphere of my surroundings has changed.

Downtown Nevada City is more of a ghost town, no car parked in sight, shops are dark, no life. I no longer feel like I am at home, I have been transported to an odd world, or perhaps a different dimension, I can not tell the difference. Anyways, the concert has been cancelled. My one chance to see my good friends, gone. I even had an outfit planned, but that does not matter anymore.

I realize that my thoughts have been selfish, and I feel foolish. What is going on in the world is so much bigger than something an individual such as myself wants to do. I know my friends feel the same way after downplaying this tragic series of events. The amount of events that I had planned had gone away in the blink of an eye, such as concerts. Speaking of concerts, I wonder how the people in the music industry are doing…

1. Do they have work?
2. Are they still able to produce and release music?
3. What is the future of live performance?
4. When will it be safe to pack a theater or stadium at full, possibly overflow capacity?
5. Will live stream concerts continue to be a platform post-pandemic?
6. Have musicians taken more time to write more music, or have they had to put a foot on the brakes in order to find a way to pay rent?
7. What about other jobs in the music industry like producers and supervisors?
8. What about those who have studied or are studying music?

These are the questions that I ponder about, and I want them answered. I want to know what is going on at all angles, whether it be the musicians, producers, supervisors, talent agents, I want to know. I guess it is time to make some calls, and find my answers.

The Listen Podcast

See Leonor Bright’s new podcast, Listen in which she addresses these questions. Her first set of shows in the series are under, “Expression,” here: The Listen Show