Bruce Springsteen and Steven Van Zandt in Barcelona. Photo: Domingo J. Casas
The guitarist of the band that accompanies the steps of Bruce Springsteen the E Street Bandhas shown his pessimism about the future of rock and music in general, ensuring Steven Van Zandt that “he’s going to die” with a very eloquent example.
The popular guitarist participated in the podcast Club Random by Bill Maherand from this space he launched his message about the current music industry: “Right now, since the record industry is dead, there are no more record sales than those of Taylor Swift and Beyonce“, begins to argue before setting the objective on how television, series and films have become the best way to obtain profits for many artists.
For Van Zandt, what could be a solution is also a problem given the price increase that many musicians have made: “You get a bunch of… whatever, 25-year-old kids, with a song list with a number next to it, so if you want to make a movie or a TV show, you ask for the song, they look at the number and they charge you that figure, which is always high because there is no other income.
Classic rock, as we have seen in multitude of examples recent films, provides a connection for a very wide spectrum of audiences, which is why it is usually one of the most requested genres, but the guitarist believes that this will end up changing due to high costs, which will also close an avenue for access to listeners, many of whom discover new music through movies or series: “It’s a real problem. And I think in ten or twenty years it’s going to be a problem because all this music is going to die if it’s not promoted and heard. It’s going to be like, ‘Motown who?’ ¿ Rolling Stones who?””.
Pointing out cases like those in the series “Stranger Things”Van Zandt suggests changes in laws that are favorable for both musicians and the audiovisual industry, highlighting that things were very different before: “When we started, music for movies was free. It was free. Martin Scorsese He didn’t even ask permission to put “Be My Baby” of the Ronettes in ‘Mean Streets’, because it was free. People thought that was how records were promoted. “Nobody promotes records anymore.”
The guitarist closes his reflection with this question: “When our generation is gone, who is going to know these things?”
Back to the present, at the beginning of this month of May came the news of new tickets available for the Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band concerts in Madrid and Barcelona. These new tickets were put on sale through doctormusic.com and tickets.com for daily concerts June 12, 14 and 17 at the Metropolitan Stadium in Madrid and the days June 20 and 22 at the Olympic Stadium in Barcelona.
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