How to build a thriving music scene in your city | Elizabeth Cawein

47,413 views ・ 2018-10-18

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Each of these songs represents a scene, a movement,
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in some cases, a sonic revolution
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that completely altered the course of popular music.
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They're all also calling cards, almost, for those cities,
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songs totally linked with their city's identity,
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and it might be why you probably consider them to be music cities.
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Now, the magical mythical thing, the thing we kind of all love
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about stories like these
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is that those cities weren't doing anything in particular
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to make those moments happen.
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There's no formula for capturing lightning in a bottle.
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A formula didn't give us grunge music
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or introduce Tupac to Dr. Dre,
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and there's definitely no blueprint for how to open your record business
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in a South Memphis neighborhood
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that, turns out, is home to Booker T. Jones,
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William Bell and Albert King.
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So this is just something that happens, then, right?
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When the stars perfectly align,
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great music just happens.
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And in the meantime, New York and Nashville
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can churn out the hits that come through our radios,
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define our generations
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and soundtrack our weddings and our funerals
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and everything in between.
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Well, I don't know about you,
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but the very idea of that is just deadly boring to me.
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There are musicians all around you, making powerful, important music,
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and thanks to the internet and its limitless possibilities
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for creators to create music
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and fans to discover that music,
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those zeitgeist songs don't have to be handed down to us
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from some conference room full of songwriters
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in a corporate high-rise.
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But also, and more importantly,
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we can't decide that it's just something that happens,
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because music is about so much more than hits,
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those big, iconic moments that change everything.
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It's more than just entertainment.
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For so many of us,
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music is truly a way to navigate life.
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A means of self-expression, sure,
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but it also helps us find our self-worth and figure out who we are.
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It connects us with other people as almost nothing else can,
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across language barriers,
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across social and cultural and economic divides.
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Music makes us smarter and healthier and happier.
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Music is necessary.
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What if you lived in a city that believed that,
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that said, "We're not waiting for that hit song to define us.
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We're a music city because music is necessary."
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By seeing music as necessary, a city can build two things:
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first, an ecosystem to support the development of professional musicians
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and music business;
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and second, a receptive and engaged audience to sustain them.
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And those are the two critical elements of a music city,
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a city whose leaders recognize the importance of music
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for our development as individuals,
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our connection as a community
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and our viability as a vibrant place to live.
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See, smart cities, music cities,
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know that thriving nightlife, a creative class, culture
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is what attracts young, talented people to cities.
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It's what brings that lightning.
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And no, we can't predict the next egg that will hatch,
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but we can create a city that acts like an incubator.
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To do that, first, we've got to know what we've got.
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That means identifying and quantifying our assets.
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We need to know them backward and forward,
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from who and what and where they are to what their impact is on the economy.
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Let's count our recording studios and our record labels,
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our historic landmarks and our hard-core punk clubs.
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We should count monthly free jazz nights and weekly folk jams,
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music schools, artist development, instrument shops,
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every lathe and every luthier,
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music museums open year round
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and music festivals open just one weekend a year.
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Now, ideally through this process, we'll create an actual asset map,
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dropping a pin for each one,
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allowing us to see exactly what we've got
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and where organic momentum is already happening.
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Because it's not enough to paint in broad strokes here.
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When it comes to specific support for music locally
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and a broad understanding of a music brand nationally,
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you've got to have the receipts.
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Next, we'll need to identify our challenges.
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Now, it's important to know that, for the most part,
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this won't be just the opposite of step one.
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We won't gain a whole lot
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by simply thinking about what's missing from our map.
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Instead, we need to approach this more holistically.
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There are lots of music venues on our map.
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Awesome.
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But are they struggling?
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Do we have a venue ladder,
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which just means, can an artist starting out at a coffee house open mic
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see a clear path for how they'll grow
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from that 25-seat room to a hundred-seat room and so on?
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Or are we expecting them to go from a coffeehouse to a coliseum?
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Maybe our challenges lie in city infrastructure:
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public transportation, affordable housing.
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Maybe, like in London,
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where the number of music venues went from 400 in 2010
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to 100 in 2015,
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we need to think about protections against gentrification.
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The mayor of London, in December of last year,
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actually added something called the "Agent of Change" principle
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to the city's comprehensive plan.
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And the name says it all.
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If a real-estate developer wants to build condos
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next to an existing music venue,
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the developer is the agent of change.
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They have to take the necessary steps for noise mitigation.
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Next, and this is a very big one,
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we need leadership, and we need a strategy.
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Now we know there's a lot of magic in this mix:
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a lot of right people, right place, right time.
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And that will never stop being an important element
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of the way music is made,
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the way some of the best, most enduring music is made.
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But there cannot be a leadership vacuum.
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In 2018, thriving music cities don't often happen
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and don't have to happen accidentally.
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We need elected officials who recognize the power of music
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and elevate the voices of creatives,
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and they're ready to put a strategy in place.
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In music cities, from Berlin to Paris to Bogotá,
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music advisory councils
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ensure that musicians have a seat at the table.
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They're volunteer councils,
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and they work directly with a designated advocate
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inside of city hall or even the chamber of commerce.
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The strongest strategies will build music community supports like this one inward
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while also exporting music outward.
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They go hand in hand.
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When we look inward, we create that place that musicians want to live.
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And when we look outward,
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we build opportunities for them to advance their career
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while also driving attention back to our city
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and leveraging music as a talent-attraction tool.
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And here's something else that will help with that:
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we've got to figure out who we are.
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Now, when I say Austin,
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you probably think "live music capital."
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And why?
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Because in 1991, leadership in Austin saw something percolating
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with an existing asset, and they chose to own it.
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By recognizing that momentum, naming it and claiming it,
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they inevitably caused more live music venues to open,
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existing spaces to add live music to their repertoire,
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and they created a swell of civic buy-in around the idea,
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which meant that it wasn't just a slogan in some tourism pamphlet.
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It was something that locals really started to believe and take pride in.
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Now, generally speaking, what Austin created
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is just an assets-based narrative.
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And when we think back to step one,
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we know that every city will not tick every box.
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Many cities won't have recording studios like Memphis
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or a songwriter and publishing scene like Nashville,
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and that's not a dealbreaker.
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We simply have to find the momentum happening in our city.
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What are our unique assets in comparison to no other place?
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So, if all of that sounds like something you'd like to happen where you live,
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here are three things you can do to move the needle.
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First, you can use your feet, your ears and your dollars.
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Show up. Be that receptive and engaged audience
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that is so necessary for a music city to thrive.
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Pay a cover charge.
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Buy a record.
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Discover new music, and please, take your friends.
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Two, you can use your voice.
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Buy into the assets-based narrative.
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Talk about and celebrate what your city has.
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And three, you can use your vote.
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Seek out leadership that doesn't just pay lip service to your city's music,
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but recognizes its power
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and is prepared to put a strategy in place
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to elevate it, grow it and build collaboration.
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There really is no telling what city could be defined
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by a certain scene or a certain song in the next decade,
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but as much as we absolutely cannot predict that,
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what we absolutely can predict
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is what happens when we treat music as necessary
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and we work to build a music city.
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And that is a place where I want to live.
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Thank you.
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(Applause)
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