Challenging Times"> Challenging Times

So now theaters will not go through a (8)blanket ban. I don’t think theaters and movie theaters will be shut down. But everything is going to be limited. And a lot of larger productions, with a lot of money involved, are either canceled or postponed, (9)at worst, the thing starts, somebody gets sick, and then the shows are canceled for about two weeks at a time . Whoever tries to do this is going to lose a lot of money. So , the logical next step would be to perform everything online, and many artists are experimenting, trying to do something over (10)Zoom or Instagram Live. The new frontier is opening up but there are as many challenges as there are opportunities, and the rewards are just not clear at this point in time .

All Things Aren’t Fair

First of all, most musicians are not engineers. I happen to be a kind of independent -minded musician who’s studied a lot of sound recording. So once they (11)wander into the (12) swamp , that’s where they begin. And you have a great studio with an engineer. You’ve got a big record company. Everything is perfect. It’s just like recording. All you got to do is go online. So , there are technical challenges.

Another thing: (13)platform (14)inequality. I think this is going to become an issue as more and more people take to online broadcasts. Platform inequality means that (15)Spotify or iTunes or Amazon, they will favor big business artists, and (16) independent artists really just only (17)get bread crumbs.

New Opportunities

However , if you’re an artist, this is what (18)my partner, my wife does. She’s an actress, and she’s been online learning how to create a yukata. She’s learning how to actually (19)sew it together via a classroom given on Zoom. She’s really enjoying it. So , acquiring new skills online is a great option . And also for musicians, pop and jazz (20)greats, like (21)Quincy Jones, (22)Herbie Hancock, they’re offering master classes. So , these are rare (23)nuggets, which would help inspire a young generation of artists as well as professionals who want to polish up on their skills.

Changing Values

In conclusion , the virus is affecting every part of our lives and perhaps at deeper levels which means the way we see things will change . What this means is that, for about a century or so , we’ve been living in this kind of (24) capitalist , (25)consumerist, lifestyle with a lot of hope for future economic growth, (26)GDP. And that’s going to be changing. Owning things, consuming things that others own or consume because we’ve seen it in advertisement, that “Me, too! I want that, too! Me, me!” --that’s just (27)not going to cut it anymore as a sort of model for happiness.

Artists are ready to change , the people are ready to change , can the industry change ? Can the industries that we all depend on , can it (28) keep up with such an (29)all-encompassing (30)paradigm shift ? Now, that’ll be the question I leave you with .