When lockdown was officially imposed on the 23rd of March 2020, many of us were basically forced to create our own livelihoods. This may have involved learning a new skill through an online course or picking up hobbies you may have never considered in your ‘normal’ day-to-day life. However, this may have become repetitive and even draining as you may feel the need to constantly upskill. One thing that kept most of us check was music – whether you were revisiting old albums or discovering new genres, it was one of the things that united (and still does) people through new platforms such as virtual concerts. Hopefully as the 19th of July creeps up, lockdown will be a thing of the past, but how has music played a role in our lives?
If you have some spare change (or even some savings) lying around, why not spend it on some musical masterpieces? Expenditure on music increased by 8.2% in 2020 according to the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) – over 155 million albums were either bought or streamed. Major streaming platforms including Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music, raked in a total of 139 billion streams. This was an increase of 22% from 2019. One genre that had a remarkable year was UK Rap and Hip-Hop. Accounting for 22% of single track consumption and 12% of album consumption, this is the highest it has been since 1999 when the BPI first started calculating figures of each genre. Notable artists in this genre include Headie One and Nines (both with number 1 albums) and KSI, who’s debut album (‘Dissimulation’) had two top 10 singles (‘Houdini’ and ‘Down Like That’).
AJ Tracey, J Hus and Jax Jones were a part of 200 artists that amassed 100 million streams. But how do we quantify a stream? Nile Rogers, co-founder of the band ‘Chic’, believes that the monetary value of streams is a secret. “We don’t even know what a stream is worth and there’s no way you could even find out what a stream is worth, and that’s not a good relationship”. He also believes that artists and writers are also not paid equally from the shares they accumulate on these platforms. Although mediums of music such vinyl records and cassettes would be considered outdated audio formats in today’s digital world, sales reached 4.8 million in 2020, a 500,000 increase from 2019. Cassettes also doubled in sales with 156,642 sold. This is the highest it has been since 2003. CDs took a plunge in sales though, with only 16 million being sold – just a tenth of what was sold in 2004 when CD sales were at their peak at 163.4 million.
With a lot more time on our hands during lockdown, many people may have decided to explore different sounds. Those with a musical background or have a great interest in the art may have decided to delve into songs with complex structures such as those of Abba’s and look at patterns in their key and tempo changes. Similarly, those interested in rap and hip-hop may take a deeper look into the rhyme schemes of legends such as The Notorious B.I.G., Jay-Z and Nas. When it comes to the music creation process, fans may be interested in Kanye West’s change in sound from joyful and happy (for example, “Graduation”) to more sombre and eerie ( “My Dark Twisted Fantasy”).
A study was conducted by the University of Burgos in Spain to see whether music, as a consumer good, had any emotional or psychological benefits during the lockdown. A sample of 1,377 people (with almost 70% of the people involved being women and over 50% of participants being in the 41-60 age range) was used. The questionnaire had two aspects to it: sociodemographic content (age, gender, level of education) and a dimension of analysis which included 11 questions based on characteristics of music consumption, use and conception during lockdown, form of consumption (alone or with others) and how frequently music was used in daily life (temporal frequency). They found statistical differences between age and music consumption, suggesting a relationship between the two. Moreover, they also found out that a third of adults aged 51 or over listened to music nearly everyday, more than any of the age ranges. Approximately 60% of those aged 18-40 said they listened to music as a source of emotional regulation less compared to the rest of the participants. 74% of the participants indicated that they used for music as a source of regulating negative emotions such as stress or anxiety. The study concluded that music was frequently consumed to help manage depressing emotions in lockdown, but as they were not able to identify the musical tastes of the participants, they did not know the genres that were effective in managing these emotions.
In the UK, the BPI were able to identify that almost 30% of respondents in their survey in November 2020 had played more music in lockdown in comparison to pre COVID-19. Just about half of the respondents in the 16-24 age range reported that their listening of music increased during lockdown, and it was higher than what it was before lockdown. When asked why listening had increased, 50% of the participants said it raised their spirits whilst 42% said it made them more relaxed. Almost everyone said listening to music offered an escape from their problems. It also seemed to promote effective studying as a third of respondents said so. Music also helped to improve the motivation of people to carry out daily activities according to 80% of the participants.
We hope to see musicians perform live shows again, but how have venues that host them coped during lockdown? Since closing their doors because of lockdown enforcement, many believe that they will need financial support going forward from the pandemic. It was even forecasted that 83% of venues were due to close forever. Thankfully, the generosity of the British public pulled through and they were able to donate to initiatives such as the ‘#SaveOurVenues’ campaign by the Music Venues Trust, which has raised £4 million till date, and the Cultural Recovery Fund. This has ensured that less than 1% of venues have been closed.
Despite these valiant efforts, there are still a handful of venues that are risk of closing if they do not reach full capacity should live shows return. One of these venues is ‘The Lexington’, which needs almost a one fifth of a million pounds (£180,000) to continue functioning. The general manager of the space doesn’t seem optimistic about the future either. Stacey Thomas told NME that the landlords had not been sympathetic of their situation and was worried about paying rent for the space. One of the ways that could help The Lexington continue to operate is the purchase of a late licence and book bands, but bigger venues are taking on these bands making it difficult for them to book shows.
perspective of j.k.l. 