[cover shot by Mia Dawson]

Written
February 24, 2023

If you put the local Los Angeles music scene in a petri dish you would find three things: ambition, expansion, and a “couldn’t hurt to try” mentality. No longer are we sitting on our thumbs, waiting for some unlucky teenager to host a party and buy the beer. Gone are the days of house parties, teens in Los Angeles only want one thing: live music. An unparalleled appreciation for the arts has created a fundamental shift in how teens congregate in the city.

There is an incredible cultural shift happening right under people’s noses in Los Angeles. Where in other parts of the country highschoolers meet at “ragers” and “kickbacks,” LA teens are meeting at all ages clubs and DIY concert venues (i.e; the LA River, rooftop apartments, and backyards). In the past two years, there has been an unprecedented spike in the number of local bands formed by highschoolers, college students, and those fresh out of school. It’s questionable why now – it could be a reflection of the desire for connection coming out of quarantine, or a breakdown in technological barriers that allows teens to produce their music at a professional level. Regardless, the result is astounding. Every weekend there is a place to be, with multiple shows overlapping and six or more bands on the roster. A new party culture is happening, and it has less to do with parties than it does real, alternative music. 

Some question whether the act of living in Los Angeles is what spurred the sudden incline in bands. Teens in LA live in one of the world’s biggest centers of entertainment – arguably one of the hearts of music culture. Which begs the question: Are we born and bred for this? From the very beginning of our lives, we’ve been unwittingly networking with everyone from nepotism babies to soundcloud rappers to musicians with an established pedigree – naturally resulting in an ambitious, verging on competitive environment. If we’re constantly told people around us will become something, why shouldn’t we? The media has portrayed Los Angeles, Hollywood in particular, with this kind of gold rush mindset. It’s this idea that if you’re in the area and you’re around the right people, there’s always some chance that you’ll strike it rich or, in our terms, sign with a label. At the same time, however, there is a pushback against the traditional trajectory of music growth: perform, send demos to labels, get signed, release an album, repeat, etc. Instead, artists have slowly started moving towards independent production and distribution. Now more than ever, artists and fans are starting to question the way the music industry is structured given the recent disputes over live nation and ticketmaster. In fact, a common question hangs in the air: How much of the music industry’s structure actually serves artists and fans? In a viral testimony, Clyde Lawrence, of the independent band Lawrence, explained to the U.S. Senate exactly why monopolies like Ticketmaster put both artists and fans at an extreme disadvantage. Lawrence draws a line in the sand between artist and corporation, stating, “Most of the issues that we face stem from the fact that Live Nation-Ticketmaster often acts as three things at the same time: the promoter, the venue, and the ticket company.”

Which leads back to this unique ‘lean-on-me’ culture that’s starting in LA. With an industry so saturated with artists and companies seeking to homogenize and absorb them, a feeling of protectiveness has spurred in the music community. There’s this idea that if everyone is passionate and ambitious enough, they’ll boost each other up collectively. Musicians popping up in LA at this level are constantly working with each other to help produce and release music and schedule shows with eachother on the roster. Furthermore, there’s this feeling of anticipation because none of these bands have broken yet, and very few are signed to a label, but there’s an expectation that at least one out of the handful consistently performing and releasing music is going to make it. As a result, bands push each other up, not down. If one gets an opportunity, it shines a light on the rest. 

With all of that said, a final question remains: How exactly do we make live music at this level more accessible? Los Angeles is a city roaming with police whose job it is to break up unpermitted shows and while many local venues were once easy to get in contact with, they are being bought up by companies like Live Nation (which, for the record, isn’t inherently bad – it just makes it harder to get a contact and schedule a show independently). There’s not as much wiggle room as there used to be, and this scene is expanding and contracting at a rate that demands new solutions. The turnout rate for these shows is in the hundreds – If there’s a demand, what’s stopping us from creating more of a platform for these shows? Will more 21+ clubs do all ages nights? Will more all-ages venues show up? Your guess is as good as ours, in the meantime CTRLNOCTRL will do the best it can to boost these artists, let you know WHO is coming up, WHAT to listen to, and WHERE to see it all live.

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