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Chicago, the Next AustinThe Chicago Music Commission asks: why doesn’t the city promote its music scene?
By Deanna Isaacs January 31, 2008
At a few minutes before 6 PM last Thursday, the temperature outside was hovering near zero, the wind was savage, and the Harris Theater for Music and Dance—where the Chicago Music Commission was about to convene its most important program yet—was nearly empty. It looked like there were going to be more people on the CMC’s 17-member panel than in the audience. But by the time moderator Dan Lurie finished introducing the lineup of local music industry experts, including producers, promoters, broadcasters, performers, club owners, and city officials, an audience of 130 had materialized. They’d braved the weather to hear about the CMC’s study of the Chicago music industry, conducted by the University of Chicago’s Cultural Policy Center and presented to the city last summer. What they learned is that Chicago has the third largest music industry in the nation, bigger and more vibrant than music tourism magnets like Nashville or Austin, though you’d never know it based on the city’s handling of the resource.
The findings in “Chicago Music City,” which crunched data from 2004 for the nation’s 50 largest urban areas and specifically compared Chicago to ten other major music cities, included these: Based on government records, there are 53,000 people working in music-related businesses here, though just 2,000 of them are musicians. We have a whopping 400,000 seats for music fans, but 93 percent of them are in places like the United Center and Soldier Field. And according to data collected by Pollstar, Chicago hosts 1,093 concerts by touring groups annually; the group lacked the financial resources to track local groups or include the Lyric Opera, city festivals, or anything else produced by nonprofits. There are holes in the “Chicago Music City” picture big enough to drive Symphony Center through—some of those numbers sure seem low—but the study’s basic point is undiminished: Chicago’s music industry, though small potatoes compared to New York’s or LA’s, offers value, quality, diversity, and a rich history. The researchers conclude that Chicago is “a music city in hiding.”
What’s to blame? For starters, a splintered, fiercely independent music community, venues scattered all over the map, and a tradition of hostile relations with local officials. Most cities that are known as music destinations have government music offices that market that identity. Chicago does not, and after 21 people were trampled to death at the E2 nightclub in 2003, the relationship between the city and its clubs grew more difficult than ever. CMC acting director Paul Natkin, a photographer who’s documented the music scene here for decades, says the organization grew from a conversation between himself and Chris Schneider, who runs a recording studio called Pressure Point on historic Record Row. They agreed that “we gotta do something to shine a spotlight on Chicago,” he says, but the first goal was “just to get the music community talking together” so they could present a united front to the city. Natkin says they recruited Bruce Iglauer of Alligator Records, “started calling or e-mailing everybody in our Rolodexes, and said, ‘Let’s have a meeting.’” About 60 people showed up, and the organization was officially launched in 2005.
Raising visibility is still a major goal for the CMC, but Natkin admits it’s been slow going. “We’ve been doing this for quite a while, just under the radar. We have no money; we’re totally volunteer; for the most part it’s funded out of the board members’ pockets,” he says. The CMC commissioned the study as a way to legitimize its cause, and got a couple grants from local agencies to help pay for it. The hope was that it would convince the city to support an independent music office that could function as an industry-government liaison and help push Chicago as a music destination. But so far, Natkin says, the CMC has only about 250 members, most of them individuals, and the city wants to see critical mass. The Harris event was meant to be the first step in taking the organization to the next level. “What we need,” he says, “is for each of those 17 panel members to go out and find ten businesses that want to join.”
Natkin himself has no problem working with city officials these days. The CMC’s producing a continuing series of music-biz seminars sponsored by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, and is collaborating with the department on a database that’ll be part of the expanded Chicago Artists Resource Web site, now set to launch this spring. He says the CMC was able to head off a prohibitive promoter’s license proposal, and that Chicago music will soon be the only stuff piped into the city’s airports. But comments by some panel members showed that the old tensions aren’t entirely gone. Jam Productions cofounder Jerry Mickelson got a laugh when he noted that Choose Chicago, the city’s Web site for tourists, lists the Admiral Theatre under nightlife venues but not places like the Double Door, Schubas, Park West, or the Hideout. “In our business, the only time we really hear from the city is when there’s a problem, and it usually has nothing to do with us,” Mickelson said. “That’s something I hope changes, because we’re not just here to be beat up every time something happens somewhere else. We should be part of the fabric of what goes on so that we can help.”
Other panelists called for everything from more venues to music in the schools, and the League of Chicago Theaters was mentioned more than once as a model for what the CMC ought to be. But when Rita Lee of the marketing firm Nu Face Entertainment argued that what the scene here really needs is branding, there was quick agreement. The only potential hitch is what the study turned up as Chicago music’s strongest characteristic: its diversity. Chicago offers almost every kind of music imaginable at some level, with “specialized musical venues” accounting for a bigger portion of the music scene here than just about anywhere, according to the CMC report. “It seems there isn’t a great deal of synergy” observed Alan Salzenstein of DePaul’s performing arts management program. “We’re one of the most diverse music cities there is. But how do you brand that?”
The Starving Art Critic
Earlier this month art critic Christian Viveros-Faune was sacked by the Village Voice, in part because of his involvement with the Next art fair, this year’s new addition to Art Chicago weekend. Viveros-Faune, who’d recently begun contributing reviews to the Voice on a biweekly basis, is a partner with Chicago gallerist Kavi Gupta in Volta, the company behind the art fair. He’s a co-organizer for Next and managing director of another Volta show to be mounted this spring in New York. In an interview with arts blogger Tyler Green that morphed into an indignant essay, Viveros-Faune said the Voice was aware of his other work and blithely opined that “there is no interest in the art world without a conflict of interest.” The day after Green posted this, Voice editor Tony Ortega announced Viveros-Faune’s departure on the paper’s Web site, noting that “we’re concerned that his work outside the Voice at least creates an appearance of conflict.” Viveros-Faune had observed that, like most critics, he couldn’t live on what he was paid as a freelancer.  Send a letter to the editor.
From the Reader blogs Crickets Miles Raymer: An excellent music video takes the improbable form of a Budweiser commercial.
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Tyler Green at 6:18 AM on 1/31/2008
This is the second time you've mentioned me in a story and the second time you've made an error.
The Q&A did not "morph" into an essay. It was a separate post.
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ARTLOVER at 3:47 AM on 2/1/2008
This woman Ms Isaacs must absolutely work for free. She consistently seems obsessed with other people's money and other people's income sources. Might we simply look at HER for a minute?
What is paying this hefty salary of hers?
Is it wholesome ads for cotton undergarments?
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Leonel at 3:49 PM on 2/1/2008
I live in both Austin and Chicago, and you are wrong. If you are talking about filling up the united center and making muncho cash, you are on the right track. Though Chicago does inspire and produce some original music, the average Joe here wants consistent replays of the 80’s. Chicago is simply to busy making a living, all we would eventually get is Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd Reunions. Austin’s small town appeal is that the average Joe there seems to play at least one instrument and everyone is always looking for something different.
Chicago has yet to give me something different, though diverse it is still dominated by the same old Rock and Roll. It ignores the inner City, it ignores itself and lives in a perpetual la la land
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kyanize at 10:50 AM on 2/2/2008
"leonel", please! don't confuse the differences between the size of the cities (and resulting concert promotions) with the differences between their passion for music.
austin has established a reputation for it's music scene (mostly because of sxsw) and therefore draws musicians and those who support music. however, at my work at a large downtown chicago hotel i've met people from austin before the big surge in population who definately were not excited about the nature of austin's music scene. if fact, i would guess that if it's population were larger, austin would support a stadium venue for touring acts.
on the other hand one could argue that if you took those who are involved in the chicago music scene and transplanted them to a city the size of austin it would be a higher density than austin. (of course, this is just conjecture on my side.)
and finally, the whole idea that it is dominated by "the same old rock and roll" is absurd unless you only look to see what's available at large venues. seriously, if you don't like your options here, do something about it. join the freakin' "chicago music commission". or just go back to austin.
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Bluemnm at 10:59 AM on 2/3/2008
I agree with you Kyanize.
It is all in one's perspective, And the Chicago Music Commission has the right idea to help focus the outsider's perspective of the chicago music scene. And by that I don't mean focus the style, I mean give it an identity that people from the outside will know about when they set foot in our town or on a Chicago website. The problem we have with the music scene in chicago is very similar problem to the Film scene here. (changing a bit by the likes of er Mike McNamara)... They exist, but there is no clear path to the inside.
We have AMAZING small music venues/bars here in chicago, like Martyrs and the Empty Bottle, some with amazing sound sysytems, (some not so much). When I meet people who have just moved to Chicago, I always ask them...have you gone to see any shows yet? Usually the answer is 'no- i would have never thought to go see music here. where do you all go?' And I think part of the charm in this music city is that you have to know where to go. Find a Reader, or an onion, and check out the right website... We don't have a scene that is listed for the masses in the Chicago Tribune, and I like that. But the city needs to give a little...I would love to see the city of Chicago back an industry that is already making them a lot of money. Small festivals, like the Hideout Block Party, Old Town school Folk Fest, World Music Fest to bigger ones like PitchFork and Lollapalooza.
I think it's great this is being talked about finally! Because there is another part of the problem. Young artists love coming to Chicago to get there feet wet before they move to a coast. Its a running theme thru actors, film makers, and musicians. I think that maybe a reason why on so many nights of randomly choosing a band to go see, I end up thinking they sound pretty amateurish... usually because they are. The good bands went to LA or NY. There are A LOT of great bands coming out of Chicago, but how many plan on staying here to continue their career? A good question is how do we get them to stay here and make chicago their home and make a professional music scene here that people want to stay here for? And by professional- I mean bring home the bacon...or tofu, which ever.
and special thanks to the Reader.
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ARTLOVER at 11:04 AM on 2/4/2008
Deanna, the next Hilton Kramer.
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jamescurley at 7:50 AM on 2/5/2008
Leonel claims to live here as well as Austin, but apparently never gets out to Schuba's, The Abbey Pub, Elbo Room, Martyr's, The Old Town School, Fitzgerald's, The Double Door, The Vic or any other place where live, current and innovative music is happening, let alone smaller venues like Uncommon Ground, The Heartland Cafe, Red Line Tap and No Exit group, Reggie's Music Joint or even one of the old tired tourist trap Blues Clubs. I've lived in Austin and visit there all the time. There's no essential difference between Austin and Chicago's music scene other than the city of Austin promotes the city as the 'live music capital'. Kudos to Austin and shame on us in Chicago, but Leonel remains clueless. The suburban club scene where 80's Rock dominates is NOT the Chicago Music Scene by a looooong stretch anymore than Austin's boot-scooting cowboy bars for tourists are the Austin Music Scene.
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andy vr at 9:46 AM on 2/6/2008
in the late 1980s i was part of an initiative called The Chicago Music Industry League, which unified musical entities acrss across the city, including the Chicago Musicians Union, the Mayor's Office of Film & Music under Kathryn Darrell, Chicago NARAS, and many representing all forms of music -- though i now live in Nashville. i think the term "music industry" can be very misleading, particularly when comparing "size." Nashville is not focussed on venues, per se, but on a multibillion dollar music-creation industry with thousands of songwriters, publishing companies, musicians, recording studios and major record labels. if one is talking about the industry of creating, financing, marketing and distributing music, Nashville is huge. if one is referring to the other end of the spectrum, musical venues, Chicago is absolutely huge. the article does not make this difference clear, and i certainly hope the study itself is not misleading in this manner. The Chicago Music Industry League did not sustain, partly due to the fact that the incoming Mayor swept out the old office of Film & Entertainment, significantly altering the structure of what was being set up on behalf of the city. Chicago is a great town, so i hope the CMC continues to grow and unify the community there.
iin the late 90s, we started something called the Chicago Music Industry League, that involved
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Roald Gonzalez at 3:34 PM on 12/27/2008
My name is Roald Gonzalez. In 1987 me and 3 of my hometown friens created the The Music Capital logo. We are looking for investors to invest in our logo. If anyone is intrested we have a print shop that originally worked (very reputable) our logo. We can produce over 3,000 products to order. All we need is capital (investors) who believe in austin Music. The city of Austin has been contacted via e mail today. Maybe they have investors who as will can help us launch our logo that we created back in 1987. Feel free to call me at 512.280.0984 Roald Gonzalez or roaldg@msn.com
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