The day the music died? Denmark Street’s new ‘digitally enabled streetscape’
theguardian.com
theguardian.com
The Crossrail/Elizabeth Line railway route was planned in 1974. Essential points on the route -- like major stations -- have been "safeguarded" in some form since then[0]. That limited any development -- no significant new buildings were allowed on the safeguarded sites, and very little investment in the existing ones.
A bar, nightclub or concert venue fits well in that space. Recording studios and music shops fit well in the smaller buildings.
See the safeguarded route of Crossrail 2 [1]. You can see why above Angel station the Electrowerkz manages to be a very long-running goth/alternative/metal nightclub surrounded by modern office buildings. (I'm sure there are more examples.)
It was wonderful to have the three large concert venues around Tottenham Court Road when I was a student -- they were easy to get to and easy to get home from. I appreciated that even more when I was a bit older and I had to be at work the next morning.
It's possible for new music venues to work, for example the Islington Academy is in a shopping centre, but my concern is these flashy new LED-venues will be too expensive for smaller or non-mainstream bands to use.
[0] https://2577f60fe192df40d16a-ab656259048fb93837ecc0ecbcf0c55... page 15 / sheet 7 for Tottenham Court Road.
The music industry on the street dates back to it being a centre of music publishing in the 1920s, back when music publishing meant publishing sheet music more than it meant publishing recordings. Recording studios and music shops popped up through the 60's and 70's when traditional music publishing declined. Finally in the 80's nightclubs appeared, probably due to cheap rents due to the rail safeguarding you mentioned.
At some point the best contribution to culture one can make is a molotov cocktail through the window of these places.
I strongly disagree. That just gives them an excuse for why their stupid venture failed. They blame some other group. It's much better to see it fail entirely on its own.
The real musicians and audience will just find a new home. Times change, people migrate, etc.
they are desparate for attention and cultural significance, something like that would put them on the map
Note to anyone in corporate management - if you watch that Black Mirror episode and think that it's one of the few with a happy ending, you are the baddies.
Also, from the article - "grassroots". I'd have LOL'd if I hadn't just died inside.
Unless you actually think there's literal evil mustache-twirling going on there's a much simpler explanation -- the people who were a part of that counterculture are now the establishment and, like everyone else, romanticize when they were angsty in their teens and twenties. It's why Guns N' Roses is suburban backyard BBQ pasta salad music now. You're right that people will pay money to belong but this isn't a example of it, this is people paying money for nostalgia.
All counterculture has an expiration date since you can't pass it down to your kids. If you could it would defeat the whole point.
Very few people really ever opt out of these mechanisms. At a macro level, consumer society will automatically fagocitate any cultural output - because to experience culture is to consume it, and guess what the system is specialised in? Producing, selling, and refining at infinitum, anything that can be consumed.
Everything else is just the natural outcome of this phenomenon.
Holy cow. That's as zero-imagination bland corporate hellscape as "Umbrella Corporation", "Omni Consumer Products", or any similar corporatocratic dystopian nightmare.
Did they decide that "Evil, Inc." wasn't subtle enough? Or was the goal to come up with a name that couldn't be satirised?
I believe Monsanto already owns that one?
How can you argue with that? It has to be a success!
This will be the perfect street for the fake performers - the ones who pretend to play an instrument, but the "backing track" also has the lead. Good fakers can be difficult to spot if you're just casually strolling by. I bet this kind of "radically new" "digitally enabled" place will bring in just the kind of people who can appreciate fake buskers.
But let's not pretend _this_ is the end of Denmark St. It has been dead and irrelevant for decades.
Lines like these are why this article in the Guardian of all places is a strong contender for my favorite article of the year. I laughed so much at all the examples of "PR gobbledegook". I see those all the time. A disruptive, immersive experience indeed!
"We hoped the people would react with shock and open their minds. Instead, they reacted with amusement and opened their wallets."
So much for that familiar corner of London.