Wanna survive the recession with your sanity? Pick up a guitar. According to this Reuters article, that’s what 56-year-old optometrist Howard Levy did. Now he feels a lot better about his job, which has become more stressful due to the economic downturn. His band of eye-care professionals is called OffAxis, and he calls music “totally a stress buster.” He’s not the only one:
Steven Cox, CEO of TakeLessons.com, a music-instruction business based in San Diego with a network of private music teachers in 400 cities nationwide, said 2008 was a banner year in revenue, numbers of students and lessons booked.
Joe Lamond of the National Association of Music Merchants attributes some of this to the Guitar Hero/Rock Band effect, and, if you think about it, it’s a logical next step. A musical instrument, though expensive on the front-end, provides a lot of bang for your buck. Even the very longest video games top out at 100 hours or so, and sa a result really getting into them requires the purchase of multiple iterations, computers, and consoles. An acoustic guitar could be a lifetime of entertainment, regardless of your goals.
Lamond says that music merchants are struggling like everyone else, but are buoyed in part by some people’s new found search for fulfilling outlets of stress relief:
“Especially in this economic climate, people are searching for something that has meaning, for something fulfilling,” he said. “The generation that invented absolute connectivity and being available to your work 24/7, I think we’re rethinking what it means to enjoy our lives, and what we truly value, and … that is driving people toward these types of activities.”
This all may sound like good news, and certainly, it’s good to be hopeful about any aspect of the music biz doing well these days. Music stores in my area, however, have been struggling, only surviving on the strength of things like lessons. My favorite local drum shop closed up last year because of the economy, and a few Atlanta stores bit it recently as well; other stores are closing nationwide. I can’t help but feel like the Guitar Hero factor is overstated. I hope I’m wrong, and more people turn to music as a stress reliever, and buy their instruments at locally owned shops. I’d hate to be left with only Guitar Centers and a stressed-out workforce.
Any of y’all picking up guitars, keyboards, whatever to deal with the collapse of the world around us?
corny, but i do think the world would be a better place if everybody played an instrument. i don’t want to *hear* everybody playing their instruments, but i think it does relieve stress …
I’ve definitely thought about it. My problem is that I can’t even make enough time to play Guitar Hero, let alone learn how to play guitar.
Our economy would have never gotten in this mess if every respectable home was still expected to have a piano. Says me.
I’m afraid the chances of hobbyists choosing a local shop over the Guitar Center are rather slim. American’s like their stuff saran wrapped and sold out of a giant building from a place with lots of advertisements. Guitar Center was built on people buying their first guitar.
Yes music has the power to heal, but gawd almighty I hate Stephen King.
@MhS: I actually am a fan from way back, but I thought that video was illustrative of the perils of everybody grabbing a guitar and playing.
@Lucas Jensen: true,true. I guess to each his own re Stephen King
@MhS: Well, it’s a high school thing, you know? I loved those books in high school and it sorta carried over. I haven’t read a new one in years (though I did read the Dark Tower thing…sigh).
I’ve moved on to V.C. Andrews now.
Kidding!
@Lucas Jensen: Ha ha, V.C. Andrews. My dislike of Stephen King has nothing to do with his books, it’s the visceral reaction of a die hard Yankee fan.
@MhS: Do you know that V.C. Andrews has been dead since 1986, and so all of the books since have been ghostwritten by this one dude who writes in the style of her, meaning lots of incest and rape and kidnappings. What a weird, sad (but surely profitable) life to lead as a writer. All of the series he/she does are five books long, center on a family, with the last book being a prequel, just like the Flowers in the Attic saga. That’s so bizarre to me. The official bio treats it all like V.C. Andrews is still alive and writing even while acknowledging the ghostwriter. Apparently, the real V.C. did sketch out 60+ books before her death.
I was up late the other night reading about this. I drank a Coke Zero and couldn’t sleep.
@Lucas Jensen: Yeah, I knew that about V.C. Andrews. I think I read about it first in the “Murder Can Be Fun” zine. Very weird indeed.
Re: Stephen King — The Running Man was an awesome book (and great movie!) says my 13 year old self.
@Lucas Jensen: As long as they keep coming out with the covers with the hole in them.