Photo by Mark Fleming
This spring, a friend of mine — a musician, and a good one — said he wasn’t feeling too excited about Portland lately. Despite being a prolific, celebrated recording artist who’s lived in town, I dunno, more than a decade, and despite having (as he put it) a “yuppie job,” he’s been priced out of his apartment and has had to find housing off-peninsula.
Many are feeling that squeeze. The narrative of gentrification is quietly defining how people experience art and music in town — from the production end down to consumers, listeners, and ticket buyers.
While debating the merits of original artists versus cover bands is a little pedantic, there’s a clue there. People care about the work of locals when they know and care about the locals themselves. When artists and musicians become displaced, it’s a hell of a lot harder for the people moving in — you know, the moneyed ones — to get to know them, and in the absence of that personal connection, they resort to going out to hear whatever hired gun gets the job done. Then — whoops — you got a city full of Sublime cover bands — ’cause, hey, that’s the market!
Throughout this issue, we look at the Portland scene not as a marketplace of musical products, but as a living collection of people who have found friendship and community spending their off-hours making music here. We asked how they felt about each other’s work, locations they had strong musical connections to, and we asked dozens of them — metal dogs, blues singers, pop divas, and more — to grace our cover with their beautiful, colorful faces. Happy summer.
— Nick Schroeder
The post June, 2016 — Musician Issue Editor’s Letter appeared first on Dispatch Magazine.
