Hi, Bert Sperling here.
My main area of work is measuring Quality of Life (QOL) in general, and using the QOL and other metrics to rank different places. By examining the differences between places and their residents, we can gain insight into what people are looking for, and how future events may impact where and how we will live.
Richard Florida’s Creative Class concept has evolved to encompass new theories regarding the importance of place and its effect on our lives. Richard and I are finding new areas of common interest as we both look at the unique attributes of different cities and metros, and theorize why some are thriving and others are in a slump.
I’m excited to lend my observations to the discussion here on the Creative Class Exchange, because I know that there will be some keen observations and challenging comments from you sharp people who regularly read it. Please consider this an invitation to share your perspective.
Where Are the Musicians?
It seems that that the most common way to measure the concentration of artists and other creatives is to analyze the United State census occupation data, which identifies Americans which list ‘artist’ as their primary occupation. This is the methodology of a recent report from the National Endowment for the Arts on “Artists in the Workforce.”
(Note – I call them “artistics”, since the category includes not only artists, but also writers, authors, musicians, photographers, architects, and others.)
Among their key findings is that nearly two million Americans identify themselves as artistics, but the total excludes “many people with secondary employment as artists – an estimated 300,000 Americans.”
Wait a minute.
Shouldn’t it be the other way around? Aren’t there many more casual or part-time artistics than full-time professionals? (And I have another concern. A person shouldn’t need to earn money to provide validation for their artistic expression.)
I divide my time between Portland and small town on the Oregon coast, named Depoe Bay. In little Depoe Bay, there are some great musicians that I regularly play with, and they’re patiently teaching me the theory and practice of jazz guitar which have added a new dimension to my playing. Robin, Steve, and I have a combo that plays around the area, and have developed a nice following.
Is this activity likely to surface using the usual criteria of primary occupation? Not likely; Steve is the town’s postmaster, and Robin is a local contractor.
But in the same way that young twenty-somethings work as a barista by day, and play in a punk band at night, this is part of what makes a place interesting and unique. And because it’s so much more pervasive, I feel that this underground creativity is even more important to a city’s quality of life than the concentration of artistic professionals.
So, how would YOU determine where these underground musicians live and play, so we can identify those places which are hotbeds of creative activity? I have some ideas, but I’d like to hear from you first.
August 5th, 2008 at 7:02 am
I guess it depends how granular you want to be. On a city-by-city basis, I’m sure there’s a very strong correlation between the official number of creatives and the number of “underground artistics”. On a neighborhood-by-neighborhood basis, maybe the correlation might be a bit weaker, but it’s probably still reasonably strong. So if you’re just looking for where these people are, why not just use the official numbers? Of course, if you’re looking for details on how *many* of them there are, that’s another question entirely.
August 5th, 2008 at 8:21 am
Bert,
What about comparing places by the amount of sales of tools and supplies required by the artistics regardless of their professional status? Things like musical instruments,sheet music, paint, canvases, etc.
August 5th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
Bert – You are oh so right. Music has direct effects on local economies through employment, performance, recording and so on. But it has perhaps even more powerful indirect effects. How many great thinkers or entrepreneurs were initially inpsired by music, before moving onto other careers. It’s often said the Paul Allen of Microsoft, and Experience Music Project fame, spends most of his time these days playing music. Musical instrument sales are a great proxy, though they may skew to boomer locales. Musical instrument and equipment sales are very big market, incidentally – even when compared to music itself.
August 5th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
Hi Felix and Cliff,
Thanks for your thoughts.
Felix, there may be some correlation between the number of professional and underground creatives (such as a 50 to 1 ratio), but I’d like to identify those special places that are outside the norm.
Cliff, yes, this is along the lines I was thinking of. How about getting the mailing list for music supply catalogs, or the registration data from Fender and Gibson?
Are there any online or mail-order mega-stores for artists, such as Guitar Center is for musicians?
Best,
Bert
August 5th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
Richard,
I see where you are going.
> How many great thinkers or entrepreneurs were initially inpsired by music, before moving onto other careers.
Creative people will do creative things. Their creative focus can move around from art to business to local activism. Whether they turn pro or just dabble, it all adds to the vibrant mix of their city.
> Musical instrument sales are a great proxy, though they may skew to boomer locales
Good point. How about this – we adjust by income to minimize the ‘rich folks and their expensive toys’ effect.
August 5th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
Bert,
Good idea on the catalogs. You might look at Dick Blick Art Materials’ website. Also, perhaps specialty magazine subscriptions or association memberships (writers’ guilds, etc.).
August 5th, 2008 at 8:36 pm
Bert,
It might be interesting to survey a cross section of musicians in smaller clubs and see if they have day jobs that are their main support. Willamette Week lists well over 100 live music clubs, The Mercury another couple dozen (Portland alternative newspapers). Assuming each club has 1 or 2 bands a night, this is a few thousand musicians. The city that also hosts at least 50 small music labels, which probably record lots of non-full time bands. Even in Classical Music, the Columbia Symphony is amateur musicians and Portland Baroque Orchestra used to be (I don’t know now.) Most of the good choral groups’ singers have other careers. In quirky venues like polka bands, barbershop quartets, etc. I’ll bet there are few professionals.
The Oregon Coast is another phenomenon. Lots of ’60’s refugees and artists fled Portland’s high prices and settled in slower moving coastal towns like Astoria, Newport, Manzanita, Wheeler, Neskowin. I didn’t think of Depoe Bay, but it’s not surprising. The same thing happened in California all the way up the Coast from San Francisco. I’d guess that the musicians living on the Pacific Coast divide into those who decided to live really cheap and those with other jobs like your band-mates.
Musical instrument sales have a problem in that some places like Portland have lots of instrument makers that sell nationally. I remember talking to Artichoke Music’s owners and being told that they sold a lot of guitars mail order to Alaska. Maybe if you tracked local retail sales — even then, I’ll bet the kids and non-wealthy amateurs use Craig’s List and friendship networks more than stores.
August 6th, 2008 at 3:06 am
Hi Michael,
Good thoughts, thanks for sharing.
What you describe will give some great insight into specific metros, but may be too difficult to do for several hundred metros (there are now 379 U.S. metros and divisions commonly accepted).
I’m always looking for the methodology that will scale nationally.
I think your methodology would be great for the type of in-depth longitudinal study such as Bob Putnam conducts, examining a few (less than 15) places in great detail, and inferring a greater truth from those. I prefer to cast as wide a net as possible, which unfortunately means that we need forego those in-depth interviews and surveys.
> being told that they sold a lot of guitars mail order to Alaska
Hadn’t thought of that. Good point!
And yes, there are a lot of rugged individuals on the Oregon Coast. Reminds me of Alaska, where it was said that everyone was there to get away from something. Other places like this include Montana and Idaho, though the latter is becoming more sophisticated.
Best,
Bert
August 8th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
Greetings from Dayton, Ohio, where we are in the midst of our Creative Class Communities initiative, DaytonCREATE. My team’s initiative is focused on precisely the group you’re writing about. Dayton is unusally blessed by the larger institutional, professionalized art forms (Symphony, Orchestra, Ballet, etc.) and its street-level culture is surprisingly strong despite the fact that few in positions of power seem to know this or see its importance. My group is working to document and build community among these individuals and groups, while providing a free downtown space for their events.
Looking forward to reading more blog posts like this.
August 8th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
Thanks, Kate.
Please share what you find about the underground art community. I’ve always been a big fan of what is termed “outsider art” by the art community. This is probably not what you are addressing in your project, but I really like those eccentric expressions of emotion which ordinary people share in unusual ways. For example, there is a home in Ellensburg, WA where the house and grounds are covered with all kinds of plastic reflectors, and there are many strange statues. Beyond cool, to weird, then circling back to way cool.
Bert