This past summer, 110,000 people convened for a George Strait concert in College Station, TX, the biggest crowd ever recorded to hear live music. Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour” has amassed over a billion dollars in revenue, with the pop star traveling the world to sold-out amphitheaters. Coldplay, another massive musical act, is gearing up for the release of their tenth studio album, Moon Music, set to drop on October 4th. They plan a world tour for the album and are also known to fill up stadiums far and wide.

So, whatever plights the world of arts and culture might be facing, and given AI’s incursion into the creator economy, one thing remains evident: people still want to experience music in person. Ted Gioia, the celebrated music and cultural critic who runs the Substack The Honest Broker, has commented on this in length, writing,

It’s obvious that people still crave exciting musical experiences, and will spend extravagantly on them. But they want real performances by real people in a high-energy venue with lots of other ecstatic fans. 

Fans don’t want more streaming — they want more screaming! That’s what the data tells us. 

An official tech company curated playlist is, by comparison, a boring substitute. That’s especially true if the playlist is filled with mind-numbing AI-generated tracks. 

So we’re heading back to the clubs and concert halls.

-Ted Gioia, Live Music is Coming Back!

The typical image for Gen Z, the young generation whose oldest members are now in their late twenties, is that of a detached loner scrolling in bed, bereft of friendships. Unfortunately, there’s truth to this picture; young people are going on less dates, report higher levels of loneliness and feelings of isolation, and are struggling with high rates of anxiety and depression. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t hungering for an encounter with something realer than their screens, and to experience euphoria alongside other human beings!

As the cherry on top, the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown, starring Timothée Chalamet, is coming out on Christmas Day. The film is set to cover Dylan’s early career as a performer in Greenwich Village, New York in the early 1960s.

Chalamet sings Dylan’s song “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” as the trailer hints at a love triangle and the folk singer’s meteoric rise to fame as one of history’s most creative songwriters.

It’s an encouraging thing to see people get out and get together, defying the isolation that’s become endemic in modern Western culture. The new biopic will be a throwback to one of music’s most iconic performers, and may provoke people to go hear live music even more.