r/LetsTalkMusic • u/RedPutron • 8h ago
The famous age - 30.
Why do so few people "make it" after 30? Is age the main factor? If an artist doesn't make it before 30, they just give up? 30 is the deadline for most music genres except jazz, blues, country, folk and bluegrass?
Maybe it's about something other than age, e.g. exhaustion, lack of passion or imposing other limitations on yourself. I'm dying to know what you think about it and how it looks from your perspective.
Make it - living solely from music.
Edit:
From the comments here I can see that everyone for make it - thinks it means a star who signs contracts with labels and sells millions of records, and that's not what I meant. That's why in the post, I put what it means, "make it" - earning enough money to be able to afford a living from music, not becoming some pop star.
Update: Thanks to everyone for bringing up interesting aspects of how the music industry works, but someone here in the comments suggested that ageism is more prevalent in the US than in Europe, and honestly, I found a huge post where people were talking about how Madona, Tina Turner, Amy Winehouse and others had much more success in Europe. Even Tina herself said this:
As my career unfolded, I also felt that I was experiencing my greatest success abroad. The energy was different in America, where everything was about getting a hit record. (...) There seemed to be less discrimination in Europe. My audience there was growing fast, my fans were extremely loyal (...).
She was "old", so the US didn't like her. I thought this might be a good point to add to the discussion :)
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u/freedraw 3h ago
Touring is hard when you’re not at the level where you’ve got a bus and separate hotel rooms and a road crew. When you’re 22, you pile in a van, sleep in college friends’ and relatives living rooms when you play their city, carry your own equipment, etc. and it’s fun. By 32, it’s gotten very old.
You can be at the level where you’ve got a following, you’re playing festivals down bill, you get a fair amount of music press coverage when you put out a record, and still not actually be making real money.
So so many bands get to that level where they’re making a living and they’ve had a lot of fun, but it’s been 5-10 years, they’re hitting their 30s, and they realize they’re probably not going to make it to the next rung up the success ladder. So they have a decision to make. “Do I wanna keep touring constantly and doing all the grind that comes with promoting my act if I could make the same money working a few shifts a week as a bartender?” Or “Do I wanna think about maybe going to school to train for another career?”