Are We In A Musicians' Depression?

By: Ivan Munoz

Are we in a Musicians’ Depression?

I’d certainly say so.

Since Mid-March of 2020 the entire world has been flipped upside down; and of the many industries completely devastated - the one of the performing musician has to be the most drastically affected of them all. And, let me tell you, it’s pretty rough.

Normally a musician’s depression may be the impetus or inspiration for a decent song or two, or lead to an interesting muse, whereas a Musicians’ Depression is rather a widespread annihilation and desecration of an entire career sector.

According to Forbes over 51 million Americans are unemployed. While that number may seem alarming, its actually hardly an accurate representation of truly how dire the situation is - for that number fails to include the amount of gig workers that create such a large part of the American working economy. So that means independent contractors, Uber/Lyft drivers, delivery drivers, seasonal workers, restaurant servers, and…you guessed it: MUSICIANS.

We are in an economic crisis the likes of which we haven’t seen since 1929.

History repeats itself.

It’s always been said that through times of strife, art is what pulls us through, and shows us the light of life when we’re feeling down and out. But what happens when the artist, the musician, is in a time of personal struggle and turmoil. Who will sing for them? How can their voice be fully heard when the world has rendered them silent?

And as of now, it just seems like life goes on, and yet ours are paused. We all had the feeling that something was “off” around late January of last year, and now it all makes sense. As the first 2 months of 2020 rolled on, things got stranger and stranger, but we still couldn’t peg it…”that can’t happen here, no way!”…boy was everybody wrong. By the time March came along it had become straight up absurd, it’s as if the whole world had cascaded into a parallel timeline and we were still figuring out exactly what the hell it all was. Mid-March was when everybody’s world simultaneously just imploded.

Looking back, that particular time was honestly rife with bad omens. Breaking it down into a timeline, it went like this:

March 12, 2020 - Black Thursday:

Massive stock market crash. Complete economic meltdown. Witnessing that live on TV in the office was quite the trip. Worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

March 13, 2020 - Friday The 13th:

Off to a great start, right? A day of bad luck. As such, Trump declared a national emergency. We were playing a Led Zeppelin/The Who show that night; opening with Baba O’Riley, something felt off, apocalyptic even (I mean come on, Teenage Wasteland?)…how apropos. The whole mood of the room was steeped in consternation. The show was sold out, and yet, almost half of the seats weren’t filled; so strange. We realized that as a result of Thursday’s crash, people we’re cancelling orders and tickets. Effectively a bank-run.

March 14, 2020 - Get Ready:

A Saturday. Played a Motown show, there were more people in the band than the audience. It felt even weirder than the day prior, the was an air of apprehension and even fear looming about. Much like a common theme in Motown songs (sad lyrics to cheery sounding music), the show really embodied that feeling. Afterwards we stayed up after the show talking about everything and how truly crazy it really was, all knowing this would probably be our last show for a while, we didn’t realize at the time truly how long this would actually be, I mean, it’s still going on.

March 15, 2020 - The Ides Of March

Things were rapidly falling at an exponential rate, this was the beginning of the end. It had absolutely sunken in that the entire country was utterly and entirely screwed. “Beware The Ides of March” had never rung more true as it did it Mid-March of 2020.

Those days, while also being brutal, were just brimming with superstitious and mystic lure. Bad energy all around, really, a time plagued with sorrow, and a time that will forever live, in the halls of infamy for every musician. You know it’s bad when musicians have to sell their instruments, their very own tools of the trade, just to get by. Rather counterproductive, no? Not a very sustainable position to be put in, there’s just no long-term viability.

We’re coming up on almost a full year of being locked down with no shows, and millions of careers either permanently ended or on pause. It’s hard to reconcile with that. You feel like you’ve been robbed of time, of progress, of what could have been…

Wait..it’s already been a year?!?

Though it’s very difficult to see, there is one silver lining to this however. Through darkness comes light, through the living breathing machine that is music and art, pain can be converted to beauty. It is said that the greatest works are born of struggle, so we can hope that after these terrible times we will see a modern day renaissance of all art, and especially music, that once the world opens back up, humanity can reach it’s full potential and bloom into the next golden era of music we dream about like the one from the days of yore. But until this comes to fruition, we’ve just got to hold on, keep playing, keep listening, and find inspiration wherever we can. You never know when it will strike next. Keep the faith friends, we hope to see you soon.

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About The Author

Ivan Munoz is a musician, bassist, singer, musicians advocate, and member of the Victor Talking Machine Company. Along with this Ivan can be found devoting his time to various musical projects, compositions, and working on musical instruments. Click the photo for more!