Where do you guys go and hang that you don’t see local bands playing local venues and getting bigger? Or great bands with loyal followings slowly growing through the ranks? It’s all still happening. One example I can think of currently is Coheed & Cambria.
Those bands don’t get radio airplay, they don’t get Rolling Stone/Spin/Mojo etc profiles, they don’t get “out” of the small club circuit. They may get album reviews but they don’t make the cut when it comes to being written about. They are excluded.
20 years on they remain ‘independent also rans’. And the local bands usually hang it up in 2-8 years. Some last 20 years but they still rarely get to open at the bigger venues for the touring acts.
It doesn’t fit the Bill Graham business model.
And those bands ‘growing through the ranks’ may get to play Letterman or Conan but they don’t get to sit on the bench for a hello or interview and those songs don’t make it to radio (for a single spin, let alone rotation).