21 April

The band photo is a window into what I call gig culture. When music became a dominant way to forge an identity and status in the adult world. It always was that for modern teenagers, their favourite acts are dominant ways they define who they are. Then adult life became teenage life, and bands became a high status priesthood. People flock to mega-gigs now well into their 60s and 70s. The acts are sometimes in their 80s. People understand the world through songs, TV shows and movies often eschew dialogue altogether now in difficult scenes and just play a popular song. The entire culture ground to a halt at age 17, now entrenched by social media which replaces adult responsibility with what’s ’trending’.