Reply #9: I seem to recall this was a harbinger back in the 80s. [View All]

The whole 'big tours' phenomenon -- bills that would have three top-40 artists all playing co-headline gigs, like the 'Black and Blue' tour that had both BOC and Black Sabbath -- fell over in the middle of the decade. It was years before you saw those kinds of bills again.

My take on it is that people's former budgeted discretionary income is being eaten up by higher insurance of all kinds and the inflation in gas prices. I think that's what ate into it back then, too -- I remember being really bummed when I was in high school, trying to scrape money up from my friends to pay for gas just so we could go sit around at the Big Boy all night. All of a sudden, the people who usually go to concerts don't have the dosh they used to for doing things like eating out on a whim or going to concerts.

The fact that tickets have been (artificially, thanks Clear Channel) inflated only adds to the problem. And don't even mention the price of a beer or the food at concerts. We went to a three-band bill concert over the weekend -- Ben Folds, Guster and Rufus Wainwright -- and while there were plenty of people there, the college kids who made up the majority of the crowd weren't drinking much beer or eating anything. I'm guessing they barely were able to squeeze out the tickets, let alone buy merch or food at the venue.