2020 has been a crazy year.
Covid lockdowns. Unsurprisingly we were all unprepared for this. Who could have seen it coming? A mutating virus spreading faster and risking the lives of the elderly, obese and the immunocompromised… I thought there might be a series event several years from now that could have seen a big cultural shift to moving online in the music industries… but nothing like this.
Entire countries closed. Lives of beloved gone. Areas of the creative ecosystem temporarily stopped for over a year. Businesses going under. Long-time hardworking staff furloughed or made redundant. The whole music economy switched from live shows and tours to little rooms and streaming overnight.
Still. It wasn’t the bubonic plague v2. It’s not the apocalypse So there's one thing to be grateful about. People have all begun coming together to work out solutions, making sure aid is available to neighbours and that those who now have nothing can develop something. Even if it is a small basket of food, chocolates and donated clothing. Social media campaigns are afloat to raise money for immediate projects, helping lift folk out of poverty and provide memorials
Why a partial outlook on this year? With so much happening it was really easy to lose sight of what has been going on around you and get lost inside the four walls that (hopefully) surrounded you during this time. Some people have forgotten the bigger picture… as their own troubles consumed them whole.
Where does this leave you though? By now you’ve no doubt had to adjust as best you could to this situation. Did you find new ways to sustain yourself and keep your spirits high? Balancing your time so you can keep on top of these uncertain times while still creating the music you and your fans loved? Or were you not so lucky, and have found these times to be the most difficult you’ve ever faced?
As for me? Its almost a year since the first national lockdown happened - with Leicester, my home city, staying in lockdown ever since. I spent the first six months finishing my masters degree… glued to a screen, reading books and studying the happenings of the world from a tiny room near the Leicester hospital, watching friends leave the country with the industry I’d trained to be a leader and innovator in rapidly collapse. I watched musicians and friends lose their homes, families and will to live. I count my blessings every day that I kept working to put myself in a position to help folk better. I’m just sorry I wasn’t present sooner to help out.
Will I ever say this journey was smooth? Not even. Am I grateful that it wasn’t worse? You bet! A lot of us are facing hardships and trials in ways we never imagined. Are you going to let these struggles keep you out of the music game? Or are you still grinding away… training your musical abilities, and adapting your social & business skills to better fit this new digital way of living? There’s always a reason to keep going. Don’t give up!
We’ll get out of this mess in 2021. That’s what I keep hoping. Fingers crossed for everybody still here to have a much better year this time around.
Jakk Locke