You just needed to hang around or be aware of your local scene (basically knowing all the bands in the city), and see how many good bands actually didn't sign. I'm far from a concern animal, but even I was well aware of every local band doing gigs within a ~8-10 year period in a several million strong city...
I don't know how you could possibly know all the bands in a city of millions, unless those bands are already well known. I grew up in a city of millions in the US. I'd estimate more than 100 new bands were formed every year. Most of them never got gigs, but that's because they never got a chance. Admittedly not all of them cared, but most did.
I think we're just gonna disagree on this one, as I'm arguing from a theoretical perspective (you can't possibly know how many bands there were) and you are arguing from a pragmatic perspective (anybody in the scene knew everybody).
>I don't know how you could possibly know all the bands in a city of millions, unless those bands are already well known.
There are not that many bands playing gigs "in a city of millions".
In my city (and several others I'm aware of) there are like 5-10 rock/electronic venues for example, and the usual 200 or so suspects play, with 20-30 of them being more well known.
You are straight out writing your bias but unable to see it. The point is exactly that lots of bands never even got the chance to play those gigs at all.
If you're limiting yourself to 5-10 venues for a popular genre in a city of millions, you either live in a city without much live music or you are missing out on a lot of smaller venues and bands.
College parties, public events (the kind nobody goes to), store openings, hell even coffee shops. How many of the bands playing those venues did you know?
I wouldn't expect you to know most bands because, well, I don't think it's possible. About a dozen bands came out of my high school class, not sure any of them ever did more than parties. They wanted to, but they never did (or at least I never heard about it). You'd never have known any of them if you didn't graduate with me or go to the same parties they played.
You just needed to hang around or be aware of your local scene (basically knowing all the bands in the city), and see how many good bands actually didn't sign. I'm far from a concern animal, but even I was well aware of every local band doing gigs within a ~8-10 year period in a several million strong city...