1. A place is awful such that nobody wants to live there, thus it is dirt cheap.
2. Artists move into cheap place and make it beautiful.
3. The beauty attracts the rich and push out the artists.
4. Artists move on to the next "hellhole" – later, rinse, repeat.
But right now the artists seemingly don't want to execute on #4.
Which is likely just a function of opportunity. In recent times, other than perhaps a short blip during COVID, it has been comparatively easy to stay at #3. In fact, big shifts in the music industry have always been notably correlated with recessions, most likely because increasing unemployment pushes more and more towards #4.
Historically, new artists were born everyday. The old dirt cheap place, that turned rich, was out of their grasp. They had to find a new dirt cheap place.
But that doesn't seem to be happening right now. Even the new would-be artists are quite happy to live in places like London and NYC that have already been transformed by old artists into nice places. Again, probably because there is all kids of other opportunity[1], as visible in employment being full. One has not had to subject themselves to moving to where nobody wants to be.
[1] At least has been over the past many years. There is a strong case to be made that we're starting to see that turn.
1. A place is awful such that nobody wants to live there, thus it is dirt cheap.
2. Artists move into cheap place and make it beautiful.
3. The beauty attracts the rich and push out the artists.
4. Artists move on to the next "hellhole" – later, rinse, repeat.
But right now the artists seemingly don't want to execute on #4.
Which is likely just a function of opportunity. In recent times, other than perhaps a short blip during COVID, it has been comparatively easy to stay at #3. In fact, big shifts in the music industry have always been notably correlated with recessions, most likely because increasing unemployment pushes more and more towards #4.