A Postponed Machine.
By: Ashley Grace Monroe
aGrace Photography
5/15/2020
In March of 2020, the U.S was told to stay home due to COVID-19. In this, millions of people were affected. I won’t speak for the ones on the frontlines fighting every day to save countless lives or any of the people who were affected by the virus itself. My heart truly goes out to all of you. But who I can speak for in this letter, or whatever this is, is the people like me. The ones who got told to stay home from work and what they love to do. Now this affected hundreds of jobs, and this is my personal writing, so please no backlash on what I miss here. Anyways, this one is for the music industry machine.
I am a concert photographer. Before that, I am a music fan. A concert junkie. Down to my core. Now most people don’t understand why I will spend hundreds of dollars on concert tickets, band merch, and photography gear. Or why I drive five hours away for a two-hour show to drive right back home. Or why I would dedicate my life to something that requires too pretty much play an instrument or hold a note when I most definitely can’t. But hey, I can’t wrap my mind around why people would want to go watch horses run around a track in a big fancy hat they’ll never wear again. We like what we like. I have been to at least a thousand shows in my lifetime and I wish it was more.
What those people don’t understand is without the fans, the people doing that, there is no music scene, and yes, that includes your DJs. It is therapy. It does make us truly happy where we can forget about our stressful insignificant lives, together. I have written countless times about how attending concerts makes me feel inside and out and I can’t even justify how that’s nothing compared to the actual experience. I do believe that each person has had their own “wow, I get this life” maybe seeing their favorite band, all stoned, way back when or watching “Rockstar” with Marky Mark and Jennifer Aniston. Yeah, you get that feeling every single time. Every single show. From local musicians to famous worldwide musicians.
Now, my concert-going experience grew into my passion when I started to become an established concert photographer. It is what I live for. Life in the pit. It is my happy place. At the feet of some of my favorite artists. Hell yeah, I sucked at it at first, but they say practice makes perfect. I’m also not here saying I’m the best what so ever by any means, I just know I have been working really hard the last three years to get where I am now, and I will work hard to keep getting better. That’s the beauty of photography. The learning of it never ends no matter what type of photographer you are.
With all that being said, 2020 was supposed to be the year for a lot of us. Actually the majority of my concert photography friends, my musician friends, venue owner friends, and entrepreneur friends lost out on a lot of big things. And you know what, we are not okay. We aren’t. To have this giant running machine just completely shut down on us. From the ones, like me, in that pit snapping away to provide you coverage if you missed the show. The artist who provides the entertainment for us and get to pour their hearts out and leave everything they have on that stage for us. They are not okay. The fans who need live music because it literally saved their life at one point or many points, are not okay. The venues and hard workers from the front of the house to the back, are not okay. I can explain it like a really bad break up. Coming home to your clothes tossed out in the yard next to your smashed 70” HD TV with a note on the door and changed locks, yeah, like that. A piece of our hearts are hurting. Bad.
But, we are here, trying our best. Writing reviews on albums, new songs, and crap like this. Writing countless emails trying to set up any screen or phone call interview we can with these people who keep this machine going. Photographing flowers and countless sunsets to work on our editing skills in any way we can. Concert photographers are working. Musicians are out there working. On live social media trying to provide fans with what they can, but we know it's not the same for them or us. Comments firing in is not the same as having 1,000 people scream your lyrics back to you. Bands trying to download the latest technology to stay in contact to try and write new material with this downtime they didn’t ask for. Venues setting up donation sites because they fear of closing doors and for the countless amount of employees that have lost work. I know some of them are in talks with whoever they can be about hosting “fanless” shows. Promoters and PRs hustling every single day to set up anything they possibly can to stay relevant.
The music industry machine is out there working. As a fan and as someone who works in the machine all I know is, if we have no shows until 2021, well, it is important to stay positive and keep working. Keep buying that merch, watch those live shows, donate to those venues with your government money, mosh in your living room, but don’t break mom's plate cabinet, and keep doing what you do.
That will make 2021 that much better. As much as we are not okay, we are in this as a unit, and will once again be awaiting for the first bass drop, elbow to elbow, with our friends having another “that best night of my life” night. As more and more articles come out and more “experts” claim concerts will most likely not be a thing for a long time, my anxiety runs high but I stay optimistic, as I hope you, the fan reading this, will too. It’s what we have, it's what we need, and it's important not to quit. So please, go out and shoot, write new music, keep hoping on those awkward lives with the awkward person who has to interview you, because yea, as much as you have already heard this, we are in this together.
Sorry for taking up your time of you actually made it this far. Stay well.
-Ashley Grace
-aGrace Photography