via Associated Press
MUSIC – He cuts the sound, and he puts the sound back on. After seven weeks of banned standing concerts, nightclubs closed and of reduced gauges, the government rises this Wednesday, February 16 the health measures that had muzzled the world of music at the start of 2022. But after two years of restrictions, the French have lost the habit of attending a concert and the traces left by the crisis of the covid run deep, worried industry professionals complain.
63% of French people thus declare that they frequent music venues less than before the crisis (bars, concerts, halls, etc.), reveals a study carried out at the end of January by Elabe, at the request of all professional representations of music in France united in the association “Tous pour la musique”. A situation that a majority of them regret, since 59% say that listening to music is a moment of conviviality that they miss.
“On February 16, everything starts again”
For the major players in the world of music, this is primarily explained by a change in daily life. “After two years of crisis, people have adopted other habits. They spend more time at home in their homes, watching series or listening to music”, says Aurélie Hannedouche, general delegate of the Syndicat des Musiques Actuelles (SMA), interviewed by The HuffPost.
In the fall, a exclusive study carried out for our editorial staff confirmed that the Covid had “tamed down” our social habits, the people questioned (and particularly young urbanites) said “going out less often” and “going to bed earlier”. And at the start of 2022, the impact on cinemas and performing arts is also felt with 25% less attendance compared to the same period before the health crisis
But that’s not all. If the French have lost the habit of going to listen to live music in a bar or taking concert tickets, it is also because they no longer even know what is authorized or not, assure the members of the “Tous pour la musique” association. Since March 2020, “we have gone through seven, eight or perhaps nine health protocols” and the “stop and go has done a lot of harm, both to music professionals and to the general public”, reacts Malika Seguineau, from Prodiss.
This Wednesday, February 16, however, marks a key date. “Everything restarts, that’s simple and easy to understand,” insists the director general of the national union of musical and variety shows. And for the message to get through, professionals are calling on the government to “launch a major communication campaign to encourage the French to return to halls, concerts and festivals” as the summer season is about to start.
Bringing “music into the countryside”
“We would like a campaign with an extremely positive message, to make the French want to come out, take away their fear of the virus and show that concert halls are safe places, and thus recreate social ties”, hopes Aurélie Hannedouche for whom the challenge is not only to re-motivate regular audiences, but also those, younger, who “started their student life on Zoom” during the pandemic.
Because if from Wednesday February 16, “everything becomes possible again” for the world of music, the fact remains that the economic crisis will now give way to a systemic crisis, alert the professionals of an industry hard hit by the crisis. So that the “first cultural practice of the French” be preserved, they wrote 13 proposals in a manifesto “for a Republic of music” (to read here).
Launch a communication campaign to encourage people to return to concert halls, but also organize General States of Music in the territories to fight against “musical deserts” or sign a “pact for musical knowledge at school” : these are some of the proposals with which they hope to bring “music into the campaign”, while the presidential candidates have so far not frankly deigned to put culture at the center of the debates.
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