I can only respond anecdotally but from where I’m sitting, the DIY music world has never been larger or more diverse and younger people are a huge part of that. Friendly digital recording, platforms line SoundCloud, YouTube, and Bandcamp, plus the magic of internet communication platforms have broken down so many barriers. There’s a micro-sub-genre for every mood, combination of styles, level of production, topic, and day of the week. I’ve been performing and releasing music for 20 years and I’ve never seen so much happening at once.
Im seeing everyone stuck inside screens in consumer mode, and when playing instruments it’s for YouTube popularity contests doing cover songs or showing physical prowess and definitely copying some already cool thing, and definitely not showing us the mistakes made along the journey , just the gloss of a perfect performance…
A neighbor kid started crying when he could not ride the bicycle the first time like his online hero did perfectly.
This is a messed up transition time of some sort, no doubt we will make some cultural choices to free ourselves of this tyranny of our own mentation.
There’s certainly a lot of that but it’s still a version of music being part of our lives, even if the people trying to participate in musical “me too” experiences aren’t creating what we’d all consider art. These things have always existed, they are many people’s way of engaging with the things they love. What’s new is our ability to share it and see others do it.
Besides, popular music has existed in a “perfect performance” place for, what, two decades now? The virtues of imperfect performances are lost on most people. Speaking as a performer and occasional producer, I simultaneously enjoy the imperfections in my favorite albums and invest serious energy to purge them from my own releases, so I get it.
None of this changes the fact that DIY music scenes are thriving. Physical album sales are healthier than they have been in years. Playing guitar seems… cool again???? None of these are bad things, even if there’s one too many videos 14-year olds playing perfect Dimebag Darrell solos on YouTube.
