ABSTRACT

This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts covered in the preceding chapters of this book. The book traces how new kinds of performer and audience rules were established. It shows how new rituals were accommodated in old settings, how they adapted to broader institutional contexts. The book explains the interplay of the leisure rituals and live music history. The most immediate effect of the increasing popularity of rock music in the late 1960s and 1970s was a demand for bigger and ‘better’ venues. Rock performers and audiences had new ideas of how music should look and sound and how a musical event should be structured and enjoyed. Having a musical career means playing in a range of settings and situations, seizing whatever opportunities appear; for musicians in all genres, this often meant signing a recording contract. Live music can be considered as ritual in three ways: musical events are rituals themsselves, social ritual, and leisure ritual.