Skip to main content

Maverick Ad

Home

Main navigation

  • Home
  • Cover Stories
  • Features
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Cashbox Legacy Awards
  • Past Covers
  • Weekly Archive
All Cultures Are Equal, But Some Cultures Seem More Equal Than Others

Breadcrumb

  • Home
  • All Cultures Are Equal, But Some Cultures Seem More Equal Than Others
Peter Åstedt
Fri Mar 17, 2023
Peter Åstedt

All cultures are equal, but some cultures seem more equal than others. Right now, this hasn’t been truer than ever. Here in Sweden, we have an Opera House that is over a hundred years old. Of course, the house is totally nonfunctional by today's standards. Also, it hasn’t been looked after, the pipes are leaking and the whole house is like a nonstop building site.

To rebuild the house would probably be one of the most expensive costs that have ever been done for an Opera House. In light of the fact that several other cities like Gothenburg have brand new Opera Houses, with the latest fashion, they are also talking about building a new opera house, central in Stockholm of course. Then that will cost a lot of money, almost the same as renovating the old one. But probably with a better result.

A lot of voices are raised about this. Or let's say a few culture fanciers. A big city is nothing without an Opera House, someone said. At the same time, I just saw a documentary about Café 44, one of the few stages for punk, rock, and pop shows. You could almost compare it to the Swedish version of CBGBs. Never got any bigger money from the government and the guy that has run it is now retiring to be totally poor. The impact that this place had on the Swedish music wonder is so much. In the program artists like The Hives, Backyard Babies, The Hellacopters artists that had huge success abroad, that trail blazed many of today’s stars. Now name a Swedish Opera star? No, probably you can’t. There are some but of course, they are just famous for other cultural fanciers not to a larger audience.

Here they are willing to put so much money into one house that we could easily have a hundred Café 44’s inside Stockholm. The fact is that there are almost no places left in Stockholm to play live music. Stockholm is probably the worst capital in the world for culture. So, you wonder why can’t put the opera house in the suburbs where it would be cheaper? No, no, no, this is a culture that is more equal to other cultures. This must be in the total center of the city, even though numbers shows that there are more shows and more people visiting Café 44 than the Opera House.

I think both art forms should exist, but the hijacking of some art forms seems to be more than others is not ok. I just saw a Symphony Orchestra doing disco hits just to get an audience desperate to get more figures to be able to get more of the money, at the cost that young and new artists have no place to play or even start a live career. This happens when most funds and government organizations think that digitalization should fix the problem. Just put the new music into web three. You can just see that with that you going to get bad EDM like most of Spotify’s playlists. That kind of music thrives on digital channels but doesn’t reflect what is more popular culture today.

The problem right now is that we have a cultural elite that just want to try to take so much of the cake and are doing it just because the people that do the real culture are kept out of the systems by making them hard to reach.

Editor’s Note: Peter Åstedt has been working in the music industry for over 35 years. He has started record labels, distribution systems, and publishing companies. Peter also runs several major showcase festivals and is an advisor for INES and co-founder of MusicHelp/Discover Sensation. He has worked with the Top Ten most streamed songs and had music on both the Olympics and Super Bowl. Peter has currently taken up the seat of Station Manager of Cashbox Radio, working with MD, PD and station owner, Sandy Graham. In 2021, he worked as the European Consultant for Heal the Earth – An Earth Day Celebration. His latest venture is a new Showcase Festival in Sweden, Future Echoes futureechoes.se/ which is about to launch the newest edition in Canada in 2024, Future Echoes Toronto. Peter is a Managing Partner and Editor of the legendary Record World International and also sits on the Board of Directors for the Canadian-based charity, The Drive Foundation.

Features
Music
Peter Åstedt
Month: May 2022
Promo Man – Nick Panaseiko May 06
Month: Apr 2022
Spike Bulgarian Music Showcase Announces Delegate Panelists for Inaugural… Apr 29
Award-Winning Rocker Robb Nash is the “Ally” Many Need with Release of New Single… Apr 29
I Am In Search of a New Artist! Apr 29
JUNO-Nominated Canadian Pop Group Girl Pow-R Dazzle with Out-Of-This-World… Apr 29
LeAnn Rimes How Much a Heart Can Hold Apr 29
Americana Songstress Francine Honey Lights the Way Through Life With New… Apr 22
Spike Bulgarian Music Showcase Announces Delegate Panelists for Inaugural… Apr 22
Robert Plant – Is That Guy Apr 22
No, I Won’t Discuss Your Music! Apr 22
Actor, Singer/Songwriter Ian Lake Releases New Album “What It Is” Apr 22
Music Legend Kenny G (And Friends) Headline Restoring Hope Roy Thomson Hall… Apr 15
3x JUNO-Nominees & 4x CFMA Winners Sultans of String Release New Single… Apr 15
Fiona Ross Shows What a Difference a Creative Week Can Make with Newly… Apr 15
Quintet Ensemble Vivant Release Groundbreaking New Album, iFugue ~ A World of… Apr 15
Lynx Dean Declares World Domination with New Single Apr 15
It’s Hard To Be Different Apr 08
The 64th Annual Grammy Awards Apr 08
Myles Goodwyn Pleads For Ukraine Apr 08
Danny Marks Spotlights Radio’s Enduring Power to Connect With "Man on the Radio… Apr 08

Pagination

  • First page « First
  • Previous page ‹ Previous
  • …
  • Page 21
  • Page 22
  • Page 23
  • Page 24
  • Current page 25
  • Page 26
  • Page 27
  • Page 28
  • Page 29
  • …
  • Next page Next ›
  • Last page Last »

CEO/PUBLISHER/EDITOR IN CHIEF
SANDY GRAHAM

email:sandygrahamemg@gmail.com 

Canadian Journalists:

Contributing Journalist - Canada and Global
Don Graham
email: dongrahamwriter@gmail.com

Contributing Journalist - Canada and Global
Lisa Hartt
email: lisahartt87@hotmail.com

Contributing Journalist - Canada 
Michael Williams
email: greydread@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

International Journalists:

Contributing Journalist - Sweden
Malin Osth
email: malin@musicdays.se

Contributing Journalist - Sweden
Jonas Tancred
email: jonas@musicdays.se

Contributing Journalist - USA
Rob Durkee 
email: rockster2746@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

Web Developer/Technical Support
Chris Wardman

email: info@chriswardman.com
website: chriswardman.com

Cashbox Cover Design and Graphic Artist
Jain McMillan

email: jainmcmillan@gmail.com

Contributing Photographer 
Tracey Savein - South Paw Productions
southpawproductions@rogers.com

 

 

 

Footer menu

  • Home
  • Features
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Cashbox Archive
  • Issue Archive
  • Past Covers