Take Two translates the day’s headlines for Southern California, making sense of the news and cultural events that affect our lives. Produced by Southern California Public Radio and broadcast from October 2012 – June 2021. Hosted by A Martinez.
The mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas on Sunday was the latest attack that took place in a live music space. In the past two years, there have also been attacks on an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, a nightclub in Orlando, and the Bataclan Theater in Paris.
It's a cause of concern, not only for security experts, but for the music industry. That includes everyone from concert organizers and promoters, to the fans and the musicians themselves.
"Music fans have definitely born the brunt of terrorism in the last two years," said Dave Ross, senior correspondent for Billboard.
Brooks said live concerts are becoming more important than ever in the music business. As revenue from records has fallen in the last decade, revenue from touring and live events has skyrocketed.
"There's just so many more opportunities to earn income from concerts," Brooks said. "The concert industry has really done a good job in the last ten years of basically creating an economy for these artists to make money where there's basically not as much money as they can make [through] recording."
But if both musicians and fans no longer feel safe at these sorts of events, what does that mean for the future of live concerts?
"Up until this weekend, I would tell any parent, 'a concert is one of the safest places you can send your child. There's security everywhere ... These events are run by professionals that have decades of experience,'" Brooks said. "But nobody wants to be a victim at one of these mass shootings. It's gonna make people, I think, a bit wary about attending something where they feel vulnerable."