Amp bans are destructive

In my last newsletter, I showed how amp bans create an unnatural world. Since writing it, I’ve been corrected over a few things, which I’ve taken care to fix. You can click on that link to see the changes.

I’d like to thank Jared Jeffries for his edits, both for that newsletter and the below.

GET IT OFF YOUR CHEST: In my next newsletter, I’d like to talk about the noise war, and specifically about what to do about loud street performers abusing amplification.

So please answer the form below (or just respond to this email):

Not all instruments can be heard

I once asked a rising star in the world of Spanish guitar to come outside and let me record him. We set up in a courtyard on a relatively calm side street in Manhattan. The only noise he had to contend with was the wind. I set the microphone up then hit record:

What I got through my headphones (which you can hear in the video above) was beautiful. After literally hundreds of shoots, this is still one of the best performances I’ve ever had the privilege of filming.

But, afterwards he told me that he couldn’t hear himself play. The wind had been too strong. So, he asked me not to use his name when posting the video online, as the quality wasn’t his usual standard.

Consider that for a second. If an unamplified musician can’t hear themself play, what chance do the rest of us have?

So to start with, amp bans are an effective ban on instruments that require electricity to be heard. This includes anything not loud enough to compete with the ambient noise of the city, like a harp, bass guitar or Spanish guitar.

It also bans instruments that require electricity to run. This includes all the modern musical equipment, like synths, drum pads, bass guitars/synth bass, subwoofers, turntables, loop pedals, effects pedals and laptops. But perhaps the most significant loss is the electric keyboard, one of the most popular and beloved instruments on the planet. Surely nobody has a problem with the piano?

Limiting range

As Marcelo wrote in the MU article I linked to last time, amp bans also significantly reduce the range of instruments.

Take the guitar. 1950s electrified blues musicians were defined by the way they used bent notes, vibrato, sustain and other nuances to make their guitars ‘talk’. The smooth, silky way that soloists in the rock era danced around their fretboards was similarly a product of electrification.

Without electricity doing the work, audibility becomes a product of brute force. Acoustic buskers therefore have to thrash at their instruments and belt out their voices to be heard.

Vocal intimacy

The idea for this newsletter actually came to me a couple of years ago at a Berlin Spoken Word poetry night, in a tiny room behind a closed door in the back of a bar. There was only space for about fifty seats, and the back wall couldn’t have been more than four or five metres from the stage, on which sat two 1,100 watt Milan M12 speakers.

Once the show started, I paid attention to everything we could hear coming out of those speakers: the slight wavering of a quiet voice as the poet fought back tears; bubbles popping on the tongues of first-time readers nervously getting through their work; every whisper; every breath.

Those amps were serious overkill for a room that small, but they had nothing to do with volume and everything to do with creating a more intimate and powerful experience.

Intimacy is key. And it’s the same for comedians as for poets: the power of a comedic performance is in its delivery. Amps let comedians whisper jokes instead of belting them out all the time. By contrast, unamplified comedy shows have to strain their voices in order to be heard.

How funny can you be when every line you deliver is shouted?

Modern vocal styles

The evolution of popular singing techniques over the last century has also tended towards a more intimate experience for listeners.

The pre-mic era was marked by full-throated, forceful singing that was big enough to fill large rooms.

The advent of microphone technology in the 1920s brought about a new vocal style, ‘crooning’, in which crooners could generate the impression of intimacy by singing softly into a mic. This was such a radical change from what had come before that a Boston Cardinal in 1932 called crooning “degenerate” and “sensuous” for its impact on young women.

He wasn’t wrong: microphones give the impression that a singer is speaking directly and privately to the listener. Bing Crosby’s voice was therefore more seductive than his predecessors. Electricity had made it so.

Today, with the advent of bedroom live streams, popular vocal styles are intentionally even more intimate. Think of Billie Eilish’s ASMR-adjacent “whisper pop” delivery.

Ban amps and you ban a hundred years of vocal development.

Backing tracks in the visual arts

“Backing tracks” aren’t just nice to have, they’re a vital part of most types of live performance.

Take dance, for example. If you’re hoping to twist, tango, breakdance or ballet in the street, you need music. So, either you’re going out there with a backing track, or you’ll be splitting the pot with a full band — difficult, considering that most dancers are already performing in groups of two or more.

Then there are mimes, clowns, puppeteers, jugglers and every other variety act, all of whom use backing tracks to add an emotional flavour to their performances. Skills can only get you so far, you need to reach people’s hearts if you want them to tip, something that’s much easier to do when you use music.

Yes, it is possible for an acrobat to blow our minds with insane displays of skill. But the power of music to move us is so foundational to the performance arts that nobody performs without it. Consider that even Cirque du Soleil, staffed by some of the most advanced circus performers on the planet, believes music to be such an integral part of their productions that every one is performed by a fully live band.

Backing tracks also improve music

I’ve said this repeatedly in these newsletters, but monophonic music (where an instrument produces a single note at a time) hasn’t been popular since the Middle Ages. Chords (notes played simultaneously) are what carry the emotional tension and release of a song.

This is why there’s no market for monophonic music. While I accept there might be the odd performance every now and again in which this happens, I’ve personally never been able to find a ticket to a concert near me where a musician is playing a violin, cello, flute, saxophone or other monophonic instrument without others accompanying them, or at the very least a loop station.

A piano backing track therefore significantly improves the quality of the music made by solo brass, wind and string musicians. Just listen to the guy who first inspired me to take an interest in the topic of busking, Chen Cong, performing over a piano backing track. Do you think these kids would be dancing if he was playing his violin unaccompanied?

Injury and Inclusivity

Higher notes ‘attenuate’ faster in air (meaning they lose more energy over distance than lower notes). So, people with higher-pitched voices will find it harder to project. Therefore, amp bans (slightly) discriminate against more than half of the population: women and children.

Microphones also protect performers from getting injured. You can identify an old school busker who’s been performing on the street for years without amplification by how hoarse they are.

This is because they’ve developed “vocal fold nodules” — a gross-sounding, callus-like benign growth on their vocal cords caused by the trauma of shouting all the time. Take away amps and entertainers get injured.

Injury is an important point. People with respiratory conditions (like asthma), impaired diaphragms, Parkinson’s, chronic fatigue syndrome and those who’ve had a stroke might be unable to project their voices, but be completely fine articulating and singing at a normal level. Amp bans are therefore a form of disability discrimination.

It’s not the point of this newsletter, but I believe making this argument would be an easy win in court. Take this recent case in Las Vegas, where a law banned buskers from using tables. Larime Taylor (in the video above) sued the cops, demanding this law stop being enforced. From initial court documents:

Larime’s lawsuit alleged that:

Now, he never actually got to have his day in court. Instead, the police department settled, paying him $150,000.

However, a judge did initially grant Larime a “temporary injunction” that prevented the cops from enforcing the law against him, based on the presumption that were his case to make it to court, Larime would most likely win.

In other words, someone who is specifically trained to determine the constitutionality of American laws asserted that a law that bans people living with disabilities from using tables while busking was probably going to fail that test.

Why not a law banning amps? I think it’s worth testing. Nowadays, every country has some kind of law saying that people living with disabilities can’t be discriminated against, which amp bans undoubtedly do.

To sum up, the ‘tradition’ argument for banning amps is that busking unamplified is somehow more “natural” or “authentic”.

This is ahistorical nonsense.

The legal argument for banning amps is that this makes it harder for buskers to create an unreasonably loud noise. Policing is therefore easier, as anyone using an amp can immediately have it confiscated or get a fine.

But amp bans aren’t just a form of volume control, they also function as genre control, resulting in fewer instruments, fewer performance styles and worse art being produced. They force buskers to perform just a handful of older musical genres and select modern pop songs. And they discriminate against a large portion of the population, including protected classes.

This is destructive not just to their livelihoods but to the arts in general, preventing hundreds of young artists from creating the art that moves them.

If you’re ever facing an amp ban, hopefully the above will be useful to you. And I’ll see you in court! (As long as your case pops up in my Google Alerts).

News, stories and gig opportunities from around the world that I’m not writing about elsewhere.

🇬🇧 The Musicians Union in the UK did a goodbye to the summer busk in June. Why so early? Because Westminster was about to close its only remaining amplified pitch for the summer, leaving buskers in the borough of Westminster (i.e. London’s ‘downtown’ district) with zero places they could perform with amplification.

After the World Cup, Vancouver buskers are for the government to pay them. “We are out here working our butts off and making the city much cooler for visitors. The city should pay street performers a small stipend as an incentive to perform during major events.”

From what I understand of this article, a security guard didn’t understand there was a busking program in Surrey, Vancouver, and managed to kick out a street performer who had a permit. But…security guards can only kick people off of private property. So, how is a government program providing free entertainment for the benefit of a private company? Sounds like exploitation to me.

🇺🇸 Waikiki Council Chair Tommy Waters is currently drafting legislation to limit busking to permitted performers on regulated pitches, after local residents are complaining. Council Chair Tommy Waters is currently drafting legislation. Probably get in touch with him if this affects you.

🇺🇸 And San Diego busking campaigner superstar, Joey Dorsett, just won his latest case against the city after receiving a violation for “disorderly conduct” from park rangers. I really have to do a full article about him some time, as he’s been at this for years.

Below the paywall: a singer promotes her show in the Manila subway, Singapore has released some interesting stats about buskers in its program, and a Welsh band are riding fame from a street show to the stage.