Is the collapse of college campuses killing music?

This is all a bit baffling to me....

"gatekeeping its way to irrelevance and mediocrity" If you only follow the "mainstream" (whatever that is these days), I guess, but I see more and more people creating more new and diverse forms of music now than I have ever in the past. More people have access to making music and recording. I mean, that is something that is lamented on the regular on this forum.... that there is an abundance of amateurs doing this "taking money out of our pockets"!

There are tons of forms of music that were once underground and are now selling out big festivals and venues, just like was the situation with Nirvana. Hardcore punk, for example, has absolutely exploded in the past several years. Turnstile went on tour with Blink 182 and was able to demand a cut well into the 7 figures. I went to a local show to see a client play about a year ago where it was at capacity on a Monday night! 400+ heads in a VFW hall. 20 years ago, you'd be lucky if you got 50-100 on a Friday night @ a hardcore show.


I saw a Rick Beato video where he was doing his usual spiel about how "rock is dead" and "no one wants Les Pauls and tube amps" any more. Meanwhile, a sizable chunk of my young clientele all either have or want LPs and come in with vintage Fenders or Victoria replicas. They all love Led Zeppelin, The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac and love those 70's tones. He sounded like an out of touch boomer living in his little 90's/2000's rock bubble.