Musical landscape bland

It used to be a neon toe tag, a place where showbiz careers came to die before fame officially flat-lined.

There's no old folks home for faded stars, but three decades ago, this city could have passed for one, so full of past-their-prime performers, it was like "Hollywood Squares" in metropolitan form.

But Vegas has turned the page, right?

Now big name stars with top drawing power (Celine Dion, Elton John, Prince) have had regular engagements here, the city has become a destination point for large touring acts and the local music scene has begun to blossom with the success of The Killers and Panic! at the Disco and a half-dozen rising Vegas bands landing deals with sizable labels of late.

Sure, the town is still chock full of tourist-friendly, fourth- and fifth-tier acts, but hey, Susan Anton's gotta eat, right? And besides, that's not what defines Vegas any more.

Or does it?

A recent study contrasting the music scenes of the top 50 markets in the United States finds some mixed results for this city. Done by the University of Chicago, the report, "Chicago Music City," shows that Vegas still is lacking when it comes to luring top acts and the most critically acclaimed performers to town.

"We were surprised by how tilted the music scene seems to be towards evergreen performers and how low it ranked in terms of performers who are either on the pop charts now or who are critical favorites," says study researcher Larry Rothfield, who used the Village Voice's annual "Pazz and Jop" best-of poll as a measure of an act's critical pedigree. "It's clear that the music scene in Vegas is designed to appeal to tourists, and it does so incredibly successfully, of course. Where it's doing extremely badly is in drawing in college-educated 25- to 34-year-olds."

In terms of gross receipts of live performances, Vegas is a smash success, earning $164.67 million in 2004, trailing only New York City, with more money generated per seat -- $642 -- than any other city. Per capita, more tickets to live shows are sold in Vegas and there are more seats in small venues than in any other market.

But while there's a bevy of clubs, fewer than 3 percent of them are specialized in any genre (i.e. indie rock, hip-hop, metal, etc.) meaning they're not the sort of venues that nurture any particular scene.

"Las Vegas has fewer niches than any other city," Rothfield says. "There's a hugely high percentage of clubs that just don't bother to distinguish what they're doing."

Thus the musical landscape tends to become overly homogenized and stale, though there is hope for a turnaround.

"Las Vegas may be in a position to grow out of this, if it can develop neighborhood scenes outside of the center city," Rothfield says. "Because Las Vegas is growing so rapidly, it may have the potential for transforming itself from simply a tourist music city to one that has more diverse offerings."

Let's hope so, before John Tesh comes calling next.

Jason Bracelin's "Sounding Off" column appears on Tuesdays. Contact him at 383-0476 or e-mail him at jbracelin@ reviewjournal.com.