Regenerating Life of Artists and Musicians in the New Normal

Lim, Connie Keh Nie (2020) Regenerating Life of Artists and Musicians in the New Normal. In: 2020 International Conference on Ethnomusicology, 27 & 28 November 2020, Tainan National University of the Arts & Online.

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Abstract

In early 2020, the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) had swept the globe, challenging the social, economic and political spheres. This pandemic is currently challenging the music, performing arts and entertainment industry globally in an unprecedented, devastating manner. Starting from 18 March 2020, when the Malaysia government initiated the Movement Control Order (MCO) or known as partial lockdown, it had led to the closure of performance venues, postponement and cancellation of music concerts, theatre shows, festivals, live gigs and dance performances. Hence, these phenomena had resulted in the changes of ecosystem in the performing arts and music industry. This restriction has caused the musicians and artists isolated at home, turning to online platforms to sustain their creative lives. Inevitably, due to shutdown of performance spaces and the practice of social distancing, it had led to the shift from offline to online broadcast. It transformed the way music was performed and consumed by the audience.This paper aims to illuminate how artists, musicians together with the creative industry cope with the drastic disruption due to the COVID-19 outbreak as well as the means of regenerating ‘life’, which refers to that of a creative artist in a narrower sense, and to that of the industry in a broader sense. Adopting a combined methodology of autoethnography and virtual ethnography, the authors explore their encounters with the informants and the development of the creative arts scene. The subject of disruption and regeneration in the music industry is approached through feasible methods and tools they could render in this unique lived experience. They hope to construct a view containing both macro and micro perspectives on the transcendence of creative practitioners from the disruption and survive the pandemic impact, as well as the regeneration of how music as a form of creative arts would persevere in the ‘new normal’ of the post-COVID-19 era.

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