How Capitalism Killed Pub Rock

Joseph Tafra

The Australian music scene from the 1970s to the early 90’s was wildly different than today. Rock bands at most levels of success could play three or four nights a week at big pubs – sometimes called ‘beer barns’ – throughout urban, suburban, and regional Australia, making a modest living simply through playing gigs.

Punters throughout Australia could wander down to the local and be treated to sweaty, rowdy rock’n’roll from the likes of The Church, AC/DC, Cold Chisel, Painters and Dockers, Goanna, Midnight Oil, and a host of lesser known but hard-working rock bands. These were the glory days of pub rock.

It wasn’t a glamorous life for most of the bands and the pub rock scene had its issues – big agencies run by a handful of wealthy promoters had a stranglehold on who was in or out, and if you were a woman or not traditionally masculine enough, you were pretty much out by default. But it was a scene that supported working musicians playing for working people, drawn along by the love of the crowd and the hope of winning a record deal. During this pub rock heyday, there was a vibrant music scene by and for working class people in Australia.

But by the mid-90’s all that had changed. These days musos are lucky to get one paid gig a week and it’ll probably be a door deal, a miniscule cut of bar takings, or a tiny amount that barely covers the fuel it took to get there. The scene is more diverse now and that’s good, but the idea that bands playing original music could make a steady living seems like a pipe dream today.

Likewise, punters are worse served. There are still great gigs going on, especially in Melbourne, but music venues are much more centralised. People jam into tiny, overpriced city bars rather than the ‘beer barns’ of the 80’s. In the suburbs, you’d be lucky to hear a bottom-shelf covers band at your local. Today most suburban pubs are filled with the endless dings of soul-sucking pokies where once the air was alive with music.

So, what happened – how did pub rock die? The main culprits were increased enforcement of drink driving laws, local councils boosting regulations on pubs and clubs, and the rise of the pokies.
Random breath tests heavily targeted working-class establishments perceived as rowdy and lawless. This helped with road casualties of course, but there’s no denying it also carved a big dent in attendance at gigs where sinking some beers was as important as the music itself.

Increased regulations around noise pollution had an even bigger impact. Suburban and inner-city venues alike were suddenly faced with the prospect of having to fork out huge sums of money to soundproof their venues or else face fines. Many decided it wasn’t worth the cost and looked for other ways to get people in and get their money. Poker machines were a profitable solution and sealed the fate of the old pub rock scene.

Pokies had been in Australia since 1900 but they were only really played in casinos or specific clubs in New South Wales. Starting in the 90’s pokies regulation started to loosen. By 2000, poker machines could be played outside casinos in every state and territory, and today Australia has 21% of the world’s high-intensity poker machines, allowing up to $100 to be bet on each push of the button.

Once installed, poker machines print money for both venue owners and state governments. Profit rates over $100,000 per machine are not uncommon. Why go through all the trouble of booking, advertising, and paying for live entertainment when something so low-cost and lucrative was available? It was too good for most to ignore. Today, the very room where Bon Scott made his last live appearance in Australia is packed wall-to-wall with pokies, and so are almost all the rooms where pub rock once thrived.

This was a double theft; the pokies first robbed working-class areas of a lively music scene, then simply robbed them. Poker machines ended up concentrated exactly where the pub rock scene had been – in working-class neighbourhoods where daily money struggles make the possibility of a jackpot very tempting, and gambling addiction a much bigger problem. Lower income areas with less college educated residents have far more pokies and far greater losses per person.

For example, in the Sydney suburb of Fairfield with an average weekly income of $1222 where 11% of people have a degree, there are five poker machines per household and an average household pokies loss of $5668 per year. In wealthy Ku-ring-gai, where weekly income is $2640 a week and 48% have a degree, the picture is very different – less than one poker machine per household, and average household losses of just $23 a year.

This pattern repeats everywhere pokies are widespread. Considering profits from pokies are shared between state governments and big businesses, the pokies are funnelling hard-earned money from the poor and powerless to the wealthy and powerful.

So, how would things be different under socialism? For one thing, the issues that doomed pub rock – and related issues that make it almost impossible to be a working musician today – mostly related to capitalist relations.

The social issue of balancing cultural events against noise complaints was pushed onto private business owners instead of being worked through collectively. Private business owners, caged by the profit motive, took the path that kept them in the black financially.

Likewise, despite the massive and obvious harms of pokies, private interests successfully pushed for their deregulation. In the same way, venues that still host live music today will only do so if it doesn’t affect their often-thin profit margins. So unpaid and low-paid gigs are the norm. 

Eliminating capitalist social relations would allow fuller support for the arts. For dedicated musicians, regular pay according to work done. For hobbyists or developing artists, economic planning would yield much more free time to balance their creative and working lives. Not to mention free, well-resourced education for all, allowing far more people to develop their musical skills than under the restrictive conditions of capitalist education. 

All of this will help realise Marx’s goal – paraphrased a little – of a “communist society [in which] society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me … to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, rock’n’roll after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, herdsman or rocker.”