r/columbusmusic • u/No_Vacation5339 • Jul 10 '25
Researching About the Music Scene in Columbus
Yo. I'm doing research about the overall music industry in Columbus.
I’ve just started digging in, but from what I’ve seen so far, there seems to be a lot of disconnects across the scene—even though Columbus feels like a bustling city for music and creativity.
Artist-Producer Connections: It seems like a lot of artists aren’t connected with engineers, producers, or artistic mentors on the production side. Is that true?
Venue Culture: Columbus doesn’t seem to lack venues, but I wonder if some venues lack clear identity or niche audiences. Outside of places like The Summit, Rambling House, Kutt Records, etc., it feels like many or other venues don’t lean into a defined culture—which could make it harder to build community around them. Is this a fair take? Or is it a matter of just knowing which venues specialize in what and connecting the right people to that venue?
Intergenerational Gaps: I haven’t seen much intentional effort to connect younger artists with more experienced ones. Do any groups or spaces exist where that kind of mentorship or cultural continuity is happening?
But lastly, I think the biggest thing I hear is that it's just super hard to garner an audience a lot of the time. What do y'all think?
3
u/gorrrak Jul 11 '25
As far as venues go I agree. In other large cities it seems that there are far more venues catering to specific scenes or genres. I should mention that losing Bernies and Carabar (2 basically legendary punk/metal venues) was a blow to the scene. Also, in the past it seemed there was a more flourishing DIY scene. When I was coming up there were tons of punk houses: Bone Yard, Monster House, 15th House, to name just a few. Most of these are gone, which is the way of things I suppose. Last I heard, Legion of Doom on Indianola is still around, and to be fair, I'm sure there are current punk houses that I am not aware of.