This category covers establishments primarily engaged in providing entertainment other than live theatrical presentations; these establishments include bands, orchestras, and entertainers.
711130 (Musical Groups and Artists)
711510 (Independent Artists, Writers, and Performers)
711190 (Other Performing Arts Companies)
Music. The pop music concert circuit reached record levels in the late 1990s, deriving its success from seasoned veterans as well as trendy new acts. The top ten acts managed to bring in $414.3 million, up substantially from sagging mid 1990s receipts. Internationally, concert receipts totaled $1.3 billion in 1999, up 12 percent from 1998, while in North America revenues reached $1.23 billion, representing an increase of 11 percent. Some of the top performers in popular music in the late 1990s included genre stalwarts The Rolling Stones, who raked in $89.2 million in 1999; Bruce Springsteen, whose reunion tour with the E-Street Band generated $53 million in box office receipts; hip hop stars Master P and Sean Puffy Combs, who in 1998 earned $56.5 million and $53.5 million, respectively; the Dave Matthews Band, whose concerts brought in sales of $44.5 million; pop diva Celine Dion, with $55.5 million in 1998; and 'N Sync, the top new act in 1999, earning $44.3 million to edge out their boy-band competitors, The Backstreet Boys, who made $24.5 million. Barbara Streisand, meanwhile, broke the box-office record for a single show with her New Year's Eve, 1999, performance in Las Vegas, which generated ticket sales of $14.7 million, topping the Three Tenors' New Jersey show in 1996, in which Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo, and Jose Carneras raked in $13.4 million.
Festivals continued to play a vital role as a way to excite concert goers, with touring shows such as the Lilith Fair designed to showcase a particular niche market, in this case the female pop singer/songwriter genre, in a forum that draws greater numbers than promoters surmise the artists could draw on their own, while fetching a higher ticket price in the meantime. Following the same logic while drawing on pop culture mystique, the Woodstock '99 concert in upstate New York drew 186,963 fans to its three-day festival, generating ticket sales of $28.86 million. The show managed to arouse controversy, a staple of the rock and roll scene, as the kids took to destroying the venue and, disturbingly, committing over a dozen sexual assaults. From a financial standpoint, however, the show was indicative of the year's success in rock and pop music. Gimmickry was also alive and well on the concert scene. The Christian rock band, The Newsboys, planned a U.S. tour in 2000 featuring their own portable arena, a 3,500-seat blow-up model that could be set up in 90 minutes and transported from city to city.
Country music, however, failed to enjoy such good news; attendance was down about 20 percent in 1999 after dramatic growth through the mid 1990s. Total receipts for country music shows fell 16 percent to $116 million, with two acts, Shania Twain and George Strait, accounting for more than half of that total, at $36.6 million and $32.0 million, respectively. Observers attributed a large share of this decline to the absence of country star Garth Brooks from the concert scene in 1999. Long the brightest star in country music, Brooks was among the top entertainers in 1998 with concert sales totaling $54 million.
One of the most notable popular-music trends at the close of the 1990s was the voracious market for teen pop acts. The boy-band craze of 1999, featuring acts such as The Backstreet Boys, 'N Sync, and 98 Degrees, along with other artists such as Britney Spears, jumped on the youth fan base stirred up in preceding years by The Spice Girls to create the most visible and lucrative niche market in popular music. Despite the notorious track record of here-today, gone-tomorrow youth acts such as New Kids on the Block, some record executives were banking on such artists for the long haul; in 1999 Jive Records signed The Backstreet Boys to a five-album, $60 million contract, one of the biggest music deals ever.
Other trends in popular music relied less on teen innocence and more on parental shock. Acts such as Marilyn Manson and Insane Clown Posse incorporated explicit lyrics and often-graphic sexual or gory imagery into their live performances, arousing parental ire and even leading to talks in state and local legislatures of implementing a ratings system for live shows. Analysts estimated that about 25 percent of pop-music concert revenues were generated by acts that engage in some type of obscenity on stage. By including warning labels on tickets or rating shows in the manner of motion pictures, proponents hoped to keep children away from such concerts unless accompanied by an adult. Some artists, however, considered these proposals an act of censorship; high-powered acts such as Pearl Jam and R.E.M. announced that they would refuse to play in any state that passed a concert-rating law.
Another musical genre making an unexpected surge in the mid and late 1990s was opera, which Forbes labeled "one of the hottest sectors in the entertainment business." In the 18- to 24-year-old crowd, attendance grew by 15 percent between 1989 and 1999, while the number of opera companies has gone from 60 in the late 1970s to 170 in 1998. Opera's popularity rested on its traditional styles as well as on cross-over collaborations between opera stars like Luciano Pavarotti with pop acts such as U2. Meanwhile, some corporations paid as much as $75,000 for an opera star to sing for as little as half an hour at a company event, quite a bit higher than the $15,000 top fee for singing at the New York Metropolitan Opera.
Symphony orchestras continued to struggle in the 1990s, often going to great lengths to court younger audiences. The Philharmonic Society of Orange County, California, for instance, devised a multimedia performance for their concerts incorporating video footage and live theater in accompaniment with the musical performance. The Dallas Symphony Orchestra (DSO), meanwhile, invested in a World Wide Web site to showcase both technological and symphonic music, often in hybrid form, and to transmit live Web-casts of DSO performances.
One reason cited for frustrating sales figures is the high price of tickets for symphonic performances, which averaged $112 in 1999. Personnel costs made up nearly half of an orchestra's budget. Minimum starting salaries for new orchestra members in "major orchestras" (orchestras with a $5 million or higher budget) were approximately $74,360 annually, with highs of $130,000 reported by the New York Philharmonic and the Chicago Symphony. Salaries in most orchestras range from $25,000 to $100,000. There were more than 800 symphony orchestras in the United States in the late 1990s.
Magic Shows. Other live entertainment that has recently regained popularity has been the age-old industry of magic. Some of the highest paid entertainers are magicians, or illusionists. David Copperfield, long the reigning illusionist, generated sales of $49.5 million in 1999. Las Vegas has been the hot spot for the rebirth of the illusionist, with all the major casinos touting their own acts. The business community has also tapped into illusionists, using them at trade shows and sales meetings, with fees running as high as $2 million for Siegfried & Roy to appear at a German theme park opening.
Comedians. Comedians were also laughing their way to the bank, with comedy clubs cropping up around the country. Jerry Seinfeld topped the 1998 Forbes list of the highest-paid performers, taking in $225 million. Meanwhile, comedy records registered a huge upsurge in the mid and late 1990s, with comedians such as Seinfeld and George Carlin releasing highly successful recordings of their live performances.
Actors. Although musicians and actors have differing talents, the most successful ones end up looking rather similar. They are wealthy and powerful, and have national, if not international, name recognition. Talk-show host Oprah Winfrey continued her reign as the highest-paid television performer, raking in $125 million in 1999; Tim Allen followed with $77 million. Winfrey's syndicated talk show faced challenges in this period from Jerry Springer's notoriously volatile program.
Screen actors are generally the most high-profile and glamorous personalities in entertainment. Leading actors include Harrison Ford, who pulled in more than $58 million in 1998; Robin Williams, with $56 million; and Mel Gibson, with $55 million.
The lingering wage disparity between actors and actresses was a growing concern to the acting community in the late 1990s. The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) noted that men typically earn about twice as much as women in the profession, while leading actresses could not command anywhere near the top-dollar salaries of their male counterparts. Furthermore, SAG reported in 1999 that 63 percent of all movie roles are written for men, a gap that has held steady since 1992. Most of the difference is accounted for in the heavily male-dominated supporting role field. When combined with age demographics, the disparity was even more pronounced. While about twothirds of all acting roles were awarded to people under 40 years of age, only 27 percent of all female roles went to women over 40, compared with 37 percent for men.
Meanwhile, the television and film industries fell under scrutiny in 1999 as disproportionately few roles were awarded to minorities. According to SAG reports, only 19 percent of all roles were awarded to minority actors in 1998. Latinos were the most under-represented, accounting for only 3 percent of all roles despite constituting 10 percent of the U.S. population.
Many actors and actresses spend the majority of their careers in live theatrical productions. Many reasons can be found for this interest in the theater. The stage is regarded by many actors as a demanding, exhilarating venue from which to practice their craft. In 1997, the minimum weekly salary for Broadway actors was about $1,040, while off-Broadway actors commanded about $$600 per week. The uncertain future of governmental arts subsidies could have dramatic consequences for actors and actresses in this field.
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