It’s a bit fucked, though, because it’s one of those things where they’ve spent years training to do something quite specific (and being shown examples of their former peers who’ve subsequently been successful, and been told they can be too) so their expectations and skill-set are wildly, wildly out of place when they hit the job market. In terms of average salary in the UK musician ranks below any other job that I would call ‘skilled’ for want of a better term, so people who work with their hands in technical situations that demand some creativity (see carpenters, plumbers etc) but no one ever says to a plumber ‘Hey, you could end up doing this on stage in front of thousands of people and sleeping in a gold bed shaped like a racing car with many beautiful ladies/gentlemen of your choosing.’ They just say, ‘Mate, thanks for fixing my taps.’
I’m not defending these people, but entertainment world is a sick, sick place. If it was training people with the expectation of doing chorus work, session stuff, bit parts etc that would be a bit different. No wonder they decide to grasp whatever brass ring is dangled in front of them, basically.
