Apropos of nothing, I as made a feeble attempt at writing a steam punk story this past week, in which no zeppelins appear. This, I assume, will be a problem.
So, today, the local radio station we listen to in the morning had one of those silly little trivia things they do to give away tickets to something. The question today had to do with the 40th anniversary of the appearance of Led Zeppelin in Indianapolis’s Market Square Garden (which was a sold-out show). Once Zep was revealed to be the answer to the question, the DJ went on to note that tickets for the event were $8.50.
That’s right: $8.50.
As in, give me a 10 and I’ll give you a buck and a half back.
Proof? You want proof?
Doing some quick math, and assuming a 3% rate of inflation over that time, that means an equivalent ticket today would be $27.73.
An admittedly quick spin around the web says that today I can see Beyonce for (starting at) $460–not counting the airline tickets to London, anyway. Or Katy Perry for $123 in Newcastle. Or Pink for a very reasonable $67 in Anaheim. One Direction is north of $220, no matter where you see them. I can take in the Zack Brown Band for $34 if I can make it to Columbus, Georgia–but it’ll cost at least $60 to see them pretty much anywhere else.
Sheesh.
No wonder the minimum wage needs to be raised! No wonder workers at the mega-fast food companies are revolting! Heck, back in my days (back when even if I wasn’t cool, some of my friends were) I was a lifeguard making $4 an hour or whatever, which means I could work for about two hours and that would pay to go see Led Freakin’ Zeppelin!
Today? Well, you can do the math.
I admit that I have to fight the urge to grit my teeth pretty hard when I make some of these comparisons (Coughing heavily in One Direction, in particular, he says coyly), but I get it. The world is different.
Of course, it’s even worse than this, because, you see, the quickest and observiest of you (and by that, I mean Lisa) might note that the Indy concert that the station was actually talking about happened in 1975 (not 1974–Zep wasn’t touring at that point). This means it wasn’t really the 40th anniversary of this concert, but instead the 39th. So that $8.50 ticket only accrues 39 years of inflation, and hence be worth only $26.92.