Being made obsolete by the Animation Industry giving my job to a computer operator, a computer operator in the Far East, I've been looking for a job for several years now. When even college educated young people can't get even minimum wage jobs and if they can they only give them part-time hours, old artists like me don't have much of a chance. Finally my wife has decided that if I can't get someone to hire me we will have to buy a business and we'll hire me.
Checking a list on the Internet of the top 500 franchises one really popped out at me: The School Of Rock, number 211 on the list. This is an after school music education organization specifically created to organize young people into performing rock and roll bands. Since I've been organizing rock and roll bands since I was eleven years old this really appeals to me.
Some of the Pros concerning opening a School Of Rock in my area is that there is no spoilage as you would have if you owned a fast food restaurant, it's an afternoon and evening endeavor so you wouldn't have to get up at 5 AM to cook doughnuts for policemen starting their day as you would if you opened a Dunkin Doughnuts. I wouldn't have to worry about burning anything as I would probably do if I ran a burger joint, there's no Health Department hassles or law suits stemming from food poisoning and I do have some experience teaching young people (Cal Arts and Comic Book Production for the Saugus School District's After School Enrichment Program).
Some of the Cons concerning opening a School Of Rock in my area is if the franchise owners insist that all the instructors pass a drug test since they will be working with children. Finding rock musicians willing to teach kids how to play will be difficult enough, finding rock musicians willing to teach kids how to play and actually showing up for class on time will be even more difficult but finding rock musicians willing to teach kids how to play that are completely drug free might be a deal breaker. My biggest concern is that Rock & Roll is no longer an important part of a young person's life, learning to play in a rock band isn't something most parents would want to actually pay for their child to learn to do and the sort of young person who wants to be in a rock band is someone who doesn't want to be told what to do by an adult. Rock & Roll is a form of rebellion, not something you work too hard at. Of course, that's just the illusion, the reality is that successful rock band members often took music lessons, started by singing in church choirs and were extremely diligent in their music education and rehearsal schedules, but it's difficult to fight that illusion.
Maybe I'm missing the point here and that the future is not in teaching young people to rock but in helping the young people of past generations who wasted their lives chasing the Rock & Roll dream to kick the Rock & Roll habit once and for all. I should franchise Rock & Roll Rehab!
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