What's a good musical occupation for an 18 yr old?

Roadie, local venues

Mickey D’s between gigs.

Recording Engineer

You could review music. You could study music history (contemporary) and then teach it. You could become one of those people that organizes the shows (though I can’t see that being terribly entertaining). You could get into the industries (web related) that are causing the downfall of the traditional model. You could even come up with an even newer distribution and sales model and throw the current revolution a curve ball. Or you could do mickey d’s between gigs…

Start a music blog or a podcast. Also I know some colleges that have music majors have part-time jobs around campuses. So you could try them out and hang out with a lot of other musicians and may be learn a bit from them too. Remember you don’t always get the job in the industry you want and sometimes you have to compromise by doing other jobs. For example, I am interested in becoming a typographer and a web designer but since there aren’t any stable jobs, I work at a store for an “evil corporation” just to have a stable income.