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"Death of a band"

What makes you buy an album? Is it the great music on offer in one CD, the fact that you bought the last one from this band and were impressed? A simple impulse buy? Perhaps it was because all your friends were buying it and the music you really liked was considered crap by others?

Well, you’d be surprised at the number of people who buy music because the band is considered ‘cool’ by their peers. It’s not surprising considering that the media, including the main music press, seem to dump last year’s heroes as soon as they step out of line. It’s only through sheer hard work, a large fanbase who will not die and, sometimes, sheer luck that they survive at all.

Many bands don’t really deserve the time they’re given anyway, but there are those that do and have just been unlucky with the press and fans turning against them have to spend the rest of their lives hearing the laughter as people talk about them as a joke. These same people were the fans that bought all their records when they were cool, they spent their money on the t-shirts, the concerts and the merchandise. Now they turn their attention to the next big thing and their old band is yesterday’s news.

It’s the same in the film industry, look at all the actors who have had success and critical acclaim, then find themselves out of favour with Hollywood and the public. Sometimes it’s that the actors have been unlucky in a bad film, denting their reputation, other times it’s just that they took a break from acting and then found themselves out of sync with the film industry.

Of course, if a band is suddenly considered uncool, then it can only rely on a fanbase who will continue supporting it, otherwise it will crumble and become just a small sideline in the history of music. The bands have a choice, either they can cater to the market, and effectively ‘sell-out’ or they can make the music that they want to, unaffected by what people want, and take the risk of losing sales. One such band are Pearl Jam, who, after their initial success, decided that they wanted to continue making the music they wanted when everyone else was expecting another album similar to Ten. Their second album had a harsher sound, something that many original fans couldn’t really cope with, but they continued to make music the way they wanted and sales suffered. But, Pearl Jam were lucky, they had a large fan base who liked what they were doing and their attitude to music, so they continue to make albums and sell enough to make their record company happy, other bands aren’t so lucky.

So think before you buy that next album and throw away your t-shirt, why exactly are you changing alliances and do you really want to support a band that caters for the market first whie throwing away its independence to make the music it really wants to, or are you being pressed into liking a band because all your mates do?

true true i like mobys new song at the min

Now all I need is more people replying to my messages. This one did pretty well, actually.

Back to the topic though.

The thing is that I've always thought it strange that people keep away from all pop music because it's tarred with the same brush. I admit to liking some pop on the radio at the moment. That one with the piano, can't remember the name of the girl, but the song isn't bad. Sometimes you need a bit of pointless background music when the sun is shining, not everything has to be deep and meaningful all the time.

pb racks up another GAD win... and realises he's run out of room to put all this free stuff...

Thank god. Pb won a GAD again. I can tell you, I was getting worried. It'd almost been a month, right? Without pb winning? Shocking. Well done :D

k i will

PS, King Cactuar, if you see this could you read my topic in this forum 'The Next Big Thing'. Sorry to pb for shamelessly plugging in his topic, it's just that KC seems to like a fair amount of the nu-metal bands and I'd like to get his opinion on my topic.

I'm not really bothered about others views on the music I like. I get some hassle at school from some people, but at the end of the day it's their problem. I can accept that other people don't have the same taste as me and my opinion is neither 'right' nor 'wrong'. What's the point of getting upset because someone can't accept you have tastes of your own?

I listen to pretty much all punk rock and related genres, from emo up to metallic hardcore. Some people say emo is for sissies, some people say hardcore is just shouting, some people say punk is just teenage angst. Who cares, I like it. Same with any genre. If you like it why be told otherwise?

I think that is true that a lot of bands die a slow death because people follow other peoples veiws that they are sad or they are crap. For example I used to be really into Linkin Park and thought they were pretty 'HARDCORE', i used to play them all the time and loved them knew the words and stuff. Then i was listening to them one day and a school m8 came up to me and said "Linkin park are crap they dont swear and basically just suck".

I was hurt by these comments and soon found out about all these who were making it big at the time, e.g limp bizkit and lost prophets. All my m8s were into these bands. I wanted to fit in and started to buy heaver stuff just to fit in, e.g SLIPKNOT, MUSHROOMHEAD, KORN, AMERICAN HEADCHARGE etc..

I'd listen to them and h8 them but then i would listen to them again and start to think "hey this isn't bad" and i am now really into the thrash metal, doom metal and speed metal scene.

I now cant stand to listen to linkin Park and have to either turn it off or walk out of hearing range.

My point is that a lot of people prob did this and that is why Linkin park have gone downa lot in the magzines (metal hammer, Kerrang etc..), and in the eend it is down to basic peer presure to why bands die.

Though to give 'old' linkin park a chance they are about to release a new album and i wish them all the the luck in the world at making themselves big again.

Green Day have pretty much been lucky, but then they are a good band who can sing and perform well, so they have survived because they were good.

But think about all the music that isn't 'in' because of your age, because of your friends, or other people around you thinking that it sucks, think of that music and then think of those singles, those albums you didn't buy because it would make you look sad.

I know that a lot of people won't admit to liking some pop music, though they can be caught humming along to it or tapping their feet. besides, the term pop music houses a lot of different styles and formats, from pre-fab bands who can't even sing live to talented musicians and singers who just happen to like the pop music sound.

The first single I ever bought was an Offspring single. Before that I had just listened to the radio and some compilation tapes/CDs. I suppose part of the reason I got the Offspring single was because it was considered cool. If it hadn't been in the charts I woulda never heard it. But I liked the song too. It was different to all the stuff in the charts at the time. It wasn't 'pop' music (no debates over what is and isn't pop music :D) and it just sounded really cool to me. This song also must of had an effect on other people too. A friend of mine bought the single (can't remember exactly, but it was probably after me telling him about it) and now he despises punk music. Well, actually he never gives it a chance, anything that isn't some kind of dance music is apparently 'grunger crap'.

But anyway. Thing is that without some people telling us to try out new music (not exactly peer pressure, but still an outside influence) then we may never find any music we really love. But as we can see from just about everything around us, the charts, the clothes people wear, etc. music is a fickle business. At least mainstream music is. A group may be accepted one minute and rejected the next. Green Day have had this to a certain extent. Although they have found some chart success many previous fans say they have sold out. But selling out in my opinion is doing what you don't want to in order to gain success, get more sales. Green Day couldn't stay the same, a band has to evolve to some extent to stay alive and fresh. Get heavier and they probably would've been banded together with all the nu-metal that's 'in' at the moment, get softer and what we've seen happens. Fans talk of them selling out, even people who you wouldn't think would care about any selling out business do start talking about it.

Thankfully, despite this Green Day have plenty of fans who enjoy their sound, who understand that to sell out is to do something you don't want to and that the 'softer' music is an evolution of their sound. They also have undoubtedly picked up some fans through the chart success of singles off their 'warning' album.

All musical groups are bound to go through a period where they're no longer 'in' and I suppose they need to decide what is more important, the adoration of a fickle industry or the respect of their real fans and their own integrity.