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For the last 40 years, the music industry marketed vocalists instead of the musicians. Bands have became irrelevant. Is it really to much to market musicians?
Vocalists definitely are the definable identifiable sound of any band and therefore easily identified by the listener and therefore easier to market. The appreciation for a singular musician within a band typically comes with age of the listener and those who are very into music in a deeper way than the average listener, or someone who plays an instrument.
The vocalist is the center of attention in every single song and only rarely will you find an instrument solo on an album.
I, myself can recall a year where I suddenly started listening to the individual instruments in a song instead of the song as a whole and found a great appreciation for the musicians themselves and not the band as a whole. Two notable ones were Jimmy Page from Zeppelin and Slash from Guns and Roses. I started to isolate listening to these instruments and found a whole new appreciation for the music. However, your average listener who is listening to music while doing something else like driving to work or running isn't going to do this. The average listener is the purchaser of most music. Speaking for myself, I may not like a lot of bands or certain music, but I still have an appreciation of the craft. You can also look up solo work by drummer Keith Moon of the Who and John Bohnam from Zeppelin for some outstanding work.
A couple songs which gave me a new appreciation for the musicians.
This is just rehearsal footage and not even from a concert or album, as such your average listener (the one spending the money on the music) would not be exposed to it. I was not much of a Guns and Roses fan, but I do have appreciation of the craft here. Slash does not just play the guitar - he makes love to it.
I'm reminded of a joke I once heard, "Some people dance to the front beat, some people dance to the backbeat, and some people dance to the words." (the comedian then began to dance to the words of Jerhimia Was A Bullfrog). Your average listener dances to the words, therefore the vocalist is like a logo to a company.
Last edited by Thursday007; 08-12-2012 at 07:13 AM..
No, it's not that difficult when every member is an attractive woman and can actually play her instrument. Is it just me guys, or do the rest of you get warm fuzzy feeling watching that drummer bash away in a Led Zep John Bonham kinda way? I see that hot long hair sway back and forth. Say it's not just me guys........PLEASE!!
There is a huge instrumental music scene flying under the pop radar that has been around for over 30 years now.
Much of it is strictly acoustic; bluegrass, old-time traditional music, folk music of many different cultures, jazz and gypsy jazz (played on stringed instruments instead of horns), and much brand new stuff that comes from all these diverse sources.
It's everywhere, but it all comes from a community of players, not listeners. And it is not strictly non-vocal; much of he material has lyrics, and good singers who know the music are always welcomed.
All this music is commercial, even though it's home grown. There are lots of venues for it- clubs, festivals, and concerts all go on country-wide, and the life of the professionals who play it are just like those who play rock, country, or any of the mass market music, but it's just on a smaller scale. There are recording companies that are doing quite well that specialize in it's many forms, each finding niches.
Every once in a while, one instrumental tune bubbles up into the general public consciousness. One example is the haunting fiddle tune Ashoken Farewell, which sounds ancient and incredibly melancholy, even though it was composed in the 80's. It was first used in the PBS series on the Civil War, and ever since then, everyone has heard it and recognizes it, but most folks don't know it's name or Jay Unger, the guy who wrote it. Unger is is an active performer to this day.
If any of the companies that control the content of all the radio music we hear would have jumped on this tune, it could have been a hit. There is a viable listening audience for instrumental music, and until ClearChannel and all the rest of the big outfits continue to ignore this, the longer radio will remain in the doldrums of the same old same old.
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