The Real Reason Bands are Dead no one tells you

[@pauldecoster]

Bands still exist. They are more local. There are young people who form them. The charts don’t always keep track of what’s happening under the radar. Session musicians are still a thing in the country world. Amusement parks have bands. Cruise ships as well.

[@joshs.6608]

So in short, Music is now about just one person performing the entire song.

[@ministryofguitar]

Unfortunately continuing our isolation

[@joshs.6608]

@@ministryofguitar Yeah, unfortunately quite inevitable that something like this is gonna happen one by one ever since Windows 95 saw it's public release and while ground breaking is the start of making us being sedentary to the computer A LOT(especially because of something known as the internet) and when DAWs and later probably even AI(which could be used as a stock music, backing track(for hip hop), layer or even just background track to fill up any instruments you record) came a long, musicians especially are becoming further isolated.

[@ESP77769]

Most likely, also a team of songwriters, too. In general, the companies, find a young singer, and market them. Very little creativity is involved anymore, if any. Pre-fabricated, cookie-cutter artists modeled after current, well-selling "artists".

[@GameraGodzilla-j9h]

Usually it's one celebrity just singing. And an army of hired real musicians.

[@TC-nh4uh]

“Performing”

[@harrylessinger5769]

I read somewhere that in 1974 Tom Shultz made the entire Boston debut album in his basement!😀

[@ministryofguitar]

Yup. I read that too

[@bsjeffrey]

i don't know if they'ed be considered a new band, formed in 2010, but a semi current band i like is king gizzard and the lizard wizard.

[@mburridge]

You haven’t needed to have a band since the birth of multitrack recording. For example, Mike Oldfield recorded Tubular Bells in 1971, and Jean-Michel Jarre recorded Oxgene in 1976. So the solo artist performing all the parts and also doing the production is not necessarily a recent phenomenon.

[@ministryofguitar]

You are correct. I do think it is much easier now, not requiring multi instrumental virtuosity. Also much more the norm. Btw I love Tubular Bells

[@Bluepillphil-d1w]

theoretically. And some did that. But the technology to achieve sound quality was still very expensive and detailed and home recording was poor quality. Computers, once they became fast in about 2005, changed all of that, clean with clean and bright sounds, and much cheaper than tape,

[@ibji]

Speaking of nightclubs, why do women wear evening gowns to nightclubs? Shouldn't they wear nightgowns?

[@TheIslandDivision]

And we should have evening clubs.

[@alejmora]

Technology also changed the other side of the equation: The audience and the way how interacts with music. 50, 40, 30 years ago, individuals had access to radio stations, and a limited number of physical cassetes and albums. Many people expended 30 minutes, 1 hour or more just listening to their own limited music collection in their rooms. Nowaways, there is not time left for that, people expend most of the time consuming KZbin and TikTok videos (my self included). Spotify and KZbin provide instantaneous access to literally millions of songs and videos from the last 50 years. This overload of music supply makes demand irrelevant and therefore music business stalled two decades ago.

[@cafe.cedarbeard]

So what? I'd rather have places to play music with people out and about than just sit in my glitter cube designing drugs for rubes keyed for popularity and not anything worthwhile. Jam bands still do things. We rarely get paid, but so what? The industry is and always has been cursed.

[@ratwynd]

Nice edit going to B&W imaging with your ad. As an old school photographer (remember that tech, chemistry, not physics?) I spent too many hours in the dark smelling acetic acid.

[@davestr7031]

I thought you said “Look at the Cars.” And I thought, ‘ yeah, The Cars were definitely retro futuristic.’.

[@glennpagemusic]

I get your point about looking back instead of forward (and the relationship between technology and the evolution of popular music) but it should be noted that Roxy Music had retro-futurism and post-modernism way back in 1972! 😮 (To be fair, they were still a mainly forward looking band, even though they took many of their cues from the past.)

[@BloppityBloopity]

People have always looked to the past for inspiration. Romans were obsessed with Greeks. Brits, during the 60's, were looking back at blues from decades prior.

[@ministryofguitar]

True. Technology and western popular culture was remarkable future looking worst WW2 till recently

[@shanerose5348]

I'm thankful to have experienced the analog, gear hauling, multi member band. The process of creating something, honing it, taking it out live and putting it down in the studio, doubling tracks the old fashioned way lol. Fortunate enough to still be playing music 2 to 6 times a week through worship - with a real amp!! Always enjoy your perspective on things.

[@tomdbass1]

This is the age of the sideman (as limiting as that is) but for me, it’s about making a living. It’s pretty much impossible to make a living as a set member of a band anymore. The work’s just not there. As a hired musician there’s much more work available. It’s pretty much always been that way. You have to make a decision as to what do want to get out of the music industry. I really couldn’t care less if someone knows who I am or how “famous” I become. But I do care greatly if I can pay my bills or not.

[@jeffreyroedel9804]

Jack Antonoff's band Bleachers (formed in 2014) is a band that has had critical and touring success on their own in the US, but more interesting they sit at the intersection of band-world and solo pop artist-world because on many songs they serve as a sort of "house band" (like the old "Wrecking Crew") for artists like Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey, Florence and the Machine, Sabrina Carpenter, among others.

[@Bluepillphil-d1w]

I always hated being in bands, egos and attitudes always got in the way. Modern technology for solo production is a God send, I completely understand its appeal.

[@txtmstrjoe]

I refuse to believe that the days of having a band are gone. I think it comes down to a matter of choice, both in terms of how you choose to make your music as well as with what music you choose to consume. While it's true that pretty much everything I've recorded so far has been self-made, my preference is to have the music I make be made with a band. But not having that band available at this time is not going to stop me from making the music I want to make (i.e., music by a rock band) the way I way I hear it in my head. Likewise, the stuff I enjoy listening to the most is not influenced by what's popular at the moment, but by what informs my own favored preferences (again, music made by a rock band - although, to be frank, I'm also really heavy into orchestral/symphonic styles as well). I guess I just enjoy my music when it's made by an ensemble. That's not to say I don't love music made by soloists, because I definitely do (and I occasionally write songs intended to be played and sung by just me and my guitar). Anyway, yeah. I'll never believe that the time for music by bands is forever consigned to history. Not when I still find bands playing and I'm still enjoying them (and I'm still making that kind of music and still craving to play that stuff live with a full rock band).

[@NGC-gu6dz]

Contemporary popular music is just an extension of global homogenization that requires cultural stagnation. Derivative is the norm and novelty saps the mass appeal needed to be marketable. Bands are outmoded in the goal of developing parasocial relationships with your favorite cultural products that are chosen for you by the algorithm. Tune in and switch your brain off to receive the message and consume the next amazing product. Thought provoking take as usual right honourable guitar minister.

[@xmathmanx]

Ignorant nonsense, you people are preposterous

[@Bluepillphil-d1w]

Some impressive language used there! True. Its like cars, all homogenized these days. And as I dont consume radio or mtv or whatever, I actually find the newer catchy songs from those that appear in advertising

[@stevecastiglione8901]

bands are not extinct - they don't dominate the charts as they once did, but there is still a big presence...like tube amps being surpassed by modeling technology - they too are far from being extinct

[@benjaminhawthorne1969]

Other examples of "retro" automobiles are Chrysler's PT CRUISER & PROWLER.

[@ministryofguitar]

Correct. Also the Ford Thunderbird and also frankly the entirely of BMWs Mini revival

[@dtrain5171]

The worst thing about the music business is dealing with musicians.

[@Lengsel7]

Well, that depends on the particular musician you happen to be dealing with....like any other part of humanity.

[@lancenunez8252]

Just because you can do something doesn’t make it a good idea. While music can be made/consumed, etc., it’s often better and more meaningful when it’s a shared experience. It’s a language that connect us in a way that words cannot.

[@ratwynd]

Question? The white LP-ish thing over your left shoulder.... Is it a Gretsch Jet?

[@Bluepillphil-d1w]

I'm not doom and gloom about this at all. AI is going to be of great use for the home producer. Problem with being one person is, if I want a choir part in the song, how do i do it? I dont have one at my disposal. If I want a rapper, how do I do it? AI is going to fix this lack of available talent, and the best songs ever written, are yet to come.

[@GigginDude]

Dammit Utkarsh I hate it when you make sense.

[@unitedstatesofpostamerica7559]

I’ve been in several bands but just seems difficult now, only thing getting momentum is solonproject geared towards streaming

[@steveDC51]

Very disappointed to see you using this sponsor- I thought you would know better.

[@ministryofguitar]

Oh why do you say so?

[@GameraGodzilla-j9h]

They're a terrible company that rips off vulnerable people.

[@lazvt8469]

Hindley Street Country Club band.....arguably the "world's BEST cover band" hailing from Australia.....REALLY love their music and vast cover library on their website. Check it.

[@ministryofguitar]

Love them too

[@MCSA210]

My favorite new music to liaten to today is, the Dead South, Southern River Band, Die Spits and Starcrawler. All bands. I get that nearly all top 40 streams and the most popular are not bands. . That doesnt mean there isnt a real place for bands still. Maybe just more underground, but F it. . . Thats how rock n roll started anyway.

[@ministryofguitar]

I agree. It’s going to be more niche and underground

[@user-jy3io4iz2p]

Music has become too cerebral.

[@ElvisBeery]

🤘 The Warning 🤘

[@scorchedearthdj]

måneskin are awesome. fyi, it's pronounced moh-neskin. it means moonlight in danish. good commentary though. i was a musician in the 1990s and getting people together to play was challenging, nevermind recording something. now, i record in my room and have access to resources i could never have imagined when i was a young guitar player. i've also been lucky to find a group of people who like to get together and play music regularly. we perform at a bar and in a public park almost weekly. the only problem is that i am one of the 'younger' jam band members.