MIDICraft's MIDINET CD-ROM/MIDICraft's MIDINET CD-ROM.iso/DOCS/BANDDEAD.TXT

Text File | 1996-09-03 | 5.6 KB | 89 lines

                        Is the 'Band' concept dead?

                 An article written for MIDICraft Magazine

                             by Graeme Coleman

I recently picked up a copy of   the  British music magazine 'Making Music'
from my local music  shop,  which  contained  an   article   by  one of its
writers on the state of the  current  music  scene. The article  was called
'The End Is Nigh' and the writer  went  on to  comment  on  the  demise  of
live bands, provoking some heated response  in the following  issues.  Most
of  the replies to the article  were  from  guitar players who claimed that
the  live band was NOT dead, but you should have seen what they wrote...

Now, first things first! This article is NOT meant to criticize ANY area of
the current music scene! I respect  ALL  music  and  musicians,  as I am an
amateur musician myself, and I gain  a  lot   of   pleasure when I create a
masterpiece. So before any guitar  or  keyboard  players  start  sending me
naughty things through the  post,  let  me  explain  what  this article  is
about. It is not the concept of  the  'Live  Band' that is dead  - that  is
alive  and  well,  and  quite  rightly   so!  What  is  slowly  killing  an
appreciation  of  'The Band'  concept  is  the  differing attitudes of both
keyboard players and guitarists to each other!

I was  disappointed  when   I   read   various   readers   replies   to the
article,  in  which,    many    were    simply   criticizing   'Technology'
outright,  but   the  main  arguments   put  forward,  in  the  majority of
published letters, was that  keyboard  players  were  only  good enough for
creating Techno music and  guitar  players  were  only  capable of creating
Grunge!  One  obsessed  reader  called  Future  Music,  which  although  is
basically a keyboard magazine  but  covers  a wide range of musical tastes,
a "Techno-w*nk" magazine. (Sorry, but  it   has  to  be said!) Other letter
writers shared the opinion that keyboard players were lonely 'Technofreaks'
who liked  to  sit  in  front  of  a  computer  monitor  typing  in  little
instructions! What is going on here?

Likewise, I've met many fellow  keyboard   players   who   have a less than
liberal attitude towards guitarists! Listen to  any current 'Dance' music -
can you hear any "real"  guitarists  actually  playing the  guitar in their
recordings? You  may  hear  the  occassional  guitar  riff,  but   this  is
generally sampled from a culled  collection of commercial sample instrument
CDs. I  do not want  to  criticize  any  keyboard  players, indeed I'm am a
keyboardist  myself, but surely you  get  more  human  feeling from a "real
live guitar sound"!

If you listen to a considerable   amount   of   new  bands broadcast on the
radio, you'll  probably  notice  that  the're  either  of  the  'Techno' or
'Grunge' variety! It appears that only  established artists such  as Sting,
Bon Jovi, Phil  Collins  etc.  are  using  both  'keyboard's  and 'guitars'
within a recorded song;  (I'm  not  including  keyboard players who trigger
samples  in  a  grunge  song  -  an  all  to  common sight nowadays).  Now,
maybe these kind  of artists don't appeal  to  you?  I must admit I'm not a
great  fan  of  the afforementioned myself! I'd  like to argue, that if you
listen  carefully   to   recordings   which  employ  guitars  and keyboards
together, these instruments  tend  to  compliment  each  other  and go well
together!  Perhaps  this   attitude   is    perpetuated   by   the   Record
Industry in general  who  prefer  to   pigeonhole   music   (i.e.   A  &  R
departments can force commercial styles  on   artists  which  can  lead  to
recently  signed bands not wanting to be  projected as a  'Pop  Group', but
rather  as  something   immediately   street   credible   such   as  either
'Grunge','Techno' or 'Jungle' group).

To all those STILL not convinced by   this argument, then I suggest looking
back to the 1970s, and  especially  the   1980s!.  During these decades the
synthesiser became a new way  forward  in  songwriting  and recording, just
about  EVERY  group  from  1983-86  employed  a  Yamaha  DX7   synthesizer!
However, real drums, bass and  guitar  (and  even  a good vocalist) equally
made their contribution and played  a  HUGE  part  -  in  my  opinion,  the
mid-1980s  contained  all these elements  and  produced the BEST period for
music! This is  not  to say we should dwell on the past however, because as
music is  an  evolving  artform we should  look forward and try new  styles
using  a   wide   variety   of   sounds   by   combining  ethnic, acoustic,
electric, synthesized and  sampled   instrumentation.  After  all, music is
meant to provide a means  of   communication   between musicians as well as
the listener - this the the very  thing  that  makes  music a high art form
which can also be emotionally felt by humans!

As I mentioned at the beginning,  this  article  was not intended to offend
anyone who respects 'Grunge' or 'Techno' music. I hope I haven't offended -
in fact, I love bands from INXS  to  Wet  Wet Wet,  and its irresistable at
college to get up on the table  at a  students  night  out  and  sing/dance
"Saturday Night". That said,  both  guitarists  and keyboard players should
strive to integrate - we  are  all  musicians,  we ought to appreciate each
others instrument. We should seek to  halt those  critics  who  claim  that
"Guitarists  only   like   headbanging"  or  "Keyboard  players  are lonely
computer-loving freaks". This attitude must  not be encouraged to continue,
or before we know it, the 'Band' concept WILL be dead!