george1146561 wrote:Badstrat wrote:Dayne Nobody IV wrote:SOURCE:
http://bloodrockmedia.com/local-bands-p ... our-fault/
it's you sucky musician's fault.. that get a gig and then bore their patrons to death with at best, mediocre music..
Strip away the mediocre music from club acts and what do you have left? A bunch of bewildered musicians standing around with stupid expressions on their faces.
Sounds like you're describing the bands who insist they have to write "originals", then proceed to write derivative songs that suck. I have heard more than a few really excellent live bands in the past few years. They all happen to play the kind of "uncovers" I described in another thread that someone whose name I won't mention trashed.
Good music starts with good songs. Even the best bands on the entire planet write and record some really terrible songs. Take any band with ten gold or platinum recordings, averaging ten songs each. I'm talking a really outstanding band, with a long career. Those ten CD contain 100 original songs. Maybe a dozen of them are really and truly great. And that's from really great bands. If the best such bands can manage is slightly over one out of ten original songs being worth listening to, how can a start-up band expect to write enough originals worth listening to play at a club for over an hour?
With the exception of super groups, or bands formed from the wreckage of older bands, the best bands I've heard that I've followed for any length of time started out as cover bands. As they worked on covers, they expanded into "uncovers" (see the ruined thread for a definition). When they got to be good at working together, know each other musically, and becoming a cohesive unit, they started adding in original songs. They'd introduce the new songs alongside their covers and uncovers, and adjust and tweak them based on audience response. The originals that the audiences liked stayed in their set list, the others were cast aside. Eventually, they ended up with a set list of mostly good originals. And during this process, they worked their way up the ladder of venues from the dives to the better ones.
But I suppose none of that is true nowadays. Struggling start up bands don't worry about playing live, they worry about selling digital downloads. Eventually, they figure they'll sell enough digital downloads to start getting gigs as opening acts. It's hard to say what goes through their minds, as there doesn't seem to even be a path any more.
DO you really think start-up bands are worrying about selling digital downloads? There's no money in it. Even assuming they do it on their own web site (rather than an established platform like iTunes or CDBaby), they've got to sell a couple hundred d/l's to clear $50 per person in the band (4 man band). If they don't get out and play gigs, who's going to hear their music to even know about the d/l's?
No, there's no real money in that these days, gigging is always going to be much more a moneymaker.
The article has some points, but some that are not realistic, too. 'Go out and support other bands' - some people do this, but on any given weekend night, there may be 5 or 6 local gigs happening with people I know playing. Obviously, I can't go see all of them, and none of them can go see the others, either. 'Hand out flyers at other shows' - really? Advertising your show at someone else's show is in extreme bad taste. If you can get the band to mention your gig between tunes (assume its no conflicting with one of theirs!), great.
George - you are right regarding bands playing nothing but originals - maybe some half-decent originals in the mix - it's hard to get any kind of a dedicated audience from scratch. Your friends/family will come, and tell a few others, but these days the friends of friends all know someone else doing the same thing, too. And they can listen to all the songs (for free) on Spotify or youtube and click to the next song if they don't like the one they're hearing. Data overload - they've got a zillion choices on what to listen to, so no matter how 'good' an original song is by that band, they're other things to listen to and to capture the listener's attention immediately after.
Starting with covers, then 'uncovers' as you call them, and then mixing in some originals over a period of time is one business plan, but honestly, the people going somewhere to hear a band do "songs they know" just turn their ears off when an original is played - and this includes the musicians in the audience, too. These people don't download music, so wouldn't look for a place to d/l the original they heard the night before, wouldn't ask to buy a CD of the originals, and even if the band has them ready and mentions them, they'll be lucky to sell a couple on any night.
It's not that the 'local music scene' is dying, it's just morphing into something else.