There may be something to this. Social media maybe better for solo acts, but bands need to use it effectively. Spiritual Cramp is a good example of band using social media to its advantage. While they'll never be huge, much in the same way The Replacements could never have been huge, they are selling out most if not all of their shows. Can't say if SM has helped them, of course, it's influence is difficult to quantify. Taylor Swift would have been huge without social media, I think.OrthodoxEaster wrote: Thu Apr 18, 2024 11:06 am A discussion I saw between Andy Schwartz (New York Rocker editor) and Joe Carducci (SST label manager; author) last weekend got me thinking: Say what you will about the atrocious '90s bullshit we've been dropping into this thread, but at very least, that stuff was all played by bands. Awful ones, granted. (Maybe the least offensive material would be pre-fame Goo Goo Dolls' Replacements-lite shtick? Or perhaps Bush's weak-sauce UK take on sellout, post-relevance American grunge?)
When contemplating "hit" music today, the talk I attended turned to the point made by this article:
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/ ... the-charts
There are almost no bands or duos on the charts anymore.
Basically, it's easier, cheaper, and more profitable (from a CEO standpoint) to mold and market the solo acts responsible for most music sales today compared to some unwieldy, compromise-laden, diverse group of people that might have found fame decades ago. Regardless of genre. Bands are messier for business and more democratic by design. And tech and social media have a lot to do w/the shift away from them towards a sort of shiny, totalitarian pop.
Even though things had been sliding this way for decades, the pandemic also forced people into more solitary music-making habits, and the band dynamic never really recovered. To boot, that suits the fact that most record labels are now part of entertainment and tech conglomerates that aren't staffed w/as many "music people" anymore. The net result is an entertainment product that has less of a push-pull quality, b/c it's more oriented to one person's (and/or the marketing department's) vision.
That said, I really wish this thread had not reminded me of the existence of two Live songs I hadn't thought about for at least 25 years.
Also, the article above alludes (at least) to Taylor Swift being a solo act. She isn't. She has a band, pretty sure she always has. There's a HUGE difference between an MC/producer (Drake) and Taylor Swift. They don't seem to differentiate in the above article.
Finally, there's no shortage of bands playing live shows, in LA anyway.
