Fun Stuff > BAND

Bands not allowed time to mature. Sort of.

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spoon_of_grimbo:

--- Quote from: Johnny C on 25 Mar 2009, 09:10 ---If you get dropped and you quit releasing music then perhaps you should have never been releasing music in the first place. The only person who can stop you from writing and releasing music is you.

--- End quote ---

this was exactly what i thought when i read the first post.  there's a whole range of indie labels that would jump at the chance to sign bands who've just come off a major label deal.  for example, SideOneDummy are jokingly known as "the place where old punk bands go to die," but several bands have left major labels and carried on successfully as SideOneDummy artists, two examples being The Mighty Mighty Bosstones and The Suicide Machines.

spoon_of_grimbo:
this also ties in well with a short-lived thread i started a while back about whether or not bands should release one or more EPs before recording a debut full-length.  i reckon if more bands started with an EP (and i mean a full on 5 or 6 track one, not a short one that could be dismissed as a glorified single) or two, not only would their debut album be riding on more publicity and reputation, but if the EPs flop a bit, it's less of a big deal and less likely to cause them to be dropped by their label.

Jimor:
I saw the death of the majors written in a 1999 Billboard article that talked about this very thing.

The thrust of the article was that the majors were sick of supporting an artist through 3 or 4 albums while they built a following, only to have them bolt for another label when big money was offered. Carefully not mentioning of course was that they ALL did this to each other so the bidding wars were their own fault, and of course, that means they succeeded in creating a multimillion-dollar band -- they just wanted to keep paying the journeyman rates for that act.

Their solution? More manufactured pop like Spice Girls. Instant hits with big money, and when people got sick of them (or they started asking for too much money), just create a new act to take their place.

Move ahead 10 years now, and these same record companies are whining that catalog sales are a large part of the lost market in the past few years. Well DUH! Who the fuck is going to buy Britney Spears' first album 5 years after it comes out? But if you have that band with 4 or 5 solid albums from their paying dues era in the wings when they hit it big, all those are going to move again as well.

The doom surrounding the utter sincerity in what they were saying seemed so obvious to me. Fortunately, as others are saying, there are alternatives for musicians and fans.

Thrillho:

--- Quote from: MusicScribbles on 25 Mar 2009, 09:52 ---I'm sorry?
I'm not exactly sure I understand what you're getting at with your last post.

--- End quote ---

Of course bands that get dropped will often continue to make music, but until a decade or so ago, without a major label (and I'm aware of indie labels, but let's face it, the majority of them didn't have much circulation) nobody would fucking hear it.

These days you can record a crappy demo on your computer and put it on the internet, and presto-change-o you have a shit-ton of fans.

Johnny C:
who cares how many people listen to it

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