It seems like almost every few months, my Facebook or Twitter explodes with people saying how stoked they are that a band that they loved back in the day has reformed. Today was no different. A band that I also loved many years ago, At The Drive-In, announced that they are reforming. In some respects, band reformations are smart – the nostalgia kick is much greater than the feeling of ‘oh, another album…hope this one doesn’t suck’ that you get with some bands who just don’t know when to call it a day. This way, bands make more money from ticket and merchandise sales than they would have if they just stuck around well past their welcome.
I’m not going to deny that I was excited to hear about their reform, but soon after I felt aggravated. A band reformation is taking away opportunities for a new up and coming band to hit the spotlight. They’re collecting a massive paycheck (and perhaps that’s the only reason why they’re reforming in the first place), while many new artists are struggling to make ends meet, and have to work sometimes more than 1 job to stay afloat. And it’s not just a new epidemic. It feels like these reunions and reformations have been taking place more than usual for the last 10 years.
With each band reunion that happens, it becomes even harder for listeners to let go from the past. We go to reunion shows of bands that we loved as teenagers or young adults, because we perhaps didn’t get the chance to when they were first around, or we were not even aware of their music until a few years or months prior to the reunion. Of course, I’m not suggesting that we should forget about bands from the past because that’s an absolutely insane statement to make, but I’m saying that people should be more open in expanding their musical horizons to music that is out today. And actually more likely than not, some of this new music sounds just like music from 40 years ago…another victim of nostalgia. Nostalgia sells right now, it seems.
I’m not saying that bands should just quit when they quit and be done forever, but if you’re going to reunite, it has to be for the right reasons; and the biggest reason is because you want to make new music. Look at one of my favourite bands as an example: The Smashing Pumpkins. I was absolutely excited to see them play in 2008 when they reformed (albeit with only 2 original members, Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlin…but honestly they were the only 2 in that band I really care about) and the show was definitely one of the most memorable I’ve ever been to, despite them playing the same set throughout Europe for each show and not even mixing it up just a little bit. They came out with a new album a year or two prior, albeit it’s not as good, but at least they reunited because they wanted to actually combine their musical forces again.
The bands that I have a problem with are the bands who reunite, play pretty much a greatest hits set, then move on to the next city and do it all over again, while raking in probably more money than they made in their prime, or at least in their dying years. While there are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of bands out there who play shows to virtually no-one despite promoting the hell out of it; simply because there is a lack of interest in local music. You could say that I’m expressing frustrations at my own situation, and you may be right. When there are bands (including mine) who definitely have the tools, experience and talent to be at a better position than where they are now, but seem to not advance because the music industry is obsessed with nostalgia, how can they, or in fact any new band progress to the next level?
It’s kinda crazy to think that there are actually bands out there who are on a decent indie label but have to still work a second job in order to live. Back in the day, you’d get signed, and you would get a big advance and of course decent royalties from record sales and merchandise/ticket sales. Now, the music industry is in such bad shape that many artists who get signed to a label don’t get much financial aid from it. Meanwhile, there are a bunch of teenagers who look good or ‘hip’, who just walk in to a studio, try to sing and then get auto-tuned to hell, and somehow seem to make plenty of money out of it, because the big labels with the money are behind them. And then, when bands from the past reunite, there is a similar sense of label support, they see the dollar bills floating in their eyes and gravitate towards those artists. It’s a business, after all.
It seems to be more about looks than talent. A band like Black Sabbath (who have also reformed in the last few months) in today’s day and age wouldn’t have had a snowballs chance in hell of making it – let’s face it, they’re not the most attractive looking guys. But it was their MUSIC that stood out. They did something DIFFERENT. They weren’t blatantly copying the music of the time, which many big selling artists do today (like Adele for example, who sounds like she’s right out of 1960′s R&B and soul) they were creating music they loved because they enjoyed it. With Sabbath, heavy metal was born, and we wouldn’t have got that pioneering genre if it wasn’t for them.
That’s another issue I have. Music just seems so stale and stagnant these days. Everything in the pop world is so clean-cut and harmless. Most artists are just looking to the past, rather than create their own genre or style of music. Even the musicians themselves seem to be copying their idols, almost directly at times. There just seems to be a total lack of creative energy, some of us are just trapped in the crap of what this world has become. Musicians, if they are being honest, feel more demotivated than ever before because they just aren’t being given a chance to shine. It doesn’t come for free, and it’s not easy, but when there’s absolutely no interest from the public or from the industry itself, some who want to be successful might think, well, what’s the point? The old cronies get back together, make a ton, then stop touring. It’s relatively easy money. Or, a singer who can’t sing just gets edited in the studio and sounds like a robot, and the pop fans love it and don’t question it.
I just think generally there needs to be a change in how we view music. There needs to be a hunger from the music listener to listen to something new, something different. But until that happens, we’re going to be stuck in the past for the forseeable future.
