Bands are a waste of time

One of the central DateMonthYear operating prinicples is that it is “not a band” which perhaps might deserve a bit of explaining.
The first idea is about the death of “the band” in modern music. This first became apparent with the advent of reality TV “bands” made up of faces who were competent enough singers to deliver the goods, but not experienced enough professionals to question where the money was . Older types everywhere could be heard gasping “…thats not a BAND, a BAND has real musicians playing real music…etc”. When you scratch the surface, what those purists were expecting from a “band” was a self contained musical unit based on the 60s models, 3-5 men (usually), gifted musicans/songwriters, good looking, anti-establishment…the list goes one and on, and becomes quite a narrow set of constraints. What the pop idol bands did was pretty much explode a myth- anyone could be a “band” simply by virtue of saying that you are, and plainly the whole concept is of most comfort to the industry that built up around it.Look at the example of Ian Stewart, who played piano for the Rolling Stones from the very beginning, but was never in any “band” photos, covers, etc because management deemed him unworthy of the status of “band member”.
A second point has to do with musical input. And we come to the sad case of Lol Tolhurst of The Cure who ended up being sacked because of incompetance but was legally able to go down fighting by claiming his member ship to the band entitiled him to all sorts of things (he did lose the case, though). the point is this, though- why would you want someone around who is not making a worthwhile contibution? why should that person be legally entitled to fight for his or her status when their musical contribution is not valuable? Consider the also tragic case of the Smiths, who never (it would seem) formalised their band agreements and ended up in court suing each other for royalties. In both these cases ( and, no doubt many others) the constraints of being ‘in the band’ backfired quite badly.
DateMonthYear presents an alternative arrangement. People are invited to make a contribution, and the level of conribution decrees their level of committment and financial return. Plainly, the best income a musican can make is as a songwriter, and so for DateMonthYear, level of contributrion determines a cut in songwriting. This is a flexible process arrived at by open negotiation and works very well indeed, provided all concerned communicate clearly.
What this means is that DateMonthYear’s sound can develop, expand or contract depending on those contributing. the effect is that the music can end up being full of surprises. Witness the style shift from the versions of Ghost5 and Ghost6 on 7Ghosts to their alternives on theGreatDateMonthYearGuitaRemixChallenge

~ by datemonthyear on July 15, 2009.