Well, That Explains A Lot ...

I'm almost completely into "older music." The only "new artist" from the last decade or so who really impresses me that much is Billy Strings.

I've thought about why I don't like most of the newer stuff very much, but other than a lot of it being very hip-hop-influenced and me not really being much into hip-hop, I couldn't put my finger on any particular reason why.

This morning, I ran across one of Rick Beato's videos from a few months back -- embedded below, but the link is to his channel and you should subscribe if you're into music at all -- and the light bulb came on. 

Three words: Bands Have Disappeared.

Being born in the mid-1960s, my experience of music -- rock music, anyway -- was bands. The Stones. The Beatles. Zeppelin. ELO. Rush. Etc. Yes, there were single-name acts (Bob Dylan is the first to come to mind), but it was mostly bands.

To confirm some of the numbers Beato was throwing around, I went and checked the latest Hot 100. On the singles chart, not a single band in the top 20. All solo artists or solo artists "with/featuring" other solo artists. On the album chart, two band albums in the top 20, both of them "greatest hits" type compilations by bands that were big decades ago (Fleetwood Mac and Oasis).

Which brings me back to Billy Strings. Yes, it's a single guy's name and I suppose listeners tend to think of it as him. But most of his music is very much played in a "band" context. Bluegrass, which is inherently a "band" kind of music even if it's got one guy's name on it. Or him jamming with a jam band. He has some cool duets out (e.g. "California Sober" with Willie Nelson, a fantastic performance of "All Along the Watchtower" with Dylan just the other day, etc.), but even that stuff is "band-ish," and I suspect he'd be the first to admit that even when he's a "frontman," he's generally playing band music (I may have embedded it before, but check out "Dust In A Baggie" at the Grand Ole Opry). And while I have the utmost respect for his abilities (and tastes) as a musician, that probably explains why I find him far more impressive than a gazillion other "solo artists."

Anyway, Beato (who also has a great interview with Strings) explains the "what happened to bands?" thing quite well in terms of the ability of solo artists to just plug in some MIDI stuff to sing over, then hire session players for a finished product, and how the music industry finds it easier to deal with one artist rather than with an argumentative group of artists, etc.

It makes me sad.