DM's Beatles forums
Other music forums => Musician's Corner => Topic started by: Loco Mo on October 05, 2019, 11:45:48 AM
-
I've been thinking about how famous bands break up and how they're always asked when they'll get back together. So, I started thinking about the reasons bands break up.
So, if you're rich and famous, why would you break up your band?
If you're along for the ride, why'd you want to leave that successful band?
Why can't you just swallow your pride and play on for the bennies that come with it?
Is it because you don't like another band member? If so, how many of us can hold jobs if we don't like one or more of our co-workers. Most ordinary non-famous people on average aren't making a lot of money like famous bands are.
So my question this fine morning is: Why do bands break up? Why?? I've got to know - I need to know - WHY DO YOU ALL BREAK UP??? HUH??? C'mon dish us some dirt now, ya'll. Ka-moan!
-
I think the answer is it’s hard to keep a group of four or five people together in any enterprise for a lengthy period of time. Even if you ignore that music probably attracts a higher proportion of highly strung personalities.
In a group of four there are six “bilateral” relationships that need to be kept on a positive working level. Simon and Garfunkel couldn’t hold it together with one relationship. So there’s a lot of opportunities for problems to arise.. If a band isn’t successful it will break up as members look for better options. At the other end, a rich and famous band might break up because they can. There’s less incentive to keep going if you’re financially secure and there’s any problems between band members. Even aside from just boredom of doing the same thing with the same people over and over.
Even bands that stay together rarely do so without significant membership changes. U2 and a few others such as ZZ Top and Rush are the exception. That supports the notion that it’s just hard keeping people together.
-
I was hoping there'd be more discussion on this thread. Maybe there aren't a lot of musicians on this Forum. Maybe it's mostly listeners not players. What I'd like to read is people describing how their bands broke up - that's all. Personal anecdotes, you know?
-
I was hoping there'd be more discussion on this thread. Maybe there aren't a lot of musicians on this Forum. Maybe it's mostly listeners not players. What I'd like to read is people describing how their bands broke up - that's all. Personal anecdotes, you know?
Oh Loco. Do I have a tail of woe in that regard....
-
I've never been in a serious band setting for very long and the ones I have been in we all went in knowing it wasnt going to last for various reasons anyways. I have played with a ton of people however and its pretty easy to see why bands break up over time. Lets face it, a lot of times you just dont click with others. Band mates are a lot more intimate than coworkers and the such. Not only do you spend a lot of time together, but you also inherit their personalities, habits, feelings, moods, etc, while working with them and the output depends on making it all work in a musical context. As a drummer, you have to be able to lock in with the bass player or its a huge fail. I've played with a bunch of people in which we wanted to kill each other after playing. The music got played, but there was no way I was going to hang out with them afterwards. When relationships become that toxic, people tend to distance themselves from each other.
-
I think its a lot to do with ego.
Most musicians I've met and played with have ego's. And there are those dictator types that want to decide everything.
But yeah, personality clashes are the main reason.
I admire the Stones working through their differences all these years.
-
Moog, please tell your tale even if it's very sad.
Thanks, tkitna. I feel the same way about the limited time of my life when I played in a few bands. I don't ever remember being fired. I think I just stopping getting phone calls for rehearsals.
nimrod: Yeah, it seems like it's egos with the dinosaur band breakups of the past. I think one or more guys thinks he's the whole show and resents his band mates as a result.
Why'd Simon and Garfunkel split up? Was it something like that? I can imagine Paul Simon thinking he was the whole show because he wrote all the songs (I think).
-
The last band I was in was a solid covers band, we got gigs in clubs/pubs etc.
It was ended by the lead guitarist, who as a dictator. I the end the singer got p*ssed off with him criticising him and quit, the the rest of us joined him.
From what Ive read Paul was headed into this dictator territory, and in The End. the other 3 got really fed up with it.
-
The last band I was in was a solid covers band, we got gigs in clubs/pubs etc.
It was ended by the lead guitarist, who as a dictator. I the end the singer got p*ssed off with him criticising him and quit, the the rest of us joined him.
From what Ive read Paul was headed into this dictator territory, and in The End. the other 3 got really fed up with it.
Its always the lead guitarist isnt it? ha2ha
-
Its always the lead guitarist isnt it? ha2ha
Egomaniacs ;D
-
Now that I think about it, it was the lead guitarist in one band who didn't like me. And so I was toast. I tried to make him laugh but he would scowl whenever I tried to be funny. It's as if he was saying my jokes were too stupid for him to laugh at. My attempts at humor dishonored him, I guess.
Hard to believe someone wouldn't like you because of the jokes you told.
Actually, I don't think that was it. I'm thinking maybe a girl he liked liked me. That would surely make him hate me. Those teenage years were pretty complicated, I'll say.
-
That’s only because the lead guitarist can break up the band. You just replace drummers and bassists. ;D