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Thread: Should Cover Bands Be Concerned?

  1. #76

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    Default Re: Should Cover Bands Be Concerned?

    Quote Originally Posted by Cdeleone View Post
    Because art is subjective, everyone has their own opinion.
    Here's the big buzz word for me, it gets used a lot in the "drumming" realm and I often think it's misinterpreted and misused, if not misunderstood.

    Drumming for me is not an ART, it's a Craft.

    A craft that I enjoy and one that has been especially lucrative to me over my lifetime. I've been fortunate to have made decent money playing in cover bands since I started doing it in the 80's.

    Over the close to 7000 gigs I've done since then...I've seen the business model change several times, and I'll agree that the money isn't as easy to make as it was back then. But, there are still gigs out there and money to be made. For me....that's what it comes down to.

    The topic that this thread began with is nothing new, and I saw it happen back in the early 90's with a lot of venues I worked at in upstate NY. In fact - to make things worse, it happened when the LINE DANCING craze hit and while we were going through a big recession. Many clubs were switching to a country format in place of rock and roll. When it was all said an done, the LINE DANCING craze ended and these clubs ended up being boarded up and shut down.

    Bottom line....I enjoy playing/gigging.....playing any type of style, and if I can make money playing covers or originals, at a club, casino, resort or tavern and am appreciated......I'm happy.

    It beats the hell out of staying home and making videos on youtube for everyone to see. (for free). But....if that's what makes you happy - that's good and I am not "slamming it".
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  2. #77

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    Default Re: Should Cover Bands Be Concerned?

    I respect bands that do original stuff. I agree that it is an art form. I love to hear and even play songs I've never heard before. Unfortunately, the crowd that goes down to the local tavern on Saturday night to drink and party is not usually interested in art, LOL. Many times, they aren't even the type that will sit and LISTEN to a band. If it isn't a simple, danceable song, they arent happy. Like was stated earlier, get the ladies dancing and you got it made.
    I actually prefer bands that do covers....but do them their own way. Change it up and make it their own. To me, it's like turning an old car into a hot rod. You inject your own creativity and personality. Let's face it, almost ALL the iconic bands and artists made their name doing plenty of covers. We're it not for early American Blues, where would rock-n-roll be now? The British Invasion was founded on covers of traditional and contemporary Blues.
    -Brian

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    Play the SONG......not the DRUMS!!!

    "I think that feeling is a lot more important than technique. It's all very well doing a triple paradiddle - but who's going to know you've done it? If you play technically you sound like everybody else. It's being original that counts." ~ John Bonham

  3. #78

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    Default Re: Should Cover Bands Be Concerned?

    Drumming as a craft...well I can see that in some ways, if you are doing a steady 1/4 beat under 1/8ths, it's hard to call that an art form.

    But let's take a step back for a minute and consider music as a whole. Music is an art, something that expresses an original idea from someone that is in some way communicated to someone else. It could be a building, a garden, painting, sculpture, poem, film ect...

    Craft is about function. If you make a vase to hold flowers in, that's a craft. The decorative arts do blur the line (have a look at Josef Hoffmann's stuff if you really want to see amazing stuff), but ultimately, the purpose is to serve a function (and please nobody get all semantic and say communicating ideas is a function!).

    Drums of course hold down the rhythm, which we can argue is just a function. However, I would posit that this is one part of many, perhaps not the most decorative part, but you cannot say that the guitar solo is art, but the drum beat is not, as they are both part of an overall work. Also, I'm listening to Elvin Jones with Coltrane Live at the Village Vangard 1961, and yea, that's art on drums!

    In music, I would say DJing, spinning other people's music for the dancefloor (as opposed to remixing or making your own music) is a craft. The function is to get people to dance. In this logic, we could also say that a cover band is a craft...I'm not sure if I 100% agree with that, but it doesn't sit poorly with me.

    Does this mean the beebs is an artist as he does original music? well, is there an idea he's trying to communicate? probably not.

  4. #79

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    Default Re: Should Cover Bands Be Concerned?

    N2: " Let's face it, almost ALL the iconic bands and artists made their name doing plenty of covers. We're it not for early American Blues, where would rock-n-roll be now? The British Invasion was founded on covers of traditional and contemporary Blues."

    Those originals were not popular, not known by the general public, so the covers sounded like original music to most people. And for the most part, were original versions. Most of the originals were brought to light after the covers became popular.

    Could be that covering those old blues songs enabled 60's pre-rock musicians in developing their musical abilities....they had to practice to something, right? And then, off they went to join John Mayall in the UK. Well not all of them...I still find it ironic that Hendrix went to the UK to find bass and drums.

    So today if you cover Hendrix' Experience, you'll probably learn something too, not knocking covering in itself. Putting a spin on an old bit of music is a lot more fun than doing it by the numbers, too.( I've been listening to Plant's "Band of Joy(?)")

    IMO the beebs is an artist. I just don't care for his art. Not all art is good, right? Subjective view, of course.(Warhol vs Rembrandt, for ex.)

    I don't know how the discussion turned to art vs craft, so I'll leave it there, but I call a rudiment a craft...
    Last edited by slinglander; 07-10-2015 at 07:12 AM. Reason: Grammar added comment too
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  5. #80

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    Default Re: Should Cover Bands Be Concerned?

    There is no escape from covering. It is across all genres. Some examples...

    Symphony Orchestras play music written centuries ago and even play it to the last note! The old composers have as much or more draw than modern contemporary compositions. what would an orchestra play if it weren't for music of others?

    In jazz...themes were taken from Broadway and show tunes for melodies and then the soloist's would just play over the chord changes. For example "My Favorite Things" is a familiar melody from a musical (Sound of Music), but when Coltrane is done with it, it's a whole different thing. It's still a cover in a sense.

    In pop... If those American Idols folks went out and sang originals all night, the show would die it's own death.

    In Rock. What can I say. Too many examples to mention but you catch the drift.

    all the best..

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