Does bass govern genres of music

[la bam]

Morning all,

Im fairly new to this forum and theres some excellent stuff on here!

I was reading one of the other topics when someone, about Mark King's impact with his new style of slap playing in the 80s had written "he inspired thousands to take up the bass - how many other new bassists have done that?", then got to thinking:

[b]Does a new genre of music need a ground breaking new style of bass playing and player for it exist as its own musical genre?[/b]

My case is - each of the following were ground breaking styles of music AND had completely new ground breaking styles of bass playing:

50s rock n roll - pentatonic and double bass style playing everywhere
60s motown and similar - Jameson, Dunn and Kaye, lovely feel and sound, but distinctive.
70s metal - Geezer Butler, heavy attack and dark atmosphere created (just the 3 notes in the title track 'Black Sabbath' were enough to scare the world!)
70s disco - Bernard Edwards / funk / groove - nothing like anything heard before
70s punk - Matlock/JJ/etc fast growl and snarl
80s ska - great mix of reggae, speed and syncopation
80s pop, synth and slap



ie - would the above styles of music have existed if the bass players concerned with them hadnt come up with new techniques/ideas and styles, rather than just new basslines? Each bass style above is completely different and exists in a completely different type of music. Is that because of the music or is the music because of the bass playing?

To come full circle - I dont remember a bass player in my time creating the hysteria it is said King did - ive not watched anyone on TV do anything completely unique and groundbreaking to make people gasp and take up the bass in their thousands? And to be fair - with the exception on Indie music (which i love) has there been any great new styles of music created? Theres dance music - but i dont hear of any famous dance music bassists inspiring people to take up the bass?

And is there any type of ground breaking bass playing around that is likely to create the next big thing - or have we gone stale?

Edited December 27, 2011 by la bam

[mckendrick]

A very thought provoking post, la bam.

I would argue you missed out sixties pop and the melodic bass playing styles and lines of the likes of McCartney and Brian Wilson - styles pretty unknown until their time came - although you did mention Carol Kaye I would say she fit into this category, but even the great bass player as she was I would say she was hardly inventive. A great reader of a song and gifted in being given a line and repeating it off-pat with barely a rehearsal. What a great skill. And what a great player for the likes of Wilson to call upon. Eminently suited to his working style.

's funny innit, I found Martk King kind of embarrassing when they stuck him with the rock greats at those RAH Prince's Trust Concerts although to be fair he'd be the first person to admit it didn't really work. I think [i]parts[/i] of his style certainly influenced a few players, but when he got too notey it might aswell just been a rhythm guitar.... saying that I suppose it was - just a few octaves lower.

Level 42 were quite interesting at first but I got pretty bored pretty quickly with what soon appeared to be a one trick pony.

At the end of your penultimate paragraph you say 'there's dance music'. Are you refering to the the likes of the stuff you'd hear at Manumission and on Ministry compilations...? If you are, there really is no bass 'style' involved, just a part of the programmed equation via your controller and whatever imstrument sample you chose to play in the 400hz area. Bass frequency.... and so some could argue it's a 'style' of sorts: it is 'bass playing' - but not as we[b][i] bassists[/i][/b] know it.

Edited December 27, 2011 by mckendrick

[ZMech]

[quote name='la bam' timestamp='1324957515' post='1478753']There's dance music - but i dont hear of any famous dance music bassists inspiring people to take up the bass?
[/quote]
That's because it rarely uses live bass guitars. On the other hand, loads of my mate's have taken up DJing/producing, which I'd say is a similar kind of effect.

Nice post though. I think it partly comes back to the genre being partly defined by the rhythm, which the bass should always have a big hand in.

[la bam]

I definitely wanted to include the likes of Brian wilson and Mccartney but couldnt think of how to describe them! - 60s melodic pop will do great, thanks,

I was trying to explain (pretty badly as it was late) that when completely different styles of playing have been invented or evolved on bass, which were previously unimaginable, a new style of music has been created from it.

Theres more to come out of the bass, thats for sure, and we're due a fresh batch of pioneers soon!

[derrenleepoole]

What, not one mention of the J word...

Edited December 27, 2011 by derrenleepoole

[Bilbo]

Most genres are a series of developments over time rather than one epiphnay. Mark King was influential but he had his predecessors on Stanley Clarke and Larry Graham, for instance. Geezer was not innovator, just took a lot of what had gone before in rock. I think genres are defined not by instruments/instrumentalists but by the relationships between instruments. A walking bass is seen as a jazz thing but idea of a walking bass appears all over the place in other genres but is not heard in the same way due to differing relationsips with the other instruments in the various enselmble. Latin bass is the same as a lot og power ballad bass playing but isn't heard in teh same way because of the other stuff; arrangement, instruments, song forms, drum rhythms etc

[Spoombung]

I note with weary resignation that nearly all topics concerning the history of the Bass Guitar and it's role in popular music end at the 1980's.

[mckendrick]

[quote name='Johnston' timestamp='1324971299' post='1478768']
Surely Nigel Clutterbuck is the future
[/quote]
Surely!