The future of bassists.

[Guest subaudio]

Hi folks, could you help me with a college project by answering a question here please?

No right or wrong answers, it would be great if you could go a little further than just yes or no answer:)

Here's the question;

Is the position of bassist secure in the future of contemporary music?

Cheers.

[Happy Jack]

Yes.

[Happy Jack]

Sorry.

[Dad3353]

[quote name='subaudio' timestamp='1507542685' post='3386106']...
Is the position of bassist secure in the future of contemporary music?...
[/quote]

The 'bass sound' is necessary in most music; who or what is creating that sound is subject to evolution. Present trends are towards synthetics, but that is not a 'given' for ever and ever. The present electric bass, as an instrument, is likely to become as essential as past 'essential' instruments, such as the sackbutt, the banjo, the ukulele or the double bass. Still played (and enjoyed...), but not in [i]all [/i]future modern music.
Just my tuppence-worth.

[discreet]

Yes. As Dad says, low-end sound can be generated by that other than a bass guitar, which goes in and out of fashion with some regularity, but in the end a good bass line is a good bass line regardless of how it is produced. Various genres can have sounds which fill that part of the bandwidth traditionally occupied by bass instruments (i.e. various types of rap music which often have a modified kick drum sample spliced with a sub-note instead of a 'bass line'), but the low end of the audio spectrum is usually catered for one way or another. Whether the catering is done by someone who calls themselves a 'bass player' or a 'programmer' is open to debate.

In any case I believe there will always be a place for traditional bass guitar in contemporary music, which covers more ground stylistically and has way more 'genres' now than it did when I were a lad. Eee, it were all fields round here you know and the new 5p pieces are too fiddly.

Edited October 9, 2017 by discreet

[NJE]

Music is probably more diverse and open to people than it has ever been, and with that there will be huge areas and genres where the bass guitar is not needed or wanted. Equally there will always be genres that do not want to use synths or software and want to create a 'vintage' vibe with their music and will rely on traditional instruments. What I see more and more with pop bands especially, is a nice blend of both worlds, synths, triggers, electronic drums but with bass and guitar and even sometimes no guitar.

I think there will always be bass guitars and bass players, the instrument is too ingrained in modern culture to be simply dismissed and forgotten.

[ambient]

I believe so.

The same question could be asked about drummers. How many albums have been recorded since 1980 that haven't featured a 'real drummer'.

For live concerts though, there's still an ongoing need, unless you're Kanye West, then a macbook will suffice .

[Guest subaudio]

These are great! Thank you very much indeed and please keep them coming

[discreet]

[quote name='NJE' timestamp='1507544148' post='3386126']
I think there will always be bass guitars and bass players, the instrument is too ingrained in modern culture to be simply dismissed and forgotten.
[/quote]

It's hard to imagine 50s rock 'n' roll and the subsequent explosion of the 60 counter-culture without electric bass guitar - and all those famous 60s pop and rock hits largely feature either the Fender Precision - that had only been available from 1951 - and the Fender Jazz, available from 1960 at the earliest - so you could say with some justification that it was a revolutionary instrument in many ways.

[BigRedX]

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1507542744' post='3386107']
Yes.
[/quote]

No

[TheGreek]

You have to consider what role the Bass performs in modern music.

While the requirement is a "pulse" or beat then it will be hard pressed to replace the Bass with anything else - yes, the synth bass can do the same job but I believe it's pretty much had it's day in the synth pop of the 80s and the dance scene.

For people looking for "real" music it has to be a "real bass".

[ahpook]

[quote name='subaudio' timestamp='1507542685' post='3386106']
Is the position of bassist secure in the future of contemporary music?.
[/quote]

Not to sound evasive. but it depends what you mean by contemporary music...or 'music' for that matter.

Any style that uses an element of traditional instrumentation, jazz and rock for example, I'd say yes, as long as there's a desire for it.

Pop music ? No....it's gone already. You may seen musicians on stage with pop artists, but I'd argue that's more to add an element of 'authenticity' to the music. I'd wager that a lot of 'guitar' or 'bass' you hear in pop music is out of a box, not played by a person with an instrument in their lap.

Looks good on stage, but why mess around in the studio with the real thing when it's easier, faster and more economical to use software.


As a corollary - furniture is mainly made by machines these days, unless the use of skilled workers is a selling point.

Edited October 9, 2017 by ahpook

[Al Krow]

I'd say we're as secure as any musician in that there is clearly a move to greater use of AI in all aspects of our lives, which is going to change / enhance / make redundant vast swathes of how we intereact with each other.
Would an audience want to go and hear a live band play that was fully automated, probably not.

What if we could all attend gigs via a virtual reality headset?

What if the "live" musicians themselves were then virtual but impossible to distinguish from real characters through our headsets?

Appreciate I'm starting to get into the realms of sci fi and the Matrix, for sure, but then Jules Verne dreamt of men going to the moon and exploring the depth of the oceans in submarines. Ok, so he got the time machine thing wrong, but that's more down to constraints of causality set by General Relativity, which helpfully stops the universe blowing itself up before it was born, and Einstein hadn't kinda worked all that out for us when young Jules was writing his best stuff...

Edited October 9, 2017 by Al Krow

[keeponehandloose]

As secure as a drummer.

[12stringbassist]

I suppose there is always going to be something else that can perform a bass function. The mass-produced identikit crap that Simon Cowell and his ilk force on buyers could be composed and recorded on a home computer by a savvy 10 year old. Whether that something else is interesting to watch in concert or has the same dynamics as a bass guitarist is open to debate.

Certain forms of music demand a bass guitar and thank god for them.

[Conan]

Yes and no. Probably.

[discreet]

[quote name='TheGreek' timestamp='1507547720' post='3386174']
...the synth bass can do the same job but I believe it's pretty much had it's day in the synth pop of the 80s...
[/quote]

Those involved in the international EDM scene would disagree, I'm sure.

[Japhet]

I've not heard anything yet which produces the low end pulse of a rhythm section better than a bass guitar and drums. There have been plenty of attempts, but none have come close in my opinion. Music tends to go full circle at various rates. In the 80s it was suggested that electric guitars were being ousted by synths and keyboards, but that was just another fad.

[discreet]

[quote name='Japhet' timestamp='1507549191' post='3386205']
...In the 80s it was suggested that electric guitars were being ousted by synths and keyboards, but that was just another fad.
[/quote]

Synths and keyboards didn't disappear though, quite the opposite. But Dick Rowe of Decca Records did turn down the Beatles, saying 'guitar groups are on the way out'. There is no crystal ball.

[Japhet]

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1507552068' post='3386245']
Synths and keyboards didn't disappear though, quite the opposite. But Dick Rowe of Decca Records did turn down the Beatles, saying 'guitar groups are on the way out'. There is no crystal ball.
[/quote]

My point was that, contrary to speculation, electric guitars didn't die out in favour of synths.

[Guest subaudio]

This is all great stuff folks, thank you all very much
It's for a mini dissertation and I needed other opinions than my own.
You've really helped me out so thanks again

[ribbetingfrog]

Nothing in life is certain.
Who predicted the rise of rock’n’roll, disco or punk?
Styles come and go, stars wax and wane, fashion moves on.
Who knows what unexpected twists and turns await.

Things seem cyclical to me.
Indie music, my favourite genre had wonderful guitar bands like the stone roses when I was in my teens in 1990.
Things went more electronic for a while then oasis and britpop exploded in the mid nineties, then things went electronic for a while before bands like the libertines, Franz Ferdinand and the Arctic Monkeys made guitars cool again.
We’re currently in an electronic phase with indie but with some great guitar bands still doing well, hopefully things will go guitar based again soon.

Some bands like Imagine Dragons and plenty of others are fusing guitars and edm, playing traditional guitars and basses but using production to make them sound much different.
This to me looks likely to be the way forward, but I wouldn’t presume to be sure.
If it is, it safeguards the bass as essential.

Music with bass notes is ingrained in our society now. The way those notes are generated is not.
Technology provides a world of ideas we could only have dreamed of decades ago.
Pedals, protools, YouTube, synths, all manner of tools to make music it still, good old fashioned guitars and bases persist.
I’d never have guessed anyone would still want to play double basses upside of classical music but they are having a resurgence.

A lot of attention was recently lavished on the article about the death of the electric guitar as annual sales had fallen from 1.5 million to 1 million.
1 million guitars a year is still a mind boggling number.
1 million still shows a huge appetite to lear to play a 70 year old instrument, especially in the face of so Many other things that take less time to learn and master.

I think the bass is here to stay, but who knows what form it will take.
Most innovations don’t seem to succeed as the guitar playing community is a traditional bunch.
Any new Gibson or fender guitars tend to be met with suspicion, and the most popular basses are decades old fender designs.
On day though, attitudes may change, who knows?

Who knows what the future holds.

Finally, every band needs one reliable member who brings spare batteries, strings and tools and who is friendly and not a primadona. Bassist as a position is surely secure just for this.

That is my 2 pence worth.

Edited October 9, 2017 by ribbetingfrog

[fretmeister]

No.

At some point Trump and North Korea will end all music. Not just contemporary stuff.

[discreet]

[quote name='subaudio' timestamp='1507559708' post='3386341']
You've really helped me out so thanks again
[/quote]

Basically we've written your dissertation for you? D'oh!

[BigRedX]

[quote name='Japhet' timestamp='1507549191' post='3386205']
I've not heard anything yet which produces the low end pulse of a rhythm section better than a bass guitar and drums. There have been plenty of attempts, but none have come close in my opinion. Music tends to go full circle at various rates. In the 80s it was suggested that electric guitars were being ousted by synths and keyboards, but that was just another fad.
[/quote]

While the feel of human musicians is generally better and more quickly captured in a recording than trying to program the same thing, the sounds are undeniably less good.