Is there a disconnect between music you like listen to and the music you play in bands??

[EliasMooseblaster]

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1510341327' post='3405843']
Most often when listening to Schubert, for instance, but also with many disks which have a particular resonance with me (Nostalgia..? A theme..?) Examples would be [b]'The Twelve Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus' (Spirit...),[/b] 'The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars' (Bowie...), 'Surrealistic Pillow' and 'Bless Its Pointed Little Head' (Jefferson Airplane...); very recently I came across 'Bee Gees' 1st' which I'd not listened to for fifty years. Some albums are only complete if listened to in their entirety, and with attention.
[/quote]

Good to know I'm not the only Spirit fan on this forum!

[Bilbo]

I have almost never played the music I gravitate towards as a listener. I believe that this is because I have always lived away from larger metropolitan areas where better players congregate. On the two occasions when I have run my own band,  the lead players, guitar and saxophone respectively, have resolutely refused to learn the material and the whole thing has ended up being something of a 'nearly but not quite'. Never gigged in a Prog band either although I did rehearse with one once in the 1980s.

 

Interestingly, I am currently practicing guitar solo pieces so that I am NOT reliant on other players. I have had to accept that I am nobody's first call player 

[basexperience]

Definitely. But this could change soon. I listen to quite a lot of electronic music, and the stuff I play, although it’s wheeled around a lot, has never included that. The technical challenge of setup and configuration could be worth the candle, though... thankfully I live to play, no matter what the genre. 

As an ironic twist, though - I’d like to play Jazz in a band of understanding individuals, purely so I could get more experience of playing Jazz live with real musicians without feeling out of my depth or embarrassed. As a learning exercise. 

[Deep Thought]

Our set has evolved over the years, we started off with a female singer and hence did a lot of happy-clappy stuff she liked (Pink and the like), she left and we tried to be a blues band for a while, but gradually more modern stuff and rock crept in. Now I’m noticing that the rock is gradually being edged out by stuff like Killers, Muse, Foos etc. which I do listen to, but the stuff I was brought up on, and listen to most, Stranglers, Husker du, Sisters of Mercy, Pixies etc. would clear a dance floor in seconds. 

[Delberthot]

I absolutely love playing the music I play with my wedding/function band but there isn't a single song in our vast repertoire that I would listen to at home or in the car.

 

That seems a little unusual to me as I have a huge range of bands and artists that I enjoy listening to. My wife tells me I have a bizarre taste in music - eg I have a playlist that contains Little Richard, Motorhead, Abba, ZZ Top, Queen, Yes, Chuck Berry, Gnarls Barklay and System of a Down amongst others.

[Bluewine]

On 11/9/2017 at 11:10, Barking Spiders said:

Does the music you play in your bands differ from what you like listening to for fun? When I used to be in bands I'd rarely ever listen to the tunes we covered for fun. I enjoyed playing them on stage but not listening to for pleasure. These days I mostly listen to electronica but there's not much bass guitar there so it's a bit difficult finding bands who wanna cover Orbital, 808 State etc

 

On 11/9/2017 at 15:40, inthedoghouse said:

 A punter was overheard to say "they're good, but why don't they play anything we know?". Discussing that comment at the next rehearsal, the singer said his answer to that would be "why don't you know anything we play?". As I said, arrogance.

 

Over here in the States we get paid from the income stream of the punters. It's about what they want to hear not what the band wants to play.

Blue

[Woodinblack]

4 minutes ago, Bluewine said:

 

Over here in the States we get paid from the income stream of the punters. It's about what they want to hear not what the band wants to play.

Blue

 

New account blue?

 

And if that is the case, why doesn't every band play exactly the same thing?

[Bluewine]

On 11/9/2017 at 11:23, skidder652003 said:

You have to play what the punters want to listen to if you want bookings and that tends to be the same old shi*e. The skill is sticking numbers in that are fun and challenging to play that you like and aren't too far off the mainstream as to alienate you from the audience (and landlady!)
We've tried the odd bit of Zappa and Yes, it usually went down badly!

We have a great fun mix. Everything from Peter Greene, Robin Trower to Nancy Sinatra.

And you really have to have a stellar front person that the crowd believes in.

 

For us it's s young female lead guitarist that plays blistering  70s style blues rock solos that had a fantastic voice and a captivating believable personality.

I'm spoiled, I would never play in a band with a dud up front.

Blue

Edited November 12, 2017 by Bluewine

[Lozz196]

I`m in an originals street punk band and absolutely love it. Likewise I love many other street punk bands. But I also love many other different music as well, Motown, Queen, Abba, loads of different stuff. To me music is music, I either like what I hear or don`t, though in many cases with the don`ts I can still appreciate if it`s being played well if seeing it live. I saw a band yesterday that I wasn`t particularly keen on but loved the guitarists style.

[jazzmanb]

There is music i only listen to because of the bass player,the majority of stuff i really love to listen too rarely has the bass as a key part.Strange.

Started off liking all the full on stuff.punk,rock etc but not anymore

[Monkey Steve]

for me this is a bit reductive.  I listen to stuff that is in the style of music i play in all of my assorted bands over the years, but I've always listened to stuff outside of those genres and there's loads of styles that I listen to and have never really played.

So it's sort of yes, I do listen to the style of music that I play, but no, I don't play all of the styles of music that I listen to.

What is certainly true is that if I'm in a band playing one particular style then I'll usually find myself listening to more of that genre than previously, whether it's originals or covers, not consciously, more that I seem to be more drawn to listening to the Clash if I've been playing in an old school punk band. 

The only time I can think of where that didn't happen was where the band made a specific point of not pinning itself to a particular musical style.  We always sounded like ourselves, it wasn't like we'd be playing a punk song one minute and a funk song the next, but we didn't worry about what "we" were and restrict ourselves by thinking "well we can't do that because we're a *insert genre here* band"

[peted]

Yes!  I'm in an 80s pop tribute act but I mostly listen to modern progressive heavy metal.  I don't think I'd know where to start playing along to the records that I listen to, but I'm perfectly at home and comfortable playing the pop songs in my band.

[Bluewine]

On 11/12/2017 at 14:16, Woodinblack said:

 

New account blue?

 

And if that is the case, why doesn't every band play exactly the same thing?

Well, we know what our punters want to hear. I can't speak for every band.

Blue

[grandad]

Played 50's, 60's & 70's pop for several years in a covers band. As this was the music of my teen's I enjoyed much of it. Still do at the music club but it does tend to get a bit tedious playing 'Shakin' All Over' for the zillionth time.

Away from the music club I thank my lucky stars to also play in a Jazz quartet since 2 years and am learning so much than I ever did the previous covers band stint. And even though we're all retired and getting on a bit, the music ranges from Jazz standards to anything we fancy we can make a good interpretation of. Recent additions are instrumental versions, (sax, trumpet, rhythm guitar & bass), of THE LOOK OF LOVE and SAMBA PAR TI. I just enjoy nailing great tunes and it's the slow numbers that take a lot of concentration. With guest players and singers now and again the repertoire isn't really limited.

The music I enjoy listening to and would love to play in a band situation would be sort of JJ Cale centred. I don't know how to catagorise it - "Soft Country Rock" maybe?

[paulbass]

I can't record ever being in a band that plays the music that I listen to at home. What does happen however is that my playing is influenced by what I listen to at home and in turn this creates more interest for me to play some songs. Over the past 10 years or so the bands I have joined become more rockier/heavy for some reason yet I'm an old schoolfunkster at heart and this comes through in my playing and it works well. 

[CamdenRob]

Absolutely... To be honest I rarely listen to music, but when I do it's invaribly something from my youth and very heavy.

With the bands I work with I look for the right kind of people over the right kind of music. I play originals as a hobby (work comes first) and it's difficult to find a balance of people who are of a decent enough standard without trying to be rockstars... I'm also a stubborn git and flatly refuse to play anything with the bass parts already written. This obviously narrows down the number of people I can work with, so I can't really afford to be too picky about the style of music I'm playing!

As a result I am currently playing in a band best discribed as "Dad Rock"... Top bunch of guys though and I'm really enjoying it

Edited November 20, 2017 by CamdenRob

[progben]

There's some crossover for sure. The main reason I'm part of my current band, though, is because I've always appreciated the songwriting of our bandleader (who Ive seen play in numerous bands since we were kids - everything from hardcore to black metal). It's been great to be involved with it on a musical level this time rather than as a spectator.

I'd say the main reason I'm still part of it is because of how much I love the people I write and perform with rather than the music though. My tastes are too eclectic to satisfy with one band

[BrunoBass]

We play alt rock and indie covers from the last decade or so. Out of our entire set there are very few songs that I’d go and listen to at home, and actually one or two that I really dislike. But they go down well, and that’s whole point of being in a pub band.

[Linus27]

I guess I've been very lucky as all the bands I have been in I have loved the music. The five original bands I have been in I have been either part composer and did most of the arrangements. Plus free reign to write all my own bass lines so up to me to make it enjoyable but the songs have all been very good with great musicians. The style and genre of music I have liked as well so happy days.

I now play in a very busy, popular 50's/60's cover band with a great bunch of musicians and I love playing about 95% of the songs. Its really enjoyable and most of the bass lines are great fun. The gigs are also a total hoot. I maybe wouldn't of listened to a lot of the songs pre-joining but I have come to appreciate a lot. The Motown stuff I certainly listened to. I tend to enjoy most music anyway from rock, pop, jazz, classical, grunge, indie etc. It's all music and I can learn something from it so I'm just open to it all really.

[FinnDave]

Whenever I've found myself in a band playing music I don't enjoy, I've left. I got involved with a Nightwish tribute band last year simply because I knew and respected the singer and guitarist who asked me to join, but once I started trying to learn the music, I found it unlistenable, so I left.

I now play for a Grateful Dead tribute, and as the Dead's music is mostly all I listen to anyway, I'm very happy to be playing it.

I also play in a couple of local blues bands, and enjoy the people and the playing, but rarely listen to the music for pleasure.

[fretmeister]

Yup.

 

i listen to well rehearsed professionally produced music and I play the polar opposite.

[josie]

Similar to some of the comments above -

My favourite (by no means only) music to listen to is blues, especially live, and I'm in a blues band, so that fits. But I do miss the indie-pop band I was in before - not the music, all stuff I would never choose to listen to, or the people, or their attitude, but the opportunities it gave me to develop some really interesting basslines - snapping from ominous broody prog to bouncy pop and back within the same song, grabbing little bass solos to drive the changes in dynamics because the drummer wasn't good enough to do it - I don't have anything like that freedom now. But I have a lot more fun and satisfaction, overall.

[DaytonaRik]

Not any more - I'm a massive fan of 80's/90's rock and that's exactly what my new band play

Edited April 30, 2018 by DaytonaRik