Pointless Topic

[stewblack]

Reading the comments in response to a best bassists type video and one of them asserts the 80s was the high water mark for bass guitar in popular music.

What do you think? Apart from the obvious - I too agree comparing and ranking musicians is pointless - which decade was the bassy best? More importantly, why?

[Cato]

It's all subjective but....

1970s soul,funk and disco was a golden age for bass.

Some might find some of it a bit cheesy but the general standard of musicianship (not just bass) on a lot of those tracks was just sky high. 

 

Edited January 12, 2019 by Cato

[Dan Dare]

Pointless indeed. There's always good stuff (and bad).

[Barking Spiders]

I guess for some, like me, who like slap and fretless bass playing, the 70s and the 80s were a high point. However, there are also many peeps who can't abide these styles and who praps consider these eras as low points! As far as pop is concerned I don't think bass playing has been as to the fore since the heydays of Level, 42, Japan, Paul Young and Wham.

[Guest oZZma]

Not a "golden age" but it's true that bass was very often predominant over guitar in post-punk bands, so there are lots of memorable basslines from that period (as well as from 70s disco and funk)

[tauzero]

The 70s had a lot of interesting bass playing in glam rock, prog rock, and metal bands - not just root note playing. While the 80s had the bass coming to the fore in some bands, it also lost a lot of that almost improvisational playing. It's all generalisation, but I would say there was a move towards technique and less concentration on bass as a melodic as well as rhythmic instrument. So 70s for me.

[Delberthot]

I'm not so sure about the 70s and 80s as being the predominant decades for bass. 

Remember in the 90s we had the Chilis, Primus, Faith No More, Jamiroquai, Blur, Supergrass, Fugazi and many others which featured a lot of up front bass

[Lozz196]

I think in the 70s and 80s the bass became not only more audible in the mix but it started to develop as an instrument that could come to the fore in a way that it previously hadn’t. Or maybe it had, but we just couldn’t hear it as well, but The Jam, The Stranglers, Japan, plus many others had the bass doing a far less traditional role, with the benefit of a much better presence in the mix. 

I

[Cat Burrito]

I don't know about order of most important but I'd say the 50s is pretty significant because bass went from upright to the bass guitar and this surely was a key player in the birth of rock n roll music going mainstream.