Are bass players going the way of dinosaurs

[neepheid]

Weren't we supposed to be killed off in the 80s?

 

In any case, I agree that Gen Z has no time for (or indeed knowledge of) internet fora such as this.  Thus skewing towards the old fart demographic, on here at least.

[tauzero]

Dinosaurs can't be bass players.

 

[Nail Soup]

The young bands I see usually have a bass player, so not dying out dinosaur style. There may be more competing genres that don’t use a bass than there was before.

[diskwave]

On 17/04/2023 at 16:41, Muzz said:

And yes, most of them are very, very good players; three or four years in music college will do that...it's very annoying.

But that's the problem. Yes I'm sure their superb schooled musicians (my nephew is a brill guitarist) but guess what? Where else do you see superb "schooled" musicians? Yep, in orchestras playing the old old classics. Being a great musician has nothing at all to do with being an original artist.

[Muzz]

Having many more younger students studying popular music (as opposed to when I wanted to go to Uni/College to study music, and was told 'Bass? Ummm, no, we don't teach that...perhaps cello? Same number of strings?') and developing their skills can only be a good thing; great musicianship and artistry are not mutually exclusive.

There's still a lot of younger musicians out there playing original music (being 'artists' if you like)...you just have to leave the house occasionally: trawling through the internet means trawling through the absolute tsunami of songs uploaded every day (conservatively estimated to be around 50,000 PER DAY*), and yes, a lot of those will be electronically produced, because it's easier to write and record in a largely digital manner in your bedroom, click Upload and move on to the next one than it is to get a band together, rehearse, set up gigs and tours, etc, but the fact remains there's still a vibrant gig scene of new music out there. Live music has an energy that no streaming service can reproduce, and this still has all the appeal it ever did for kids.

* With those sort of numbers, how many of the 'greats' might've come and gone unnoticed if they'd started out today?

Edited April 19, 2023 by Muzz

[Burns-bass]

7 minutes ago, greavesbass said:

But that's the problem. Yes I'm sure their superb schooled musicians (my nephew is a brill guitarist) but guess what? Where else do you see superb "schooled" musicians? Yep, in orchestras playing the old old classics. Being a great musician has nothing at all to do with being an original artist.

 

The problem is that music school has prepared them for an industry and a world that doesn't exist. 

 

There's no session scene really (unless you're super lucky and connected), and the best most can hope for is a job backing a singer (which looks like amazing fun, but must be rare). 

 

Instead, they'll become music teachers (essential, vital, and hugely valuable) or do something else. I used to work with an NHS director who had completed a music degree in percussion, for example. Or doing that widdly stuff on YouTube that nobody really enjoys.

 

But earning money in bands. Nah. 

[Muzz]

Let's not forget what Les McQueen said about the whole thing...and that hasn't changed from Day 1...

 

[nilorius]

2 hours ago, Muzz said:

Having many more younger students studying popular music (as opposed to when I wanted to go to Uni/College to study music, and was told 'Bass? Ummm, no, we don't teach that...perhaps cello? Same number of strings?') and developing their skills can only be a good thing; great musicianship and artistry are not mutually exclusive.

There's still a lot of younger musicians out there playing original music (being 'artists' if you like)...you just have to leave the house occasionally: trawling through the internet means trawling through the absolute tsunami of songs uploaded every day (conservatively estimated to be around 50,000 PER DAY*), and yes, a lot of those will be electronically produced, because it's easier to write and record in a largely digital manner in your bedroom, click Upload and move on to the next one than it is to get a band together, rehearse, set up gigs and tours, etc, but the fact remains there's still a vibrant gig scene of new music out there. Live music has an energy that no streaming service can reproduce, and this still has all the appeal it ever did for kids.

* With those sort of numbers, how many of the 'greats' might've come and gone unnoticed if they'd started out today?

No need to be teached exactly bass is schools/colleges - music theory though. Just need an interest and and Your papa will do it, after that it's on Your side - learn and practice Yourself. This way You can become a good bass player.

[Muzz]

1 hour ago, nilorius said:

No need to be teached exactly bass is schools/colleges - music theory though. Just need an interest and and Your papa will do it, after that it's on Your side - learn and practice Yourself. This way You can become a good bass player.

Yes, it's the way I did it...well, without anyone else, really...my point was, though, that going to college to study music can't do any harm; an artist can be an artist from any background...

[Agent 00Soul]

The people above are correct when they say that young musicians don't go on "old fashioned" tech like a forum or play in pub cover nights/jams with any frequency.  But there are still tons of them out there nonetheless.  These is also still a healthy rock scene.  I go to about 2 or 3 small-to-medium sized-venue gigs a month and, at 54, am inevitably old enough to be the dad of the band and most of the audience.  Nonetheless, those venues tend to be packed with the under-30 crowd.  The biggest difference is that rock isn't mainstream music any more and really hasn't been since the late 1990s.

 

If you want to see for yourselves who's out there on bass and what age they are, you can probably get an approximation by checking out Bandmix

[Bassmidget209]

One thing I have noticed is that I'm seeing a lot of 'incomplete' bands, I.e. drummer and guitarist, singer and keys etc etc. We played with one band a few years back, a full rock band (Paramore-esque) but their bassist was a boss OC-3. They were very complimentary towards me and I've seen from old photos that they had a bassist at one point. So it may be that there aren't enough bassists for all the bands.

 

One fundamental thing is that there is no money anymore. Now that doesn't stop you making a band with your friends and having a great time bit the days of 'making it big' are maybe over/harder to achieve. I've also suspected that's why you do have less people in groups. Technology can substitute sounds In a live environment, what it can't do though is give you another perspective or opinion on a song/musical idea. My worry is we loose some of the magic of collaboration over the years and the quality of output reduces. The chart stuff has always been about the lowest common denominator so that won't shift but the second and third tier of groundbreaking original musical artists is maybe where we will see the change. OR the world is changing a bit and everything will be fine, just a bit different.