Ever notice when a band becomes popular...

[tweakmm]

Originally posted by: ThePresence

Originally posted by: tweakmm

Originally posted by: ThePresence

Originally posted by: thomsbrain

Originally posted by: ThePresence

Originally posted by: FeathersMcGraw
Probably because the sound that it takes to gain mainstream acceptance will differ from the things that the first-adopter niche market likes.

Maybe, but there is usually a reason why the first cd didn't make them popular. Usually because it sucked.

you obviously have no clue how the music industry works. do you have any idea how much raw money it takes to get a single song on the radio, let alone promote an entire album? you can't just release an album and have it blow up on it's own. the best you can hope for (if you are really amazing) is maybe 10,000 copies. Sublime managed 30,000 copies of their first album on their own, and that was with huge word-of-mouth.

many bands are signed on the strengh of one song, and since that one song always fits a very specific industry format, chances are it doesn't represent the band. So you get signed and the label says "we need 12 more of these or we don't release your record, and we own your ass for the next 5+ years, so unless you just want to sit around doing nothing, you have to do what we say." in addition, if a band spends their recording budget recording an album that the label deems unacceptable, who do you think pays to record the replacement? THE BAND. that's ON TOP of already having to pay back the label for the first try. So now they owe the label money AND they probably had to take out huge personal loans to record the second try. Thus there is huge pressure to get the first try approved, and that almost always means making compromises to the sound of the band. The only way to avoid this is if you're lucky enough to have a label that's really into you as a band, not just for one potential single. Then they're more likely to approve whatever you send their way. But those situations are few and far between because the industry is run by people who love money, not music, and that applies to even the indie labels.

So basically what you're saying is that people don't like good music, right? The label is only interested in money, that's true. But how do they make money? By selling alot of albums. Don;t you think people would buy more albums of "good" music than overproduced crap?

You must really like Backstreet Boys, Britany Spears and Linkin Park because by your logic since they sell a lot they must be the best. The truth is that what is good and what is popular rarely overlap.

You're missing the point. The question is WHY? Most people I know like good music, not pop shite.

See my edit.

 

[tweakmm]

dp

 

[DaveSimmons]

There is a reason why candy pop, realitity TV and sitcoms are so popular, and that reason is because the majority of people in this country are complete mindless idiots.

slight exaggeration, but still has been true for literally thousands of years.

Popular entertainment is a public hanging, not the poetry reading down the street. Midgets on the make instead of Firefly. Britney Spears instead of Aimee Mann or Jonatha Brooke.

Also, one reason why first albums, first novels, first films are often better than what follows is that they are a distillation of years of thought and creativity. For music the songwriter might have years of songs to pick from, for novels it's the story the author most wants to tell.

After the first album, the pressure is on to crank out more in a much shorter space, whether the songwriter has anything new to say or not. The second album is often still good (or even better) because the songwriter still has that backlog of material to work through as well as the new experiences. After that writer and band have now been full-time musicians for several years so both the new experiences and back catalog are used up.

 

[gopunk]

Originally posted by: ThePresence

Originally posted by: tweakmm

Originally posted by: ThePresence

Originally posted by: thomsbrain

Originally posted by: ThePresence

Originally posted by: FeathersMcGraw
Probably because the sound that it takes to gain mainstream acceptance will differ from the things that the first-adopter niche market likes.

Maybe, but there is usually a reason why the first cd didn't make them popular. Usually because it sucked.

you obviously have no clue how the music industry works. do you have any idea how much raw money it takes to get a single song on the radio, let alone promote an entire album? you can't just release an album and have it blow up on it's own. the best you can hope for (if you are really amazing) is maybe 10,000 copies. Sublime managed 30,000 copies of their first album on their own, and that was with huge word-of-mouth.

many bands are signed on the strengh of one song, and since that one song always fits a very specific industry format, chances are it doesn't represent the band. So you get signed and the label says "we need 12 more of these or we don't release your record, and we own your ass for the next 5+ years, so unless you just want to sit around doing nothing, you have to do what we say." in addition, if a band spends their recording budget recording an album that the label deems unacceptable, who do you think pays to record the replacement? THE BAND. that's ON TOP of already having to pay back the label for the first try. So now they owe the label money AND they probably had to take out huge personal loans to record the second try. Thus there is huge pressure to get the first try approved, and that almost always means making compromises to the sound of the band. The only way to avoid this is if you're lucky enough to have a label that's really into you as a band, not just for one potential single. Then they're more likely to approve whatever you send their way. But those situations are few and far between because the industry is run by people who love money, not music, and that applies to even the indie labels.

So basically what you're saying is that people don't like good music, right? The label is only interested in money, that's true. But how do they make money? By selling alot of albums. Don;t you think people would buy more albums of "good" music than overproduced crap?

You must really like Backstreet Boys, Britany Spears and Linkin Park because by your logic since they sell a lot they must be the best. The truth is that what is good and what is popular rarely overlap.

You're missing the point. The question is WHY? Most people I know like good music, not pop shite.

the average score on the sat is 1000, average iq is 100... the average person is not too bright.

 

[obiwaynekenobi]

Originally posted by: Demon-Xanth
What often happens is that what pleased the smaller audience wasn't upto pleasing a larger audience. Look at concept cars for example, alot of people perfer the concept cars to the production cars that they end up being, but many just aren't suited for the average driver, so they're tamed down.

Compare a few of Offspring's CDs:
The Offspring
Smash
Americana

They're all good on thier own right, but the self titled album sounds almost NOTHING like the Americana album, although thier later albums are starting to sound more and more like they have half of the songs like the earlier albums, and half like the later. I guess that's the only way to please both the mainstream and the core audiences.

No Doubt is another One that did that.
Their Orginal Albums were Pure Ska, then they went with all of the Punk Ska.