When David Crosby helped found The Byrds, the idea of being in a band like The Beatles was intoxicating. The musician, who died last month, and his bandmates were so obsessed with The Beatles that they watched A Hard Day’s Night and went straight out to buy the same instruments.
A modern-day Crosby would be well advised not to bother — bands are almost entirely absent from the music charts. Only four new songs by groups made it into the official UK Top 100 singles of last year, which was dominated by solo acts and a smattering of classics by the likes of Fleetwood Mac and Arctic Monkeys.
There’s no shortage of new music. Lucian Grainge, chairman of Universal Music, complained last month that some streaming services are uploading 100,000 tracks a day.
So why have bands struggled to find success compared with solo megastars such as Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift? The obvious culprit is social media, according to BBC radio playlist programmer Chris Price.
"Social media is more of a solo pursuit," he said. "It’s easier as a solo artist to convey who you are and the kind of artist you are on TikTok or Instagram than for four guys to do the same thing."
Record company A&R departments are much more likely to scout for talent online, checking follower counts and engagement metrics, rather than trying to size up a four-piece performing in a sweaty pub. Breaking a band now means going viral or getting a "sync" deal with a TV show or advert.
This is not just about rock’n’roll. "When I first got into rap music in the ’80s and ’90s, it was Public Enemy, N.W.A, Wu-Tang Clan," Price said. "In the last 10 years, it’s Drake and, in the UK, it’s Stormzy and Dave."
The same goes for dance music. "The Chemical Brothers were a band. Orbital were a band," Price said. "I guess I’ve got a more sentimental attachment to bands than people born in the last 20 years.
"At [BBC] Radio 1, we have this balancing act every week, making sure we have an ethnically diverse playlist, and a balanced playlist in terms of male and female artists. Do we actively seek out bands over solo artists? Not necessarily, but I won’t pretend I’m not delighted that Wet Leg are the breakout band of 2022."
The rapid development of music technology is another factor, with software such as Ableton Live allowing people to release studio-quality music from their bedrooms for less than the cost of an electric guitar and amplifier.
"In the heyday of the band, in the ’60s, if you wanted to make noise for people to dance to, you needed a band," said David Hepworth, author of Overpaid, Oversexed and Over There, and former editor of Smash Hits. "Now you just need a laptop. When the Beatles arrived in 1964 [in the US], the thing that was amazing to people like Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty was that they were a band. Americans didn’t really have bands."
From Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis to Madonna, Michael Jackson and Lady Gaga, the American tradition has been towards solo artists, Hepworth said.
"Whereas with the British invasion, what appealed was that there was a gang that you wanted to join. And there was the implicit promise that you could have a similar gang with your friends at school or college."
Although websites such as Join My Band have replaced the Melody Maker classifieds as a way to find that gang, new bands such as FLO and Yard Act also need places to play.
"It is expensive to buy instruments, rent rehearsal spaces and go on the road," said Louis Bloom, president of Island Records UK. "We are seeing music venues close in city centres where prime real estate is being converted into flats and offices."
The UK has lost about a third of its venues in the past 20 years.
Even so, "incredible and inspirational bands are still coming through", Bloom said. "The demand is there because it’s still one of the greatest things any of us can experience, watching a band we love playing live, whether that’s in a tiny club or the main stage at a festival." — Guardian News and Media
