How many times have we heard this phrase uttered?  A band releases their new album, as fans cringe in disgust.  Not knowing what, exactly, they’ve just purchased.  Wondering where their favorite band went wrong.  Then, invariably, when the new sound attracts new listeners; comes the whole “well, they’re not real fans, they haven’t even heard the first album”.  “I’m the real fan, here.  I’ve been there since the beginning.”  How many times?  Far, far too many.  I know I’ve said it myself.  Usually because, I hear a band release a brilliant album, then promptly try to cash in by releasing a second, watered down version of their first album.  Or, they didn’t have enough talent to begin with, got lucky on the first one, and shat out a second album praying to god someone will like it.  (I tend to think the latter is really what happens more often than not.  But, thats me being a crotchety “old man” music listener.)  

 

I’d like to discuss a few theories as to why this phrase is coughed up so readily when people hear new music from a given band.

 

Firstly, lets address the ‘one hit wonder’ aspect of all of this.  This is the most common situation, I feel.  Pretty easy to figure out.  Given band gets one really good album together, then fails miserably with its sophomore offering.  In many cases these bands, just simply, don’t have the talent to crank out another 45 minutes of palatable music.  When you look back at the album a few years later you can usually say to yourself, ‘yeah, they didn’t really re-invent the wheel with that one.’  A lot of times, bands will get big off that album, and get signed. Through that process, member changes frequently happen and the original chemistry is lost, and thats understandable.  But, if the members are the same when the next album is released, a ball was dropped somewhere.  This usually marks the end of that bands career.  Kids have super short attention spans these days, and once you miss your shot, its over.  Ten years ago you might have gotten a third album to try and redeem yourself, but labels and kids don’t have time for that currently.  "But, they had that one good album!"

 

Speaking of labels.  Yes, sometimes labels get involved.  When this happens, usually through the bands contract, certain concessions are given up.  Such as musical control.  The label will bring in a big time producer to polish their investment, to make it the most marketable package possible.  In these cases, the old sound gets watered down, songs get more poppy and radio friendly.  This usually goes hand and hand with an AP photo shoot, and gear sponsorship shoots with Guitar World and Modern Drummer.  Which invariably alienates said bands original fan base.  And just like that, their fan base is gone.  Avenged Sevenfold is a perfect example of this.  Fortunately for them, they owned the changes their label imposed and profited from it. They built an entirely new sanction of fans, and they even pulled off a genre switch in the process.  They went from a metal band to a hard rock band.  Cant lie though, their current sound is well written and fits very well in their corner of music.  Good on them.  Its not always a cinderella story for these marketed bands of course.  In fact, it almost never is.  In most cases when young bands sign that contract giving up their sound as a band, they are also going in to debt with the label to make this new album which won’t even be theirs.  Once the album flops, the label settles their contracts by dropping them and buys them out of the rest of their contract.  At least they got some settlement money out of the deal right?  Nope, the debt they are in from recording and all that marketing is barely covered by that settlement and the band usually end up owing thousands for getting fired from their jobs… dirty business I tell you.  

 

There's, also, this idea that bands should always sound the same.  I would really like to know where and why this idea developed.  It seems ridiculous to me, it really does.  A band releases their newest album, which is noticeably more well written than the first, the band makes a big leap musically, and kids freak out because it doesn’t sound like the first album.  This happens constantly in the metal genre’s.  Usually, immediately, after the band introduces clean singing into the mix and is not just screaming the whole time.  Chill out kids, singing takes more talent than screaming, and if done right, can really add a new dimension to an album.   The new Veil of Maya album would be a fantastic example of this.  Their first 4 albums had only screaming with their original vocalist.  They’ve since released 3 songs off of their yet to be released 5th album.  Two of those tracks offer clean singing, that really fits what they are going for as a band.  If you dare to read the comments sections of any of the tracks postings, all you’ll read is.  “dude, what happened to the old VOM, this new singing stuff is awful…”  This idea of bands always needing to sound the same, seems to encompass peoples fear of change.  I often get into musical discussions with people who say they like progressive music.  Through the conversations I’ll ask something to the effect of ‘why didn’t you like so and so’s new album?’.  Sometimes people will respond with ‘it was too different from their old stuff’.  Isn’t that what progressive music is supposed to be… Progressive.  You know, changing.  :shakes head: 

 

Now, not all bands release an amazing first album then completely change, or fail miserably.  Their are exceptions to this.  Hoobastank’s discography is nothing short of amazing in my opinion.  Their first album, They Sure Don’t Make Gym Shorts Like They Used To (1998), is ridiculous meld of Ska, Reggae, Funk, and Rock.  I mean, its really bad.  I have no idea how they even got a record deal from that.  But, their sophomore effort, Self Titled (2001), is what I would consider one of the best Pop-Rock releases of that time.  Well written, produced, and a cover to cover good album.  Not a bad song to speak of.  From there they released, The Reason (2003), which is full of ballad style rock tunes very purposefully trying to capture the MTV market and again, a largely terrible album from a writing standpoint.  From their its all downhill.  But, they had that one great album.  In this case I can’t even articulate how it could’ve happened that way.   

 

There are hundreds of examples of bands’ careers, that can lead to this very statement.  What I’m trying to get at, is that there is a huge disconnect between the listeners and the music that is being put out.  A lot of it has to do with what is being forced down our throats by music media, labels, advertising and things of the like.  A lot of it has to do with horribly short attention spans of today.  And some of it has to do with how we perceive the value of an album anymore.  In a perfect world, we would all just appreciate what is there and what will come without expectations.  As a musician thats all I could ever hope for.  I guess I find myself asking ‘when did we all become so closed minded?’  Isn’t music supposed to be open minded, free, expressive.  When did it come down to a formula for making the gold or platinum record?  I think music as a whole would benefit from more people sitting down and asking themselves what they really like and why.  I think if more people purchased music based on what they really love the industry wouldn’t be in the peril its currently in.  I suppose this is a plea to help save the music industry, and make it about the music and not about the advertising.  

 

One can only hope...