Why don't more bands do this?.............

[Bad Brains]

My friend has a huge music collection. He burned me a copy of this hip-hoppish album that wasn't mainstream. This album had two disks. One was the actual album, the other one was the album with just the vocal tracks left off. This instrumental only part of the album is really good.

So it makes me wonder, why don't more bands do this? There are so many bands I can think of where I would just like to hear the instrumentals only sometimes. Once in a while you just don't want to hear vocals, espically for me while i'm doing homework or painting.

It's not a bad idea.

[Bryan R. Tyler]

Costs too much money to print and distribute all of the secondary instrumental CDs.

[Josh Ryan]

Originally Posted by Bryan R. Tyler

Costs too much money to print and distribute all of the secondary instrumental CDs.

and the singer would feel sad inside.

[Peter McFerrin]

The instrumental-only disc can work in hip-hop because many MCs don't interact very much with the beat; they take it as given. Producers and MCs rarely actually work together, which is why you often see rap albums with tracks by 10 different DJs. (Kanye West is a significant departure from this state of affairs because, as a major-league producer and a major-league MC, he's constantly tweaking both his raps and his beats.)

In most other genres of vocal music, though, the vocal line is the absolute centerpiece of the music, or very close to it. The vocal melody is either the first thing written, or comes just after a sparse chord progression is laid out.

Whether a backing-track-only album could work ultimately depends on how important the vocals are to the music.

[popinfresh]

That wasn't J5 was it? Or was that an acoustic disc.. .Can't remember.

[Against Will]

Was it Quasimoto's "The Unseen"? That's a good album.

But, as Peter said, hip-hop has always had a tradition of releasing instrumental tracks for DJs to cut-up. That's where 'mash-ups' come from; a way to transition from one record to the next, or a way to turn it around and mix a new beat with vocals.

Jay-Z did this with the black album, except he released all the vocal tracks as well, which is less common. That's where we get the Grey Album etc.

Most other music is album/radio oriented, not club oriented, so that plus the cost makes it pointless to release instrumental tracks to albums.

[Peter McFerrin]

Oh! I can't believe I forgot to mention dub instrumental tracks.

Back in the '70s, when reggae singers would release a single, the B-side wouldn't have a vocal on it. From that the whole genre of dub reggae was born--which, through a convoluted chain of events, spawned hip-hop.

[Peter McFerrin]

Originally Posted by popinfresh

That wasn't J5 was it? Or was that an acoustic disc.. .Can't remember.

I'd be more inclined to think that it was a Dan the Automator production. It was a big deal in '96 when he put out a disc of the (sick) beats he laid down for Kool Keith's Dr. Octagonecologyst.

[Matt Till]

Originally Posted by Blisshead

and the singer would feel sad inside.

First thing I thought... singer egos.

[DaRK_CaRNiVaL]

what if the band isnt that good, but the singer pulls them through?
It might just make them sound worse

Or make them actually learn how to play properly as the singer cant disguise their playing.

But then again.. why would you listen to a band like that