Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Defending Davie504 (OMG)b
- Thread starter TortoiseBass
- Start date
Like people said, he's making bass visible to kids on YouTube, he's obviously skilled and funny too. I prefer Adam Neely cause I'm high brow! But an occasional davie504 will always get a few laughs out of me, and I respect and admire his ingenuity and the niche he carved for himself.
Honestly I find him fine. While I prefer his older videos where he mostly made solos, his newer videos with all the youtube jazz are okay and I can see why the modern audience would like them
Davie504 is great. Loads of kids have apparently started playing bass because of him, and that is only a good thing.
He's an excellent player - people have challenged him to play pretty much anything and he nails it every time. He makes a point of using budget basses (Stirling Ray45, Sire V5, Squier Jazz etc.) even though he can obviously afford expensive ones, and makes them sound great, proof that the player really is the most important thing.
It's also really cool that as his channel got bigger and bigger, he started highlighting other musicians and artists. His Fiverr videos are an excellent resource for people thinking of doing session work, he gives surprisingly honest and detailed critiques (beneath the deadpan ironic meme vibe) and constructive criticism to the submissions he gets and picks the ones with the best overall value. For someone just starting out with session work, they'd be really helpful.
Now with pandemic requirements meaning musicians can't gig, he supports people livestreaming in hilarious ways (on Twitch he tipped a guitar player with a 7-string who was streaming $105.04 to break a string, who did so, then he paid the same to break another two, he then typed 'now you are playing bass lol' and logged off - on another one he paid $105.04 to a pianist to play a CMaj chord, etc.) and generally he seems very aware that he has a platform and tries to use it for a positive purpose as well as for laughs and bass stuff.
My girlfriend and I watch his videos all the time primarily because he's hilarious. However, I can see why his humour would be lost on anyone older than a millennial.
And by the way, making and editing those videos takes a lot of time and effort. Being a 'YouTuber' is actually a pretty difficult job if you want to do it full-time and you have to stick at it and consistently release content. Try making a video of yourself playing bass and throwing a few jokes in there. 99% chance it will be terrible. The video and sound has to be good quality, and you need to keep coming up with new ideas. He's as good at that as he is at playing bass, which is really saying something. Good on him.
Even his cooking videos are also surprisingly good - I tried his Tiramisu recipe and it's awesome.
Slap like now.
He's an excellent player - people have challenged him to play pretty much anything and he nails it every time. He makes a point of using budget basses (Stirling Ray45, Sire V5, Squier Jazz etc.) even though he can obviously afford expensive ones, and makes them sound great, proof that the player really is the most important thing.
It's also really cool that as his channel got bigger and bigger, he started highlighting other musicians and artists. His Fiverr videos are an excellent resource for people thinking of doing session work, he gives surprisingly honest and detailed critiques (beneath the deadpan ironic meme vibe) and constructive criticism to the submissions he gets and picks the ones with the best overall value. For someone just starting out with session work, they'd be really helpful.
Now with pandemic requirements meaning musicians can't gig, he supports people livestreaming in hilarious ways (on Twitch he tipped a guitar player with a 7-string who was streaming $105.04 to break a string, who did so, then he paid the same to break another two, he then typed 'now you are playing bass lol' and logged off - on another one he paid $105.04 to a pianist to play a CMaj chord, etc.) and generally he seems very aware that he has a platform and tries to use it for a positive purpose as well as for laughs and bass stuff.
My girlfriend and I watch his videos all the time primarily because he's hilarious. However, I can see why his humour would be lost on anyone older than a millennial.
And by the way, making and editing those videos takes a lot of time and effort. Being a 'YouTuber' is actually a pretty difficult job if you want to do it full-time and you have to stick at it and consistently release content. Try making a video of yourself playing bass and throwing a few jokes in there. 99% chance it will be terrible. The video and sound has to be good quality, and you need to keep coming up with new ideas. He's as good at that as he is at playing bass, which is really saying something. Good on him.
Even his cooking videos are also surprisingly good - I tried his Tiramisu recipe and it's awesome.
Slap like now.
Last edited:
I adore his bass playing. His videos overall - not so much. But I'm older than a millenial, and that's a sad truth.
Here's my fav. Great chops, sound and feel.
Here's my fav. Great chops, sound and feel.
Why does he need defense ? He can play, he's successful and makes a living off his passion.
His video editing and plots make me cringe but he's good, who'd doubt it ?
His video editing and plots make me cringe but he's good, who'd doubt it ?
He just seems to be doing a bad Jean Girard, Sasha Baron Cohen, from Talladega Nights. Kept expecting him to say Hey Ricky Bobby.... only watched one video as I saw comments on another bass player video saying Davie504. Really regretting that click now.
Last edited:
Let's not discart what he does because we don't like it. The phenomenon around him is huge.
Not only on social media where bass=Davie504 for everyone even out of musical contexts but he is THE major inspiration for today's kids to pick up a bass.
Pretty much like Flea in the 90s. His influence is that big.
Agreed. Here on TB we've discussed those bassists that are recognizable to a significant section of the non-musician public as bassists. You can add Davie504 to that (short) list:
Gene Simmons
Sting
Flea
Paul McCartney
Davie504
That's about it.
it appears that for everyone other than Davie504 on this list, music was an important factor. So is it to say that we have here a model for kids that encourages them to play bass yet has no musical prescription ? Weird.
I don't think so. I think the depth and breadth of Davie504's collabs indicate otherwise.
Regardless of this, who are we to say what all encompasses music? Musical expressions are not to be encompassed by someone's idea of "music" , they, taken together, form what "music" is. Not everybody will like every expression, and they may not always fit into our established ideas of what we've already done with music, but that doesnt make them any less music.
True. It's just that a friend's son got a bass and began trying to play easy lines in some Davie504 videos. i don't see that getting somewhere as opposed to playing lines from the Beatles, Kiss, RHCP, etc. I also see people doing err, modern ? music, like Thundercat or Louis Cole, having solid musical foundations. Oh well just a thought, as always something good will probably come out of it.
Not sure what you mean. He's a very skilled bass player with impressively clean playing, educated in many styles.
How is he not a solid musician?
Really? You think anyone would pick up an instrument and get that good on it without an appreciation and context of music behind that level of dedication? That's not something I can even fathom.
Apparently because he's not fawning over old records in his videos.
I didn't say he wasn't a solid musician. What I said is that musical pieces composed presumably with a goal or intention are quite different from a few bars the intent of which is to illustrate a video the intent of which, in turn, is to have has many viewers as possible.
The most famous bassist in the world, right now.
9 million followers on YouTube.
9 million followers on YouTube.
This is an interesting statement, and I'm going to make this personal for a minute. I've been having a little bit of a crisis lately because I am spending a considerable amount of time, and some money, too, making music that almost nobody ever hears. It's prompting a bit of self-doubt, actually, because for me part of the reason we create music is for it to be heard. And if nobody hears it, then what are we doing it for?
I don't want you or anyone to answer that question because I know what kinds of answers I'll get, and they will range from "your own enjoyment" to a bunch of other things which I've already endlessly debated with myself. But here's a guy who knows how to acquire an audience, and he's bringing something to that audience that they want. He's not me just sticking my songs up on YouTube and imagining someone might stumble across them one day. He has an audience, though, and I do not.
The point I think I'm trying to make is this: Today's media demands something different from people who want to be heard, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to be heard. You can thoughtfully compose all the music you want to but without an audience it's just you playing around with sounds.
