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Looks vs. Talent

#61
Ed, right on. Play for the music. I was pleasantly surprised when Santana swept the Grammys, for it showed that TRUE talent, musicianship, showmanship, and just plain old love of music really matters.

Even the current crop of popular dance troupes need REAL musicians to back them up (and make up for their inadequacies).

Later
 
#62
I find that playing bass and looking Ok(in my opinion ;P) has disadvantages. I have been to at least 4 auditions where the band have said that "you are a really dope player but we think you will take attention away from the lead guitarist/vocalist" What about Talena from Kittie ? she is the best looking one of them all and she plays bass. Though many people have told me that i think she looks good Cause she plays bass.
 
#63
In theory...looks shouldn't matter. But as some have discovered...out in the real world...it does. However...it DOES seem to depend on the music one plays. I have never had a probelm with looks....with any blues band. But then, we were pretty much all old geezers....:D
 
#68
ok...i would like to say that looks only matter if you are looking to mainstream music. I can tell you now that in 10 years we will look back on the "hip" music and dressing of this era and laugh. Most of us did over the New Kids on the Block thing and the Vanilla Ice thing. Korn didn't look like a bunch of respectable musicians when they first started out (but then again a lot of people here still don't think they are talented) but they changed their look and turned into one of MTV's favorite bands. I can tell you right now that MTV would of treated them like they treat Kittie or Disturbed now if they didn't change their look. Does that make them better than they were? I don't think so...i think they were a lot better when they were the "pissed off" teens. Same thing with Manson. Mechanical Animals got Manson some time in the spotlight on MTV which they wouldn't of given him if he kept to his "Anti Christ" look. I am glad Manson is giving up that glam sh!t and going back to Goth. It is horrible that our nation's mainstream music is pop trash and rockers looking for the buck. I also realize that teens are spoon-fed this crap and brainwashed to like that. Only the few of can laugh at MTV and find bands that can do things that are AntiMTV and still survive as bands (Slipknot, Pantera, KMFDM, Slayer, SOulfly,etc.)

Whatever...
 
#69
This is for BeautyandtheBass.Imagine how different this world would be if blindness were the norm and people with sight were the handicapped?I bet the music biz would be alot easier to break into!!!Some how and someway,musicians still need to find a balance between talent and image,there's no getting around it if you want to make it big.But hey!!I'm guilty of getting caught up in this "looks" trap.It's because I'm getting weary of the day job routine and I'm willing to make some changes.I'm sincerely jealous of the bands we love to hate.I'm just being honest when I say I'd like to have their money also!!! I guess this message is for everybody.You know I mean no disrespect to anyone on this thread.
 
#72
The main guitar player I play with brought a musicians' friend catalog to school one day and I was thumbing through it. I showed him a Fender American Deluxe jazz bass and told him "If I had the money that would be the bass I would buy". He looked at it and said "why? that bass looks stupid!", but before I could respond he said "oh I guess you looking at the sound or something right?". After this I had to lay my head down and try not to pop a vein in my forehead. It was pathetic.
 
#73
I hate to admit it but nowadays almost every famous bass player, or any musician for that matter has more of a "style over substance" approach to music. When is the last time you heard a good guitar solo on Mtv? Or better yet a bass solo? It seems like at the turn of the nineties players like Claptain and the such started fading away. Popular rock music shifted from complicated riffs and solos to way too much distortion, yelling, and power chords. I'm 17 years old and it makes me mad enough to spit when all of my friends say that nirvana changed the world of music, don't get me wrong some of nirvana's songs are good but I can think of hundreds of artists and bands that have affected music alot greater. I think that the media, radio, and Mtv have almost killed rock as I know it. They only present the public with the videos and songs that they "want" us to like. If they would throw some Kenny Wayne Sheppard in every now and then I think his fan base would grow tons! This goes back to my theory that Mtv is run by 12 year old girls, which is why I watch VH1 and not Mtv nowadays. It just pisses me off how no talent idiots can be 10 times as famous as the true musicians out there.

Whew! Sorry about writting that much, I just had to rant.
 
#74
Several months ago, John Turner said:

"rob zombie isn't from the 80's. sh!t white zombie didn't come out till 90-91."

I know this was a while back, but I didn't see any responses to this. I remember reading about White Zombie in the first issue of Thrasher I ever got in the spring of 1987. And they looked the same then.
 
#75
I'm in a band that has put out two albums on independent labels.My lead singer/guitarist isn't exactly thin and svelte.Who cares!!!! We write great songs and that hasn't stopped people from digging our music.We still have to wrestle with the image controversy.Oh well,we'll keep writing and someday someone in some label won't be overly concerned about Size!!!
 
#77
Dont yell at me for this cause its absolutely true. I am 6'1" long blonde hair an blue eyes(I know a glam rock reject, but its how i look)and 165 pounds. our manager takes me to meet the club owners as a band "represenative". I know i am on parade to scmooz the owners and act as designated flirt, but it works for us. MTV in the 80's defined the epitome of the rock n roll band and most of the club patrons are still looking for that image. The music just happens to go along with it. I am a good bassist and my band is incredible, but the eye candy helps as well.


but thats my opinion, i could be wrong
 
#79
DownCaster, the fact is that Korn ISNT that talented. Theyve said it themselves. Yes, they can play, but its nothing special. Look at how much effects they use to cover themselves up, epecially jonathan. And all, ALL, theyre new stuff sounds the same. Same chords, same singing, everything.

And its a GOOD thing MTV is playing Disturbed. Ive never encountered a band with more posers than Disturbed! ICK!
 
#80
I can understand where all you guys who are pissed at MTV and pop culture are coming from; but i think you should understand where all the kids who watch MTV come from. I used to be one of those stupid 13 year olds who thought that the greatest band in the world was some s&#t they played on TRL. When i started playing bass, i thought the coolest band in world was Everclear. Well, im 15 now, and no offense to Everclear, but what the f$%k was I on? To make my point, kids these days dont start playing bass to be like Jaco or Vic, they want to be cool like Korn or Limp Bizkit. The way i look at is, for every kid who likes Derrick and the Dominos, theres another hundred who think the Backstreet Boys are talented. Thus, real talent is not needed to make a cool band as long as synthesizer equipment prices don't suddenly rise and budding artists continue to have no problem ripping off other bands.
 

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