The Real Reason Why Bands Play the Same Old Tired Covers

[jive1]

The hardest part of pop arrangement which I have the most trouble getting others to understand is that the song should be an inclined plane, starting and a low point and building to a climactic crescendo, so to speak. If the last verse is played just like the first verse you're doing it wrong.

Boy if I could like this 100 times I would! There's a reason that the harmony vocals don't come in until maybe the second verse or chorus. There's a reason it's only one guitar and drums at the beginning then other parts come in. I always say keep it sparse at first then slowly build.

It depends on the tune, but I wouldn't follow that on every song. For example, Hit Me With Your Best Shot goes into a sort-of offbeat verse after the guitar solo, and the bass drops out of the chorus until the end. Or a song like Lover, Lover that ends acapella. The most important thing for playing 3 chord Pop is dynamics. The songs are very simple chord-wise, so you have to change it up in order for it not to be repetitive. If you just chunk out the same 3 chords the same way for 4 minutes, the song will sound like a lame Pop song. But, if you play it with conviction with some type of arrangement that has some dynamic changes, the audience will be eating out of your hand.

 

[hrodbert696]

Same here, although our singer does play minimal keys.
We used to do "Shut up and let me go" but it kinda fell flat, at least around here. I had never heard 'That's not my name" before you mentioned it. We had talked about doing "I Love It" - just kind of never happened. Do you just do it without the big synth slide part?

We don't have the slides where they are in the original recording but I play it with an envelope filter and have lots of octave slides on the bass. It's different but seems to get the general idea across.

 

[tbirdsp]

It depends on the tune, but I wouldn't follow that on every song. The most important thing for playing 3 chord Pop is dynamics. The songs are very simple chord-wise, so you have to change it up in order for it not to be repetitive. If you just chunk out the same 3 chords the same way for 4 minutes, the song will sound like a lame Pop song. But, if you play it with conviction with some type of arrangement that has some dynamic changes, the audience will be eating out of your hand.

True - I think both avvie and I would agree that what we meant is more accurately "dynamic changes". EVERY song doesn't have to have a linear buildup to a climax. The main thing is not to play the whole song at the same intensity.

 

[danosix]

When it comes to stuff that's charted, Billboard has been doing a Hot 100 since 1960. Which means that there are 5,000 tunes in that list.

Except when one weeds out the repeats (2 or more years on the list) we're down to like 3,000, the weed out all the stuff that just made it into the back 10 (90-100) that no one remembers and then the top 10 that were annoying novelty tunes that no one wants to hear we're down to like 2000 (or less).
That may seem like a lot - and leaves a good deal of room, but I've never actually heard any two bands that play more than 50% of the same material at the same venue (different nights - same audience) in my life. Moreover - the top 100 is a list by sales so you have to include country hits, rap hits, rock and roll and metal - no band is going to go over if it tries to do everything. So yeah within each genre there is a canon of like 200 tunes that are played by most bands. But not every band plays every tune. For instance, I NEVER played Mustang Sally until my 30s, and every band I've ever been in has done at least a few pretty obscure things - either originals or b sides or just singers' favourites from unknown singers.

 

[bluesblaster]

Here, there are no places for young people and their music. And a whole lotta boomers like modern music too. If you're a blues guy (as your name suggests) you will probably never like anything that isnt blues based.

Well over here on the big island (mainland) there are no shortage of discos and DJ's to play all the bass/drum and hip hop you can stand, however some of us of a certain age and experience prefer to do it the old fashion way and still get plenty of recognition. If souless machine music is your thing than have at it, Im sure there is plenty of work out there for that too. and BTW, dont read anything into the handle, its just a stupid name I made up on the spot, it has nothing to do with my tastes in music.

 

[avvie]

"Soulless"?....okay, now I have no idea where you're coming from or what you're talking about at all. Pop doesn't top charts over and over again by being "soulless". It just doesn't.

 

[avvie]

Maybe this can all be chalked up to simple science, which has concluded that we are all machines without free will who are destined to reach a certain age which we stop accepting anything novel or unfamiliar and spend the rest of our lives circling the drain, following the same routines over and over...same food....same music....same television...eschewing any and all lifesaver rings tossed our way so as not to disturb our circular fall....round and round, day after day, year after year.....same ole same ole.....

Can't argue with science and statistics. It's a proven fact: once your set list has been made you can never change it and you'll slit the throat of anyone who tries. What a sad way to live.

 

[Bassin']

Maybe this can all be chalked up to simple science, which has concluded that we are all machines without free will who are destined to reach a certain age which we stop accepting anything novel or unfamiliar and spend the rest of our lives circling the drain, following the same routines over and over...same food....same music....same television...eschewing any and all lifesaver rings tossed our way so as not to disturb our circular fall....round and round, day after day, year after year.....same ole same ole.....

Can't argue with science and statistics. It's a proven fact: once your set list has been made you can never change it and you'll slit the throat of anyone who tries. What a sad way to live.

So does that mean you'll be playing those pop songs for the rest of your life? Damn, that is a sad way to live!

 

[avvie]

No, it means that I'll have an evolving and fresh set list while avoiding playing "Sweet Home Alabama" ONE....MORE....TIIIIIIME!

 

[Bassin']

Maybe this can all be chalked up to simple science, which has concluded that we are all machines without free will who are destined to reach a certain age which we stop accepting anything novel or unfamiliar and spend the rest of our lives circling the drain, following the same routines over and over...same food....same music....same television...eschewing any and all lifesaver rings tossed our way so as not to disturb our circular fall....round and round, day after day, year after year.....same ole same ole.....

Can't argue with science and statistics. It's a proven fact: once your set list has been made you can never change it and you'll slit the throat of anyone who tries. What a sad way to live.

No, it means that I'll have an evolving and fresh set list while avoiding playing "Sweet Home Alabama" ONE....MORE....TIIIIIIME!

Oh, I see--

We're "all machines without free will"... except for yourself.

"It's a proven fact: once your set list has been made, you can never change it"... except for yourself.

Got it.

 

[bluesblaster]

No, it means that I'll have an evolving and fresh set list while avoiding playing "Sweet Home Alabama" ONE....MORE....TIIIIIIME!

what makes you think my band doesnt have a continuous evolving set list ? .................... which it does btw, and not a spec of "sweet home alabama" or anything of the sort. You play what you want to play and I'll do the same. Oh and for the record my groups songlist is well over a hundred tunes at present drawing from a variety of different genre's, we seem to have a little something for everyone.

 

[avvie]

None of this discussion is about any of you personally. Why would you think that it was?

 

[hrodbert696]

"Soulless"?....okay, now I have no idea where you're coming from or what you're talking about at all. Pop doesn't top charts over and over again by being "soulless". It just doesn't.

Some does. I would just say that "pop" and "soulless" are not synonyms. There are great pop songs and there are cynical phoning-it-in-to-make-a-quick-buck pop songs. The latter rely on canned beats and teen cliches (and lots of marketing) to hit the lowest-common-denominator. It doesn't always cash in like the producers hope, but it does often enough that they keep making it. There's good and bad music in every genre.

Anyway, let me just throw another angle in all this - my female-fronted band plays lots of pop tunes as well as classic rock. But we don't have a lot of the "standards" in our set list - no 867-5309, no Sweet Home, no Mustang Sally. So at a gig a couple weeks ago, we're working the crowd during break and my singer and I are chatting up some people at a table, and they ask "Do you play this, do you play that," and we're not finding much on our list that they want to hear. So then they ask if we can play Mustang Sally. Now, it's not on this group's list, but everyone in the group has gigged with lots of other groups for years and the darn thing is just a I-IV-V anyway. I'm SURE we could easily pull it off if we wanted to. Our singer says blankly, "No, we don't know that one," and the table left sometime during the next set.

To my mind, that was inexcusable. I don't think of Mustang Sally as a song I want to PLAN on the set list, since it gets played so much and is such a tired old cover for lazy bands. But to REFUSE to play it when the crowd asks for it makes no sense to me, especially remembering that this is a pretty new group that really needs to build audience. Maybe if we were well-established and had a steady crowd and venues begging us to play, we could afford to say we're not a Mustang-Sally band. But as it is, it really seems like we ought to have done it. Thoughts?

 

[jive1]

True - I think both avvie and I would agree that what we meant is more accurately "dynamic changes". EVERY song doesn't have to have a linear buildup to a climax. The main thing is not to play the whole song at the same intensity.

One thing that I've learned is that although people may vary in their understanding of pitch and rhythm, almost everyone understands volume. Well, except electric guitar players.

 

[avvie]

Yeah, you shouldnt turn down requests if possible. One of my bands turns down requests all the time because it's fronted by people who are not musicians and have little experience outside of this band. It's frustrating at times, but it's not MY band, so....

And yes, all genres have crap. High energy dance music and techno fall might fall under the umbrella of pop in some folk's minds but there's a great distance between that and No Doubt or Taylor Swift. I dont know how some here can just throw everything out that isnt a worn-out Grandpa Standard and then bash anyone else who doesnt. Threads like this one really seperate the men from the boys. And then they wonder why DJs get their work....smh...

 

[avvie]

I'll also mention that pop made by songwriters is quite different from pop made by producers and audio engineers.

 

[10cc]

Maybe this can all be chalked up to simple science, which has concluded that we are all machines without free will who are destined to reach a certain age which we stop accepting anything novel or unfamiliar and spend the rest of our lives circling the drain, following the same routines over and over...same food....same music....same television...eschewing any and all lifesaver rings tossed our way so as not to disturb our circular fall....round and round, day after day, year after year.....same ole same ole.....

Can't argue with science and statistics. It's a proven fact: once your set list has been made you can never change it and you'll slit the throat of anyone who tries. What a sad way to live.

Speak for yourself

 

[bluesblaster]

I'll also mention that pop made by songwriters is quite different from pop made by producers and audio engineers.

None of this discussion is about any of you personally. Why would you think that it was?

You seem to think that anyone over 50 is all about the crap they played in high school.

Much of todays "pop" music is constructed or aided by some kind of computer, its just the way things are done these days.

 

[jive1]

To my mind, that was inexcusable. I don't think of Mustang Sally as a song I want to PLAN on the set list, since it gets played so much and is such a tired old cover for lazy bands. But to REFUSE to play it when the crowd asks for it makes no sense to me, especially remembering that this is a pretty new group that really needs to build audience. Maybe if we were well-established and had a steady crowd and venues begging us to play, we could afford to say we're not a Mustang-Sally band. But as it is, it really seems like we ought to have done it. Thoughts?

I played a gig where someone asked for Brown Eyed Girl, and the guitarist replied with "I'm sorry, I used to sing that song everyday to my wife who got killed by a drunk driver last year. I just can't do it". After that, I told him that he was the wind beneath my wings.

I think you need to read the crowd. I played a gig with a Country band where there was an obnoxious dude who was constantly requesting Black Sabbath. Although, I know alot of Sabbath tunes, it would have turned off the rest of the crowd that was really into the Country music we were doing. Sometimes you can do a request for a handful of folk that will turn off the rest of the crowd.

 

[avvie]

Sorry, bluesblaster, but I havent met anyone over 50 who wasnt about just that. I've had to quit a few projects because the bandleader thinks the audience wont accept anything less than 40 years old and refuses to update. Probably because they're just plain lazy if the truth be told. One just hates his audience...if they're not his age and like the same things then they can go pound sand.

And it doesnt matter how music is produced now; this discussion is about live setlists.