It's the same disease that has overtaken what used to be TV "news". Almost all of it has become "infotainment" or "angertainment", with the emphasis heavily on the 'tainment part.
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Why Slap When Demonstrating Gear?
- Thread starter Xandrell
- Start date
If the still frame at the beginning shows the slapping posture I don’t even click play. It’s a pass from me. I’ll move on. I find it tedious but then I’m not a fan of bass solos either. Some are exceptional - a few here and there but most are boring.
The sensational is what gets attention these days. Players and producers know that and so they cater for it.
The sensational is what gets attention these days. Players and producers know that and so they cater for it.
I like that one. P fingers. P pick. J fingers. J pick. Great way to do it.
One suggestion (that may or may not be valid): the “real world” today consists of someone making videos in his bedroom hoping to get clicks - and slapping gets clicks.
When I made a video of myself slapping in the bedroom, I got arrested.
Yep I live in Perth, the rectum end of the universe. Music stores are limited, the cost of good quality gear is out of this world. One shop has only just received a shipment of amps that are almost 10 years old now and they're so bloody expensive.
I do not usually watch bass gear demos - unless I need a particular sound for my projects. But I watch bass playing videos, usually those Japanese ladies that do not talk much just play. They slap lots but that's okay. I once asked about how to setup a passive jazz bass for slap and judging by the replies many here do slap.
It gets tiring, I do not even watch Victor Wooten videos anymore. Yesterday we morphed Rolling Stones' Sympathy for the Devil into Sledge We are Family and I ended up slapping, I think that really perked up the tune and more folks ended up on the dance floor.
And on the subject of mashup. How about the intro riff to Lively Up Yourself and then crooning into Sinatra's Fly Me to the Moon and then Outro with that as well.
It gets tiring, I do not even watch Victor Wooten videos anymore. Yesterday we morphed Rolling Stones' Sympathy for the Devil into Sledge We are Family and I ended up slapping, I think that really perked up the tune and more folks ended up on the dance floor.
And on the subject of mashup. How about the intro riff to Lively Up Yourself and then crooning into Sinatra's Fly Me to the Moon and then Outro with that as well.
One of the ironies is that if you go to many of the very high(est) end boutique guitar shops, their demo videos tend to be very basic. The idea is that super high technical demonstrations turn off buyers. Folks who have a $#!Tload of $$$ often spend more time working than practicing, so they want the video to seem like it is approachable and something that they can relate to.
It's not specifically slap that drives me nuts, but it's gear demos that highlight the player more than the gear. If you have a virtuoso bassist playing virtuoso parts on gear for a demo, it's gonna tell me about the player but not about the gear. How is it gonna sound with a band when I'm playing something relatively routine?
I agree. No YouTube slap will ever sell me on anything. And, while we are at it, YouTubers need to set the bass in a mix. I’m not talking about a quiet mix playing in the background, I mean, actually even the mix out with the product being reviewed or demonstrated. A lot of the subtle nuances disappear in a mix.
I find it obnoxious too but I'm not in their target demographic - those videos rack up views in the millions. I'm nearing 40 here in just over a month so I think I can blame it on Kids These Days.
I mean, it just becomes so cliche, like I'm watching a commercial for a bad reality show.
I play drums also. When I watch a review of a percussion instrument, I don't want to see the majority, or the whole video where the reviewer is using brushes. Demonstration reviews should incorporate the percentages of technique used in the real world and or for the specific gear. Hearing demonstrations with slap the majority of the time when you never need or use that technique can be irritating to say the least. So why is it used? This thread has pretty much answered that question.
I know people who don't know much about bass playing but they're impressed when a bass player slaps. I've heard several comments from punters who think that's what great bass playing is. The thing is, they wouldn't even notice the bass on a track otherwise at all.
Slap is as good as palm-mute thumb plucking and any/all other plucking techniques to demonstrate to hear if there’s an absence of frequencies you’ll either want or find too aggressive to care to put in effort to tame.
Most of the demonstrators demo without a band mix… useless.
Most of them are very One Genre Influence, and regardless of if it’s slappy or not, it makes them pretty useless.
And for those of us who use pedals and/or colorful amps and/or cabs, are we going to run the video through our rig and record it in a DAW then create a track around it? Useless.
really it’s all just entertainment with a bit of a Consumer Reports kind of Product Quality Assessment for instrument hobbyists.
Most of the demonstrators demo without a band mix… useless.
Most of them are very One Genre Influence, and regardless of if it’s slappy or not, it makes them pretty useless.
And for those of us who use pedals and/or colorful amps and/or cabs, are we going to run the video through our rig and record it in a DAW then create a track around it? Useless.
really it’s all just entertainment with a bit of a Consumer Reports kind of Product Quality Assessment for instrument hobbyists.
