Innovation Deprivation
While watching The The
perform on Friday night, various thoughts swimming about in my head
came together and trends became more clearly understood. When bands
start out, rarely do they realize how innovative they really are. There
is a tendancy among many bands to disregard early records because
everything NEW they're working on is the most important to them at the
time. Unfortunately, they could be completely missing why older stuff
can be so important to the fans. On the first few attempts at a record,
a band will generally have limited funds. Three (of many) possible
scenarios can occur:
- The band has to be tight, aggressive, quick, fierce and talented. Recording studio rates can be expensive, and for bands like Wire, REM or The Police, funds were probably tight and songs had to be recorded in as few takes as possible to get the entire album in.
- Lack of resources forces a band to make more with less: 2-person and 1-person bands utilize the available technology. Groups like OMD, Human League and The The come to mind. Even Pink Floyd were playing with electronics long before they became classic rock dinosaurs.
- Shyness and a lack of self-confidence results in a band masking their songs with sound. This worked for blurry dreampop greats like Slowdive and Jesus and Mary Chain.