Veteran bands giving the finger to new music....

[diablomozart]

true...but i think you missed my point...the question was a direct response to all the folks in this thread and on other boards saying "if you're not gonna give us new material you should retire" even when the older artists can still make a good living on touring alone...let alone the fact that they may be having fun touring...in the end i was only trying to illustrate the point that none of us are (or should be) in the position to tell artists that they need to retire and to think that we should be able to when none of us would want the same criticism levied at us for our jobs...it just seems very wrong to me...d.m.

[greywolf]

I quit buying Steel Dragon records and started listening to Ratt because Steel Dragon's new singer wanted to change the direction of the band.

Veteran bands get lazy when they get succsesful. They aren't hungry anymore, the band members don't work well together, they forget what it took to create songs that stood out from the rest of the pack, lawyers get involved....etc.
A band is a lot like a marriage. It takes a lot of work and dedication to have a good one, and that work never stops. As far as VH and Aerosmith, they used to be fun, the kind of music that made a party. Then they started following a formula of the one boring song that got airplay, and they kept writing that one song over and over again. That one song with no hook, no riff, nothing of value that would inspire kids to want to pick up a guitar and learn how to play. There are still plenty of cool riffs waiting to be discovered, those guys just quit looking for them.

[6string40]

true...but i think you missed my point...the question was a direct response to all the folks in this thread and on other boards saying "if you're not gonna give us new material you should retire" even when the older artists can still make a good living on touring alone...let alone the fact that they may be having fun touring...in the end i was only trying to illustrate the point that none of us are (or should be) in the position to tell artists that they need to retire and to think that we should be able to when none of us would want the same criticism levied at us for our jobs...it just seems very wrong to me...d.m.

I didn't get that at all from that part of your post...but I do agree with you that it's no one's position but their own to decide when to retire. If we as fans don't like the new material, then we have the choice to not buy the music and to not spend money on concert tickets. That's the way to tell an artist "hey, we don't like what you're doing anymore and we no longer support you." It's then their position to say "hey, I don't give a fuck, I still enjoy what I'm doing" or, "hey, no one likes my shit anymore, so why don't I just call it quits."

[tonemonster]

1. joe Perry is a hack. his playing has no direction. whitford is the talent in that band.

2. money is what ruins every musician & band.

3. Fame sucks.

[maiden666]

remember maiden is gettin older so the go for less shows with more quality now,wich is what the band said a few years ago,here in he uk we dont hardley get any maiden shows either the last arena tour was matter of life and death,we got one date on sowere back in time and one on the most recent final frontier part 1 tour,i would rather see 1 stunning show that a couple of half arsed ones,most of the band are in or near their 50,s now

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

1. joe Perry is a hack. his playing has no direction. whitford is the talent in that band.

It's funny how that works, isn't it? I didn't know anyone else besides me felt that way but yeah, he's way better than Perry.

But for the original question, I think it's a "Damned if you do... Damned if you don't" thing. You always have the fan base that says "What is this new shit? This isn't the <band name> that I've been listening to for the last X years." And if they don't do anything new everyone says "What the hell, these guys keep putting out the same shit over and over... Why is there never anything new?"

You can't win!

[holycross1]

@diablomozart.

I agree with your sober and objective address on this thread. Really its impressive.

[RacerX]

You ruminated on that for 3 months, huh?












J/K

[tonemonster]

well Ronnie, Joe Perry still sucks. its a fact.





I rule.

[Trussrod]

1. joe Perry is a hack. his playing has no direction. whitford is the talent in that band.

2. money is what ruins every musician & band.

I have to agree with your comments about Perry and Whitford. Whitford wasn't the face of the band so Perry got credit for Whitford's work. Andy Summers said a band is only good for its first two albums and IMO that's true in a lot of cases.

[RacerX]

well Ronnie, Joe Perry still sucks. its a fact.





I rule.

I was responding to holycross, dummy.

[Devotee]

Basically, huge bands (like pretty much all the bands mentioned in this thread) have been around for long enough to have established themselves well enough to be at a point where it doesn't matter what they release - it will sell. Metallica for instance could release a Polka-influenced Dance Metal album with hints of Dubstep tomorrow and it would still shift at least a million copies regardless; they have that fanbase. So they are actually at a point where they have complete artistic freedom to do literally whatever they want whenever they want without worrying about whether or not it will be commercially viable. You have to consider that none of these bands makes a living off of royalties from CDs, LPs or tracks off iTunes, etc. Sure, simply because of the sheer quantities they shift and because of the deals they have with major labels they probably could live off royalties, but touring is where the real money's at. To keep a band alive though and to maintain a certain degree of interest in that band, they have to actively release new material to support on a tour... It's not a matter of doing anything new or not, take Motorhead or AC/DC as Nightbat said, they've been doing the same thing for longer than i've been around. It's a matter of whether or not you become complacent once you reach a certain point of success as a musician/band.

[tonemonster]

Polka influenced dance metal. how did you know my new break through genre?

[The Rossness]

The new Ratt album was great! Impellitteri made a great record too with wicked maiden. The older bands can make good new music, but they have to put effort into it.

[tonemonster]

effort hey? what a concept.