EXPLOIT THE SCENE With Kyle “Kore” Parsons Episode 11: Band Saturation No matter who you are, scene or not, you have most likely been hit up by several (or several hundred) bands on Myspace and other social networks. I’m willing to bet that a good third of the accounts on Myspace are band accounts – because everybody has a band and everyone wants to live that amazing glamorous band lifestyle. This week’s column is in reference to those individuals making bands just for the sake of making a band. This is not directed toward individuals or projects that have true potential for a career in the music industry, or who have already been signed, rather; this is dedicated to all the mindless sheep that flood my mailbox daily. With this column I would really like to dive into the psyche of a potential band-mate, if you will, and ask, what is the real motive here? You say it’s for the sake of making music? Really? From my stand point, that’s often times the last thing that seems to run through these kid’s minds. The music is the hang-up in the whole process really – the other pieces to the puzzle are much more vital. I mean think about it – it’s not like you need to have talent to be in a band anymore. What you really need is awesome hair, some cliché visible tattooing, and of course the Myspace account so you can truly reach all those groupies – uh, I mean, fans. I’m sitting here debating which stories I would like to share with you that support this whole concept of band saturation but it’s difficult to figure out whom to offend when there is much to work with. One acquaintance of mine from a couple years ago worked very hard at truly establishing himself an image of a “rock star” before ever diving into the world of rock itself. To be honest, I’m not even sure if he owned a rock CD prior to this – but again, I’m also not convinced his goals were primarily music related. This individual picked up everything he had, which was nothing, and shipped himself out to big bad LA to place himself in a rock-induced situation. This was of course in cognizant with growing out his blonde hair – which was then dyed black, tattooing on whatever random cross skull and bone tattoo he could afford out of a tattoo book, and shredding the shit out of perfectly good girl jeans. Myspace is of course a platform full of “yes people,” so all the appropriate style comments, clarification of eye makeup, and the “omg you’re hot” statements are enough to get the ego pumping. Hey, I must rock! When you find yourself looking like a rocker, and you’re living in decent approximation to venues – people might begin to get this perception, false or not, that you are “IN A BAND.” So what’s next? Oh right, the band part of being in a band. I can’t imagine what that thought process consisted of for this particular individual – but I imagine it was somewhere along the lines of “Well I can’t play guitar, or bass, or drums… I must be a singer!” I will let a rhetorical question take this one: how many singers in bands have you heard, live or on the internet, and thought to yourself “wow, singing is not in the cards for this guy.” It doesn’t stop them though, most of these singers are lucky enough to be deaf to their own vocals and no matter how poor they are vocally – they’ll never really hear about it because they are surrounded by all those yes people we discussed. Look guys, your mom and the under-aged girls on Myspace aren’t really a valid opinion, nor are they a viable support system. I will have to give this individual credit though, he might be a fake, a bad singer, and fronting another carbon copied sceney band that isn’t going anywhere – but at least he was being proactive and smart[ish] about his decision making process. I personally can not sing worth a damn, and if I tried to start up a band I would sincerely hope someone would grow some balls and stop me. Recently I have been ambushed on Myspace with dozens of people telling me to add their accounts with a message saying “this will be a band account soon.” There isn’t as much as a picture or even a horrible demo representing their horrible band. It’s literally nothing, just some kid trying to build a fan base where a fan base can not thrive. Even if you have a group of dudes jamming together, all that really is – is a group of dudes jamming together! It’s not a band, it’s hardly even music. No, I will not add your jam-session nightmare. The definition for “band” has expanded so vastly out of context since the start of rock, that it has really lost the glamour behind the whole lifestyle. “I’m in a band” used to be marked as something unique and crazy about that individual – now the response is just “oh, cool.” Conversation doesn’t really need to go on much further than that because that person has probably never heard of you, nor do they care. I’m sure they get the point though, you’re not career oriented and you’re broke – what a badass! This has created a series of problems in the music industry because everything is completely oversaturated. There are hundreds of thousands of individuals copying the rare successes in the industry. There are a ton of Underoath rip-offs, and there are a million The Used rip-offs. How many more Senses Fails and Circa Survives do we need? Please no more Metro Stations. Now of course the electronic/screamo scene is catching fire but that’s a whole other topic. Regardless, we don’t need to follow this pattern and initiate massive amounts of electronic rock bands either – not even you Sonny Moore. My general assessment of this is that it’s a bunch of guys getting together who have each individually thought to themselves “What is perceived cool and accepted right now? What do I need to do to get from point A (generic) to point B (accepted?”) Bands mean a hobby, it means covering up a load of insecurities, and it means getting the attention from girls. Band guys are the new military recruits. When kids graduated high school and turned 18 there was a huge ideology (true or not) that guys with nothing going on in their lives, limited grades, and no interest or will to have a job/go college fit into a catch-all called the military. It’s now a similar concept with bands; no more high school, hate your parents, don’t continue your education or enter the work force – but believe you can still get by and be rewarded in the end. Everyone is in a band now; what a shame for the marine recruiters. The music industry has been busted completely open by loads of talentless rocker types that are missing the fundamental building blocks for creating legitimate music. They are missing the will, the organization, or the love for the music and the genre they are trying to represent. These people are the main individuals devalidating the emo/hardcore rock genres. They are making it a joke with their obnoxious and redundant bass petals and awful screams. They are adding to the cliché of the music style; they are lacking originality in all aspects of their music even down to their band names, and worse yet – scene kids are buying into it. You are making the rest of us in this industry look like a joke. I know there are plenty of people out there, girls and guys, who are in bands because it’s just something fun for them to do. I respect that and these generalizations need not apply, but what I don’t respect is this cliché catch-all niche that has been created in society for lazy dudes that want to get laid.