Current Music and Staying Power

[DJBruce]

So today I was thinking about how over the last 30-40 years there have been a lot of musical groups and artists that have had the staying power to continue to tour and sell out large venues year after year. I mean think of all the big rock groups from the 70's and 80's who still tour or toured in the last few years even if they band wasn't the original members. My question is do you think there are any current groups that you think have this type of staying power? I really cannot think of any current musical acts that will. I mean I can't imagine in 20 to 30 years seeing Lady Gaga, Ke$ha, T-Pain, or most other artists still preforming to large audiences. What groups do you think will still be around in 20-30 years?

[CaptainPanic]

I think that music is changing, or has changed already.

Because of all the new media and new technology, people have a much (much!) larger music collection than 30 years ago. I think that a logical result of that is that instead of a few mega-stars, we have a lot of regular stars. That might mean that a star gets a massive fan-base (like Lady gaga) but perhaps only for a few years, or that a group gets a relatively smaller fan-base, but quite long and faithful. But there is just too much music on the market, and it's too readily available, to expect a star or band to remain at the top for a long time.

 

But I think that there are many stars and bands that have a lot of staying power... I could imagine that especially some bands (Radiohead, Coldplay, Kaiser Chiefs to name some that come to mind) will make music for a period of 30 years at least. They do not need to be made anymore, because they have proven themselves already. In a way, they are the establishment in their genres. They play main stage at large festivals, and have sold out world tours. Similar new bands might play for a long time, but they'll have to prove it.

 

Btw, I had to look up Ke$ha and T-Pain... I had never heard of them, lol. I would not consider them the establishment yet... and I agree that they probably never get there. I certainly hope not, because I think it's commercial junk music. They probably sell half their music to 16-year-olds who still need to develop their own taste of music

[imatfaal]

there is also a sort of evolutionary selection going on as well - the bands that survive 30/40/50 years are the ones that deserve to. Comparing the Who or the Stones to any band now is just unfair - these are the survivors and only time can tell who the survivors will be from the 2010s. From a quick survey of my itunes library about a quarter of just of two thousand albums are from before I was born - and I would consider myself someone who prefers old music. I reckon Kings of Leon will survive, White Stripes, people will talk about and listen to NWA Dr Dre etc or similarly Joy Division for many years because of their historical importance, and hopefully every PopStar/Britains Got Talent/X Factor (Delete as applicable) winner will disappear without trace as soon as pssible

 

CaptP is dead right in saying that the capacity to hold music has grown immeasureably - 2156 albums in the time of vinyl would be several rooms worth; they now sit on a device about the size of a text book (at home, at work and on portable HDD).