airtime for the bassist really sucks

[Z3r0_G]

The thing is: you just need to show respect to the bassist. sure, we may not be doing flashy lines all the time, but when we do, it's only coutesy to show the bass player doing some crazy fill in or smth.

some ppl have mentioned how during bass solos or when a bass suddenly takes charge of the certain part of the song, the shot is focused on the guitarist just strumming chords. that is just plain wrong. we hardly see that happening when the guitarist does his looooong solo.

we don't have to be focused on 70% of the time, just when we're doing something interesting and different. give us bassists respect we deserve.

one of my favourite quotes is: "it's all screeching and noise until the bass player plugs in"

 

[shinobi]

it only appears this way to us because we are biased firstly as bassists, and secondly as musicians. to the layman, its 4% the singer, 1% "the rest of the band" (which consists of the guitarist, and the other dude holding another guitar. 'oh i thought they were the same guy!'. we know there is a drummer but we can't be bothered to know who. 'i thought it is a drum machine!'). 95% will go to the band AS A WHOLE. layman doesn't even bother to know the names of the band members. they only know the individuals as "guitar", "the other guitar, oh, bassist" and "drummer". you go to the street and ask random people, can they name 1 person in say, snow patrol? heck, i bet some people dont even know the name of the lead singer of BON JOVI. but ask them if they know the band, they sure do, they can sing the songs word-perfect. so don't bother. if you can get praise from fellow musicians, and/or booty from the groupies, it is more than enough.

 

[fgl]

Well you don't have to be a frontman to get airtime. Look at Billy Sheehan!

True...but Steve Vai, EricMartin or whomever he plays with still gets more airtime...

He is one kick ass bass player though!

 

[A.J.]

True. The band i like, during one of their songs the verse has a sweet bass riff... and the bessist faces the amp. So all we see is sexyback. SAD but hey... saw him play in the studio vids.

 

[A.J.]

Hey.. his problem becomes yours... haha.

 

[fiqthefallen]

one of my favourite quotes is: "it's all screeching and noise until the bass player plugs in"

+1 to that

just imagine listening to songs with low bass EQ to the point where there's no bass. the bass simply adds a new dimension in songs, makes it fuller sounding. too bad people dont seem to realize this...

maybe an exception is pete wentz, but i dont get why people dig him so much... teenagers perhaps....

and you dont need wonderful basslines to please the cameras. punk rock without bass would sound like crap...

 

[visa]

I was just going to mention pete wentz, in fact. and how about sid vicious?

the airtime you get on screen has little to do with what instrument you play, but more to do with your charisma, personality and how you carry yourself. If you look good playing, the cameraman will notice. john entwistle's solos got ignored by some cameramen because he didn't move around at all during his solos- pete townsend's windmills were more interesting to capture.

airtime has nothing to do with your musical ability. it's about how big a star you are. keanu reeves is the bass player of dogstar, want to bet he gets more footage than his guitarist? tetsu from l'arc~en~ciel gets good footage- (although he's a brilliant bassist).

think of videography as an extension to photography. If you are a photographer, are you going to photograph the guitarist shredding in the corner, facing the drummer, with no expression on his face, or the wildly flailing bassist, yelling, jumping and thrashing about?

(Granted, a good photographer will know how to capture the moment and make the guitarist look good as well, but are you going to depend on good photographers, videographers and soundmen your whole life?)

Image matters.

 

[hayabusa]

+1 to that

just imagine listening to songs with low bass EQ to the point where there's no bass. the bass simply adds a new dimension in songs, makes it fuller sounding. too bad people dont seem to realize this...

maybe an exception is pete wentz, but i dont get why people dig him so much... teenagers perhaps....

and you dont need wonderful basslines to please the cameras. punk rock without bass would sound like crap...

i know, it's just like listening to music from a cheap radio! eww..

 

[layla]

"airtime has nothing to do with your musical ability. it's about how big a star you are." - visa

this one i agreed. look at how patrice (almost) literally disappeared as front woman at rockstar supernova when tommy lee went up to jam higher ground.

its about how good you look with your instrument, wheather the producer thinks you're "marketable" or "sellable" enough to push you to the limelight.

 

[hayabusa]

i think flea gets pretty decent airtime for a bassist. yea, i agree. he gets more airtime bacause he's outstanding

 

[litford]

FGL nailed it when it comes to selling music as a product, not music -) and that's how the industry has been working for the past xxxx years since music was comodified and make bazillions of dollars from it.

don't even think for an instant that these marketing execs do it because they love music, they love money, and they sell you the ideology that "you love music"

Anyway, did you know that it is almost an industry standard that at least the 1st 30s of a music video has to feature a band? very few bands in the mainstream space can command a sort of creative control over their promotional materials. why do you think Radiohead left their label?

anyway, to the topic of bassplayers receiving airtime. bassplayers come a dime a dozen, most of us may have been rejected guitarists for all i care. but good bassplayers contribute not just skillwise, but songwriting wise to to write songs that are truly special, and when you take him/her out of the equation, something changes.

a perfect example would be when Dirk Lance left Incubus and Ben Kenny joined. both incredibly talented bassplayers, but the shift in music was very prominent.

Airtime is SQUAT if it doesn't value add to a band's image, publicity, marketing. afterall, your bass player gets 5% or 50% of airtime, they still recieve the same amount of royalties from marketing.

 

[rottenramone]

what? we don't get money?

 

[jbarks]

what? we get money?

 

[Colarndo]

Since when did the bands pay for their music videos?
Like litford said creative control is not up to the bands, just hope you get a good producer who gets a good director.
A bassist should worry about the music rather than the airtime.
After all don't tell me you play bass becos you want to be on TV?

 

[litford]

yes, we do get money, just not a whole lot. perhaps enough to cover jamming sessions, cabs, some after practice kopi

but you gotta work your butt off for it.. and even then, sometimes you just don't make it.

success doesn't just plonk itself on you just because you're 'talented'

REM and 311 worked their butts off and toured in vans for 10 years before they even started to make it big.

if you want instant rockstardom, be prepared also for instant forgetability. no one will remember the click 5 in 30 years. or at least, no one that mattered to music.

 

[shinobi]

a perfect example would be when Dirk Lance left Incubus and Ben Kenny joined. both incredibly talented bassplayers, but the shift in music was very prominent.

i dunno if that is a very good example

because to me ben kenny is a guitarist, and he plays bass like a guitarist

 

[litford]

i dunno if that is a very good example

because to me ben kenny is a guitarist, and he plays bass like a guitarist

so are we gonna say that Tetsu from Larc'En Ciel shouldn't be a bassist too because his style is rather similar to Ben Kenny's i will argue.

anyway, Ben Kenny is the bassplayer of Incubus. he plays a Lakland Joe Osborn, i mean, c'mon! what else must he do to 'prove' he's playing bass?

like that, i might as well stop playing bass altogether cuz i started out on guitar, and i'll tell all my multi-instrumentalist friends to stop what they're doing already..

i mean, going by your point, it's more interesting to see Sid Vicious play the root to 3 chord songs then to see a tasteful musician do stuff on either a guitar or bass?

plus, my point was about how shifting bass styles affect a band's overall sound, not who should be considered a bass player.

 

[plainsman]

don't fight it - go wif the flow!!!


1. learn to sing, and develop yourself as a songwriter with option of singing a song every set

2. have guitar and/or piano to fall back on. good for PR as well

3. dress well and benchmark your showmanship to equal or better than your singer/guitarist

4. use pt 3 in a graceful (not upstaging) manner. when its your turn on the spotlight, get it on



5. when you have finally achieved all the pts above, tell pple that what you really love in the first place was always bass.... GIVE THE LOVE BACK TO BASSISTS!!!!!


cheers!!

 

[DjKitz]

Tom Araya - Slayer ! 70% filming on him on concert ! =P

 

[alka1987]

Bassists who are arguably more popular than their guitarist/singer counterparts

nikki sixx, pete wentz, sid vicious