Back in the 1960s, before loud DJs we tried to sound exactly like the record. It was what cover bands did.
Then when DJs started getting a share of the business, we drifted away from that. As mentioned, "who wants to hear the Sinatra tune imitation when you can hear Sinatra?"
As a live band however, we had the advantage of being less compressed dynamically than the recording. The crack of the snare drum was much louder with greater attack and diminish qualities (better accent). Other instruments have this quality as well. So unless playing at 110dba or higher where your ears start compressing everything, the band still had an advantage for many people.
Then came downsizing
After that it became about trying to add some value to the song that a DJ cannot do. One way was to extend the arrangement. Two and a half minutes might not be long enough.
Plus using MIDI files I can still get more dynamic range than a DJ, and since I play for an adult audience with volumes around 85dba to perhaps 100 right in front of the speakers, my MIDI files carry much more energy than the Karaoke files that the KJs purchase.
In some songs I've even doubled snare drums and/or mixed a high timbale with the snare to get that crack effect that doesn't come through on recordings. I've doubled horn stabs too, one for tone and another for the attack. There are lots of tricks you can use with MIDI that can make the sound more dynamic than a prerecorded track.
We learned a line dance song for a private club we play regularly ("Get Into Reggae Cowboy") and our KJ competition does it as well. The dancers thanked us and told us that we do it even better than the record. It's because I expanded the dynamic range of the song, louder accents on the snare and the syncopated guitar part, another on the bottom for the first beat of the measure, a few more tricks like that, and we also extended it to 4 minutes. The instrument sounds aren't as good, but the song goes over much better because the expression is better.
But still, many customers and worse than that, many entertainment purchasers don't know the difference. Fortunately there are enough to keep us working, and enough so that we can still charge a little more than the KJ acts. One club we play often gives us $50 more a night than the KJ trio and there are only two of us. It's not a lot of money, but it is good for our pride.
And yes Matt, most songs are and have always been disposable. I would guess fewer than 10% become 'classics' that will be good for a long time.
The difference between today and decades ago is that the record companies have been making the life cycle of the disposable song shorter and shorter in an effort to sell more 'records'. If a song stays at number 1 for 8 weeks, the public isn't replacing it fast enough.
I was in enough Top40 bands to remember learning a song a week to keep up with current trends. During that time when I spoke to older musicians, they told me that once they moved into the country club / adult market they never wanted to go back to Top40.
In the 1990s I moved into that market, and they were correct. And the nice thing about playing that market is that I didn't have to learn the 90% disposable songs, because they were already disposed of. Any song I learned would last for years. Good value for my time.
But playing the 'adult' market I find that especially the ladies like a little new music. So we still have to learn some and we try to pick what we think will last. We aren't always right. "Love Shack" lasted a long time around here, it looks like "Uptown Funk" is here for a while, but "All About That Bass" faded in a few months.
But still, it's not a song a week like it was in Top40 bands. More like a new song every few months, and the rest of the time I can learn new 'old' songs that have already stood the test of time.
I enjoy the adult market.
- Most gigs are 3 hours,
- there is no pressure to draw a crowd because they are members or invited to a party,
- instead of a manager not appreciating you on a slow night, there are no slow nights and at the end of it people come up and thank us for giving them a delightful evening
- the pay for one-nighers is better per night
- we get to play a wide variety of music from many different genres, making it musically very interesting
- we are not required to do 'like the record' covers and can reinterpret songs and sometimes have them enjoyed even more
On the con side, we do have to schlepp our gear around a lot.
I'll never go back to Top40, and frankly, I'm too old for that now anyway. So the covers I do can be close to the record or radically different. I can do rock, Caribbean, Latin American, country, jazz, disco and plenty of other genres in the same gig. And I like that.
Insights and incites by Notes
Norton Music
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