Where Have All the Bands Gone?

Not in the charts, that's for sure.

It’s not something I’ve considered that much. As someone who regularly goes out to watch bands, it would appear that I have a biased view on how many bands are out there. But the stats say something very different.

I found a band.

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I stumbled upon the podcast, The Rest is Entertainment, where Richard Osman discusses the question: Where are all the bands? After rifling through lots of data, this is what he found:

“What has happened that is utterly extraordinary is the complete disappearance of bands.

In the first half of the 1980s, there were 146 weeks when a band held the number 1 spot.

In the first half of the 1990s, there were 141 weeks when bands held the number 1 spot.

Fast forward to now. In the first half of 2020s, there were 3 weeks when a bands held the number 1 spot. One of which was the Radio 1 Live Lounge All Stars, most of whom were soloists anyway, one of which was The Beatles, the other was Little Mix (if you can even call that a band!).

In this week’s Top 40 (this was recorded last week) there is not a single band formed in this century in the Top 40 of the Singles Charts or the Album Charts.”

Isn’t that incredible? 3 bands the taking the number 1 spot this decade!

So where are the bands? And why?

I read an interview with Liam Gallagher in The Guardian, where he said that:

“No one wants to be in a band and share success these days. It’s all ‘me me me’ solo stars.”

He can at least find one thing in common with his brother. In an interview with Absolute Radio last year, Noel said:

“The music industry doesn’t love mavericks… The reason there are no bands now is because in the 1990s Oasis, Primal Scream, Blur and Pulp, we were the mainstream. The music industry doesn’t like the mainstream being a load of fellas on drugs, drunk half the time, on a Tuesday. They don’t like that… The mavericks are still there, it’s just they’re not in the mainstream. Unfortunately we were brought up when Top of the Pops and the charts was everything. I listen to the charts and it’s just embarrassing I think.”

Here’s what I think:

• Music labels try to make as much profit as possible. They make much more money if they only have to pay one person. As costs rise and decisions have to be made about who to promote, its the expensive bands that suffer first.

• The rise of accessible technology allows people at home to be their own producers. You (or a computer) can record or create multiple lines of music with relative ease.

• Individuals are hyper-glamorised by the media. This has always been true but the internet has increased the virality of artists multiple-fold. The students I teach obsess over the name of Taylor Swift’s cat and Olivia Rodrigo’s merch because they have access to it. The media feed young people with that personal touch. Away from the music and closer to celebrity goss.

• Some people are bored of bands? I took a long, hard look at myself went through all the songs I’ve shared in the the first half of the year. To my surprise, only 59% of the 196 artists were bands. The rest are solo artists or collaborations of solo artists. So even I don’t like bands as much as I thought I did!

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One final consideration is this: that there are in fact bands. More than ever perhaps. It’s just they’re not in the mainstream. I’ve seen loads of bands so far this year alone. Yes, they don’t make it in the top 40 anymore but that’s mostly a load of old crap now anyway. The increasing number of festivals highlight this. I, for one, nearly all my time trying to find new music and every day I’ll come across a new band.

So I think my take home points are these:

1. See live music. Bands are out there and they need your support.

2. There is so much music out there. Just don’t keep going back to the same old radio, x-factor, viral video bullshit.