I was listening to a recent Mars Attacks podcast the other day, Victor and Scott were talking about bands being brands. I have always felt that a band that has a long career and has been hugely successful is a brand. Kiss, Aerosmith, AC/DC exhibit both and are brands. They all have a 30 year plus career and have been able to cross over to the mainstream pop audience either through clever marketing or tweaking their sound for radio. The band members names are iconic, Bona fide rock gods. Angus Young, Steven Tyler and Gene Simmons. They also have the tunes to back it up, all top notch and littered throughout their career. So what about the heavier bands? Well Metallica now are more brand then band, everyone knows who they are and they have helped the genre enormously. Slayer? Definite brand now even though their level of success is not as great as the big guns, long time fans questioning should they even continue without Lombardo or Hanneman. Iron Maiden is an interesting one, their merchandising is wildly successful but you always feel that with Steve Harris and Rod Smallwood involved they stay somewhat grounded. Priest is a brand, same with Scorpions, same with Van Halen. They all have a name that means something to many many people out there and not just us metal heads.
So what of bands that have a long career and have only been moderately successful, mostly they are a band in name only and hardly have any of the original members anyway. Their career more often then not has been stuttering. So where do I start? Well how about the Quiet Riot, Bulletboys, Faster Pussycat bang your head package going out here soon. Out of the 12 or so musicians how many are original members? 3 maybe 4. Can you name them? They have one maybe two hit songs and any recent output if any did nothing. More often then not they have changed their sound numerous times to fit what is popular alienating what little fan base they had in the first place. They can play whatever the hell they want as long as they play their hit near the end and it has to be at the end of the set. All these groups would love to be at a level where the brand/band debate was even a question. They plod on coming to a club near you.
Bands that have a short career and have had huge levels of success. Nirvana spring to mind. As do The Police. What about Hendrix? Now that’s a tough one. At the time they were successful I would think they were a band but over time with the growth of merch and increased levels interest they all fall into the brand category. Also what they have been is hugely influential on music. Some like The Police even cash in by going back on the road. Another example is the Sex Pistols with their Filthy Lucre tour, cashing in on the name when the going was good.
Make no bones about it, bands want to be successful. Having none is the major reason they didn’t hang around in the first place. Being in a position to brand yourself is now the only real revenue stream a band can use now that record sales have gone down the toilet. With the stadium and arena sized bands getting long in the tooth with few up and comers on the horizon to replace them can you name the next band you can have this debate about in metal? I can’t.
