Trendspotting: Unmaking the Band

NewsWire: 3/27/21

• Are bands losing out to solo artists? The iconic pop and rock bands that dominated until the early ‘00s have increasingly given way to solo artists, who are ruling the charts and festival lineups. (The Guardian)
• NH: Twenty years ago, pop and rock bands were all the rage. The 2000 lineup for Glastonbury, one of the biggest music festivals in the world, was dominated by headlining bands, including the Chemical Brothers, Travis, and Morcheeba. Across the pond, Coachella looked much the same. Bands made up eight of the 10 top artist slots. Boybands and girl groups like *NSYNC and Destiny’s Child were still going strong on the radio, joined by alt-rock bands like 3 Doors Down.
• Today, there are only a handful of bands to be found in Billboard’s top 100 singles. A band doesn’t show up until #34--and it’s BTS, who are part of South Korea's thriving K-pop industry. In all, only six of the 100 songs are from bands. The rest are solo artists or collaborations between two artists.
• What happened? For one thing, it’s now easier than ever to launch a music career alone. Young superstars like Billie Eilish and Justin Bieber got noticed after uploading songs online to SoundCloud and YouTube. All they needed was some recording software. Bands need expensive equipment, consistent rehearsal time, and space to practice. And in the social media era, they’re much harder to market than a single personality. Why wait for bandmates when you can start releasing your own music immediately?
• Of course, this doesn’t mean that bands are dead. But at least in the Western world, they’re far outnumbered by those artists finding commercial success solo. For every Little Mix, there’s a Cardi B, Doja Cat, Megan Thee Stallion, Dua Lipa, and Ariana Grande.
  

Did You Know?

• Can Cord-Cutters Cut Costs? Disney+ recently implemented its first price hike, raising monthly fees from $6.99 to $7.99. This comes several months after Netflix raised prices on its two higher-end plans by $1 and $2 a month, respectively. With popular streaming services raising prices and new players continually entering the scene, getting access to a top-shelf variety of TV is getting expensive. If you add together the cost of the big-name streaming services, including Netflix ($18), Amazon Prime ($9), HBO Max ($15), Apple TV+ ($5), and the Disney+ bundle with Hulu and ESPN+ ($20), that’s already $67 a month. Add up-and-comers Paramount+ ($10), Peacock ($10), and Discovery+ ($5), and the total jumps to $92. That’s not far from the cost of a traditional cable subscription, which is around $93.50. While it’s unlikely Americans will ever embrace cable again (see: “Cable Subscriptions Plunge Among Millennials”), the escalating costs suggest that cord-cutters will be on the hunt for more budget-friendly options, such as those with ad-supported versions.