The secret life of rock groups is a hush hush inner bubble like a marriage that you look in from afar and think you grasp but that you don’t do anything of the sort. It’s like a marriage where the default lines and the power structures are hidden from view. And where two minds are better than one.
So much depends on stuff it is hard to see.
For one thing all group activities devolve into set roles: the nerd, the joker, the stud, the leader. Doesn’t matter where you go or what you do, all groups of people find themselves assigned one of these rules. The stud and the leader (say John and Paul) are set in opposition to the nerd and the joker (George and Ringo).
Or, even, guitar and vocals vs the rhythm section.
And nobody has the slightest idea how to solve it.
Except, maybe, an x factor like who writes the songs. Whoever writes the song rules the group.
Except, in a Fall Out Boys or For Science like position, where the face of the band isn’t the head writer of the band.
This comes in mind because of Helen’s recent comment today about naming the other members of the Killers. It’s a valid point but then again, how group aesthetic are the Killers?
Some bands, Weezer for instance, Hole for another, are just solo acts with a group name. Some are even literally so: The Rocker Summer, Never Shout Never, are both one man bands.
But a real group aesthetic isn’t like that. The real rock group functions better as a group unit then solo. The Beatles are the obvious example but how about the Who?
Pete Townsend wrote the songs and was the leader, Daltry the stud, Entwhistle the nerd and Keith Moon the joker.
While the band was all about Townsend rock eccentricities are obsession with a teenage art form, the band NEVER RECOVERED FROM KEITH MOON’S DEATH.
Same is true of Led Zeppelin who couldn’t get over the loss of John Bonham.
Of current bands you definitely get the feel Titus Andronicus are a one man band and Saint Motel are the group aesthetic. Wavves and Best Coast are one man bands, Surfer Blood are a group aesthetic.
LCD Soundsystem a one man band.
The problem is one man bands have nothing but themselves to guide them… the group can save each other but band members buck at their assigned each other and fracture leaving everyone the worse.