When/why did vocals-guitar-bass-drums become the vast majority of rock music group makeups? Even with the occasional keyboardist, bands are almost entirely the same instruments.
In: 917
>bands are almost entirely the same instruments.
In addition to the answers given about the history of music, and a bit of music theory spattered in, I have to note that your definition of “band” is pretty myopic on a small subset of music.
We have the jazz>blues>R&B>Rock & Roll transformation from the early 20th century to the 1960 and early 1970s that others have talked about. That creation of early rock & roll from people like Bill Haley and Chuck Berry in the 1950s led to pinnacle pioneering rock bands bands — the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys, Led Zepplin and a few others. By and large, those bands had guitar, bass, vocals, and drums, with a smattering of extra stuff thrown in as decoration when they wanted it. Other bands took up the mantle from these pioneers, but to keep and expand on their sound, they kept the instrumentation. Rock music began to look and feel like that for 20-30 years because that’s what the genre was. It was expanded to hard rock, punk, metal, soft rock, and similar subgenres, but you can draw roots to those key bands, a little in the 50s, but mostly in the 60s and early 70s. It had a rennaissance in the 1990s with alternative, and there are still a few straight-ahead rock bands performing.
But that modality is far from ubiquituous through music, or even for the last 60 years. Country or bluegrass bands almost always include a pedal steel guitar, a fiddle, or a banjo–even in the years that rock was king. Jazz groups–even ones with vocalists–usually have some varied instrumentation. Funk groups contain horn sections. Ska bands contain horn sections. Disco groups almost always used keyboard, piano, or synth of some sort. 80s pop groups and boy bands were backed almost exclusively by synths. House, EDM, and related genres will maybe feature one live instrument, but are most often just samples and synths. Modern rap and R&B groups may have live instruments, but mostly don’t. Rap began with rappers rapping or beat boxing over other artists’ records.
Look at the Hot 100 today–how many songs are performed by “bands” with live guitar, bass, and drums? Heck, how many bands are on the Hot 100? Hardly any. Even solo artists, pop acts or collaborations that rely on a more standard rock sound aren’t generally using a live band setup, but rather relying on synths, samples, and digital effects. Even live.
So my long answer to your question is: That’s what a band is, because that’s what the “rock” genre sound sounded like, so that’s what people did. As we’ve gotten away from rock music as the predominately popular sound, artists have gotten away from the 3-piece, 4-piece, or 5-piece guitar and rhythm group and are doing other things.
Latest Answers