It definitely feels like it. Girl groups especially seem dead. It’s very difficult for them to gain any real traction these days without coming from a talent show. Besides GA, LM and 5H, the last notable girl groups to make a real impact were the Pussycat Dolls and Sugababes! On a separate note, apparently the producers of Popstars are looking to find the next big boyband via a new tv show. Will be interesting to see how that turns out.

 

 

Don't, we very almost had that happen in 2008 :drama:

 

I couldn’t stand Rockstar at the time but have grown to really love it. :ph34r:

Not on the album charts. James and Shed Seven both scored their first ever number one studio albums this year and other bands have been number one this year. The albums do struggle with longevity though

Feel like it's not fair to compare charts position for position from decades past to now. I won't deny the landscape has shifted to an extent, but how many of those bands that scored top 10 hits in the '90s would really do so under similar circumstances to now? A lot of them would get muscled out by bigger hits having longer tenures, while they themselves have more steady chart points that don't lend themselves to impressive chart peaks.

 

Or rather to sound like a broken record, it can't be understated just how much activity happens below the top 40, below the top 100 these days. I've just now seen that Lord Huron's "The Night We Met" has gone double platinum, despite only a #75 peak. If ACR doesn't exist, maybe it's a #30ish peak? In any case, if you go back to the mid '90s, how many songs peaking in the 30s were going double platinum back then? This is a genuine question because many here know the UK Charts better than I do, but I can't imagine it's many, if any (outside of them also slowly accumulating it now).

 

I think in the age of parasocial media that solo artists are easier to market (and generally cheaper), but if they're generating the same equivalent figures, that's their bottom line and they don't need to be on the chart.

Are we really counting Kanye and Ty Dolla $ign as a band?

 

Well, isn't it kind of the same thing as Jack U, The Throne, Bad Meets Evil, LSD, The Carters, Silk City, etc? I would count them if they decide on a group name.

 

As for bands I general, apparently they are more complicated for record labels, because you have to sign each band BOTH as a band and as individual solo artists.

 

There were cases of band line-ups changing, band names changing, people going solo, etc. in the past causing loads of drama because they could claim they are now no longer signed if the band is in anyway different to what is on the contract, so that is how they get around it. But it sounds more complicated. And probably they are harder to manage with maybe a lot of drama and people to keep track of, loads more expenses (hotel rooms, plane tickets, etc.), maybe more difficult to market than a solo artist. So maybe those things play a factor. Because its weird there are so few groups these days so there must be a reason.

But bands keep being signed all the time

The album charts is full of bands

Its the single charts were they struggle

Coldplay are returning soon, we'll see how they succeed.

As a few people have said, these things come around in cycles. Bands have never really done that well in the singles charts and even when they did, it was very front loaded. Someone said Coldplay are coming back shortly.. I think the days of them having #1 hits are long over (unelss it's a TikTok song and reaches Gen-Z). You'll have bands which will sell out festivals and satdiums, but they couldn't score a Top 20 single if they tried - again, I think there is a lot of nostalgica attached to acts, which sells show tickets but less so new material.

 

The music industry, if nothing else is very adaptable though. They always need the next big thing or the next big artist, sometimes they get lucky (Arctic Monkeys) and sometimes they are more of an industry plant (The Last Dinner Party). There's clearly a gap in the Market for groups though.. the industry will find something because they always do, and when they don't, they will be brutal. Around 2009 there was a complete lack of groups, the UK industry was riding off of the wave of success of Take That MKII, then The Wanted broke through and it started a boyband/group fad for 2-3 years.

Disagree with the statement that "bands have never done well in singles"

in the late 70s early 80s it was all about ABBA, Blondie, The Police, Culture Club, Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet

then in the mid 90s with the Britpop domination it was Oasis, Blur, Pulp, there was almost one indie band single going top 10 every week

plus boy bands and girlbands, maybe Westlife were frontloaded but not Take That or Boyzone, they stuck around quite a bit and sme for Girls Aloud, Sugababes, Little Mix etc

Disagree with the statement that "bands have never done well in singles"

in the late 70s early 80s it was all about ABBA, Blondie, The Police, Culture Club, Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet

then in the mid 90s with the Britpop domination it was Oasis, Blur, Pulp, there was almost one indie band single going top 10 every week

plus boy bands and girlbands, maybe Westlife were frontloaded but not Take That or Boyzone, they stuck around quite a bit and sme for Girls Aloud, Sugababes, Little Mix etc

 

I’m classing groups and bands as different bits here. I just don’t feel guitar bands have ever done consistently well for singles, sure there are outlining examples, but certainly since the download era from 2005, bands on the whole have really struggled in the singles charts when you compare their relative size. Always a market for physical copies, but in this current climate they have struggled, but the music is seemingly as popular as ever judging by the amount of festivals going on and tours!

The full list of recent Top 10 hits from groups, including DJ + rap groups! Aside from the re-entering Christmas songs, of course.

 

2021:

D-Block Europe (feat. Central Cee) - Overseas

 

 

2022:

Clavish (feat. D-Block Europe) - Rocket Science

 

2023:

 

FIFTY FIFTY - Cupid

 

D-Block Europe (feat. Clavish) - Pakistan

Cassö, Raye & D-Block Europe - Prada

 

Buzzjack's favourites icons selflessly keeping the concept of a band alive :cheeseblock:

There’s also an element of the singles chart being full of tik tok shite which tends to go towards rhythmic pop and rnb not guitar music. I’m listening to loads of good ‘bands’ at the moment like Wunderhorse, Fontaines DC, Fat Dog, Two Door Cinema Club, EBTG, The Coral, The Mysterines, Boy Genius, Royal Blood, Glass Animals, London Grammar, Idles, Blur & Bleachers all have songs in my PC but would have very little hope of a singles chart berth!

, 07:15 PM']There’s also an element of the singles chart being full of tik tok shite which tends to go towards rhythmic pop and rnb not guitar music. I’m listening to loads of good ‘bands’ at the moment like Wunderhorse, Fontaines DC, Fat Dog, Two Door Cinema Club, EBTG, The Coral, The Mysterines, Boy Genius, Royal Blood, Glass Animals, London Grammar, Idles, Blur & Bleachers all have songs in my PC but would have very little hope of a singles chart berth!

Rock & indie’s done pretty well out of TikTok too tbf. Songs by Mother Mother, The Rare Occasions, Dominic Fike, Sam Fender, Maneskin, beabadoobee, Jungle, TV Girl, Good Neighbours, Seafret, SALES, Steve Lacy, Cigarettes After Sex, Vundabar, Ghost, Ritt Momney, The 1975, Arctic Monkeys, Bad Omens, Sleep Token & others (these just came to mind immediately) have all had massive boosts thanks to the app. And it’s helped many of those play much bigger venues and festival slots over here. And your example of Glass Animals had a huuuuge hit thanks to TikTok.

 

Not all bands though, of course.

If we're counting Kanye and Ty Dolla signs outfit then surely we ought to count Silk Sonic.

Rock & indie’s done pretty well out of TikTok too tbf. Songs by Mother Mother, The Rare Occasions, Dominic Fike, Sam Fender, Maneskin, beabadoobee, Jungle, TV Girl, Good Neighbours, Seafret, SALES, Steve Lacy, Cigarettes After Sex, Vundabar, Ghost, Ritt Momney, The 1975, Arctic Monkeys, Bad Omens, Sleep Token & others (these just came to mind immediately) have all had massive boosts thanks to the app. And it’s helped many of those play much bigger venues and festival slots over here. And your example of Glass Animals had a huuuuge hit thanks to TikTok.

 

Not all bands though, of course.

 

Yeh but the only ones with a huge chart hit that you’ve listed is Sam Fender, Good Neighbours and Jungle.

 

Edited May 27, 20241 yr by Steve201

Yeh but the only ones with a huge chart hit that you’ve listed is Sam Fender, Good Neighbours and Jungle.

 

Måneskin and Steve Lacy's TikTok powered hits were much bigger than those by Good Neighbours and Jungle. Quite a few of the others on the list had pretty sizeable top 40 hits from TikTok as well.

 

I'm quite sure that TikTok has been nothing but positive for the mainstream visibility of guitar music. Obviously it's not the majority of TikTok hits but TikTok is a gigantic platform that has lifted songs from pretty much all genres, certainly done a better job of keeping mainstream music diverse than the years before it came to prominence.

The biggest is clearly Sam, the others have been hits but minor at best. I also wouldn’t consider Steve Lacy a band or indie more Rnb. There’s also quite a few Who listed that haven’t had sizable hits as well.

 

I do accept though the platform has increased the diversity slightly over the past 5 years.

 

Not that I’m a expert on tik tok as I’d rather do anything else than scroll through it but is it a platform for people to put videos of themselves up to songs? If that’s accurate then surely bands and indie although still a part of that would be again a minority due to the nature of the type of video? (Genuine question as I don’t know)

Edited May 27, 20241 yr by Steve201

Buzzjack's favourites icons selflessly keeping the concept of a band alive :cheeseblock:

Yes, D-Block Europe saving the groups relevance. *-*

Edited May 28, 20241 yr by Jason

Can't wait for anyone making a song titled A Band Never Dies! :w00t:

The biggest is clearly Sam, the others have been hits but minor at best. I also wouldn’t consider Steve Lacy a band or indie more Rnb. There’s also quite a few Who listed that haven’t had sizable hits as well.

 

I do accept though the platform has increased the diversity slightly over the past 5 years.

 

Not that I’m a expert on tik tok as I’d rather do anything else than scroll through it but is it a platform for people to put videos of themselves up to songs? If that’s accurate then surely bands and indie although still a part of that would be again a minority due to the nature of the type of video? (Genuine question as I don’t know)

I believe all of them have at least one song with a couple hundred million streams on Spotify!

 

It doesn’t always have to be a big “hit” for them to do well tbf. Cigarettes After Sex are able to sell out the O2 now thanks to TikTok after racking up streams over time, but never had one song do extremely well at one time.

CAF are absolutely huge on Spotify, also TV Girl, especially in the US. The problem is that the songs are usually found later by the public and don't have any industry support. TV Girl, for instance, have whopping 11 songs with over 100k on Spotify daily. Some pop acts will never reach those numbers.