Personally I don’t play for looks I play for the music. Even if they're shitty ones.Īnd that's excluding the fact that when you have a backing track disaster, which will inevitably happen, the full band can go on and compensate, whereas the backing track artist will now look even more like a sad git. I'll just take some actual real musicians instead any time. And where DJ's are considered as artists performing a show for playing what is essentially canned music only. That's just my opinion, it probably doesn't count much in this day of age where people are used to seeing people sing along to canned music on things like (insert your country) got Talent, or The Voice. I would also feel cheated, as in where's the beef! It still doesn't negate the fact that when you see a musician alone on stage knowing that everything else comes out of a HDD they look sad. It would only be problematic if you're doing lengthy live improvisations. And I've played along with backing tracks in a full piece band and I would do so again. The former at least still looks like a full piece band, the other just looks like a sad git who couldn't, or can't bother to get a real band. There's a major difference between running a backing track along a full piece band, to fill out some additional sounds from a recording, and playing alone on stage with a pretend band. And sometimes you need that input from others who call you out when you're creating crap. Because when it does work magic gets created. Yeah, personalities can clash and be very annoying, but I would hate to be a solo artists. Sounds harsh, but then again everybody knows what they're getting into. Hired musicians are guns for hire, and just have to do as they're told. Comes with the territory of creating a band together. Band members have the right to spout undesired creative input and the right to annoying quirks. That way they can recreate their music live and not have to worry about the opinions and personalities of band mates. Only suitable for guitar clinics and workshops. Seeing a guy play guitar alone looks sad and like a severe case of audio masturbation. It's about the sum of the parts being greater. Part of the attraction of rock music is seeing a live band that elevates their music to a whole new level. Other instruments tend to be viewed as backing instruments, which looks weird to only see that, and not the whole. Of course the human voice is a lead instrument that people focus on. Rappers and R&B singers in particular seem to do little else. When you're a singer its seems acceptable to sing along to a backing track.

One man band setup