Why majority of the bands cannot keep their creativity brightly like their debut albums excepting some bands?

Question

the later albums do not sound so awesome like the first one

Answer 1

You can thank the record companies for that.

The biggest problem is the first CD from a band is usually the best songs they've written over a 3-10 year period before they got signed. Many record companies also force them to play material written by somebody else as well.

Then the record companies assign the band a very grueling promotion tour. Add in making videos and dealing with the record company and you have pretty much 24/7 involvement with you first CD. Not much time for creative efforts.

Most newly successfull artists also find it hard to resist the fame and all the parties, events and distractions that come with it. So beyond the grueling tour they are living the high life.

So about 8-16 months later the group must provide a 2nd CD. Most have had zero time or energy to put into writing tunes. Half of the 2nd CD is often tunes that didn't make it to the first CD. So there is a burst of emergancy writing which is under strong time demands. There is more touring scheduled, studio time is limited and to fullfill contract obligations the CD has to be out by a certain time. All too often this is slop. Whatever they can put together to make the schedule. Much of it is half done when they have to leave the studio. Song ideas that had to be halted in germination and recorded as is.

Record companies love one hit wonders so they are not really concerned with sales of a 2nd CD. If the group flops with it's 2nd they are still squeezing every last penny from the first and raking in a small profit on sales from the 2nd CD which sells on the basis of the strength of the first.

Some groups have one idea. That's it. They have a unique sound which is cool, but also self limiting at times. Their tricks bag is empty after that first CD. Adapation given the grueling tours is unlikely. So, the next CD sounds like the first but without the years of perfecting those songs.

Most record contracts are 3-4 CDs. Most groups are released before that for poor sales. Few groups make a penny off record sales on their first contract. Another reason touring is so important. Tours are where artists make thier money initially.

Given the tour, which packs many bands together for far more time than they have ever spent together before, often personality conflicts start to arise. Fame can inflame egos aggravating this problem. Hostility is usually a poor environment for creativity.

Some groups will also find a level of contentment. They feel like they've made it, reached success and can now relax.

So a better question is how does ANYBODY produce a good 2nd CD under these conditions rather than why most groups produce dung as a follow up CD.

Answer 2

a good example of this is candlebox, from YEARS ago.

see, the whole problem is that when a new group gets picked up by a label, they only have so long until they produce an album. it isn't until a band get's very good/popular that the group can decide how often they make new albums

a newer group only has so long to create an album before they're dropped, which makes them hurry, and generally they end up creating a pretty bad album. like candlebox did. which is why we haven't seen them in years. when their second album bombed, they were dropped by their label faster than [me as a child]

[edited info is below]

this is pretty much the whole reason for all those countless "one hit wonders"

Answer 3

I think they just automatically conform themselves into whatever other bands are doing. Example, Pink Spiders. Their first CD had a 60's rock vibe, but their 2nd album sounded like a whole lot of Fall Out Boy and other popular bands. That's what I think anyway.

Answer 4

I think you have this problem in all artistic outlets. Being outside the mainstream helps one to realize creativity and poverty helps too. Hence the term starving artist. When artists beome famous they can loose touch with reality and the very essence of what they were trying to say through the music, or the painting, or the role, etc. True artists have a compunction to create, regardless of the monetary value it may or may not recieve. When you have a paycheck/investment dependent upon your art, you may have to deal with some form of censur so as not to offend anyone.

Answer 5

The late, great Kirsty MacColl best summed this up in an interview I read years ago.

She said that "you get the whole of your life to write your first record, and you get 12 months to write the second one!"

There is a lot of truth in that.

Answer 6

good question. i wonder about this too. i tend to think it's because of a loss of focus.i think there is not the same fire in the belly to stay there as there is to get there. i think people get older and they get married and have kids, or all the sudden they have a hit album and lots of cash and sittin around playing with their guitar doesn't have the same allure .then there is bandmembers shooting themselves, starting or quitting drugs, changing band lineups, pressure to top yourself, pressure to fulfill a contract, etc. Probably about the same thing you think, eh?

Answer 7

because the first ones usually s u c k too, but the hype gets them sold.

Answer 8

I dont know. I guess they're not THAT talented.
Tool is, though, according to my fiance. He says that all their CD's are amazing.

Answer 9

They either run out of ideas, or stop caring.

Answer 10

thats true