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What is the legal status of a musical band? Since they can sign contracts, etc., I would assume that they are considered to be a legal entity. Are they partnerships? Corporations? When they sign a contract, does it have to be unaminous? If a new member joins, are previous contracts binding on that member? What if a member leaves?
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During music videos, they often appear to be singing their songs, but seeing as how lip synching is simpler, I assume that this is what they do most of the time. Do bands ever actually sing, play instruments, etc. during videos (other than recording of concerts)?
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I can’t recall seeing such acts as Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, 'NSYNC, etc. playing instruments in any of their videos (not that I have a very large sample). Do they play instruments? If not, who does?
IIRC, R.E.M., in their “So. Central Rain” video, used the instrumental backing track but recorded the vocals live. Consequently the singing was real (not lip-synched), but the resulting audio recording was not the one that appeared on record.
- It varies from band to band. Many bands have a band agreement that specifies how decisions are made - generally either by majority or unanimous vote. What this translates into as far as a legal status, I’m not sure.
One contract my band signed was actually just signed by myself, one contract (for a different thing) was signed by each member. Everyone signed the band agreement individually and it covers stuff like hiring/firing, spending funds, etc.
- Lip-syncing 99.99% of the time. Most videos don’t even try to look like the guys are actually playing (cables not ran, fingering on instruments not matching audio, etc.) since that’s not the purpose of the video.
Some bands might jam around on the song that they are filming for, but that audio is not used in the video.
Even most “live concert” videos are video footage synced to a studio recording. Even the vast majority of live recordings are fixed up a bit in the studio.
- Acts such as Britney Spears, Nsync, etc. are not musicians, therefore they do not play any instruments. It’s all session cats and sequencers.
This is based on my experience as a very small indie band.
re: 2
i know nine inch nails, for march of the pigs, did the video live in one take. you see a few of the support people come in the shot too. it’s in black in white, you might’ve seen it.
I saw (or read) once that singers usually do actually sing, and they don’t just lip synch. It has something to do with looking natural, because when you’re just moving your lips your throat’s not doing anything and it looks fake. I think that was Celine Dion or Shania Twain or Gwen Stefani I read about, so maybe not every artist does that. I’m not sure about playing the instruments, but I’d imagine they could unplug the guitars. Otherwise there’s no reason to “fake” guitar playing, with fake fingerings and stuff. It can’t be too taxing for the artist to play the song during filming. They play for concerts over and over, don’t they? The drums may be canvas or something that looks like a drum but doesn’t make much noise at all…but, I have absolutely NO idea about any of this, so I’ll go back into my hole now.
A good place to start learning about contracts and such is Donald Passman’s book “Everything you need to know about the music business”. There are a lot of ways you can structure a band. If a potential new member is under contract with another label, then that has to be dealt with. He or she just can’t walk away.
I know bands use to play instruments in their videos. The Chili peppers did. U2 ‘where the streets have no name’ comes to mind. That’s not what you’re hearing, of course.
Acts like the ones in question 3 are primarily vocal/dance acts, so the band isn’t really an issue. If you check out a live concert with any of these acts there’s typically a band in the background.
mack:
The primary focus is on vocals/dance, but without a band playing music there would be nothing to sing/dance to. I doubt anyone would be interested in watching the BS Boys dancing and singing a cappella.
So do they just pick up some local talent to play? Or do they hire a band to play the entire tour? Why do we never hear about these people? When I looked up Garbage’s biography, I found that one of their members was a producer for Nirvana. I’ve never read a band’s biography and seen something “and so-and-so played the actual music that NKOTB sang to”. In writing the equivalent job is referred to as “ghostwriting”. In music it doesn’t seem to be referred to at all. It’s as if everyone has agreed to pretend that the music just appears out of thin air, like an episode of Ally McBeal or something. It’s quite surreal.
Are you sure about that? The video was shot on a white background, and nobody is wearing anything very colorful, but I don’t think it was B&W, at least not the version I saw.
big acts like N Sync, Michael Jackson, and so on will hire a band for a whole tour. The musicians in the band won’t be famous to the general public, but they will be well known within the musician community.
A group like 'N sync isn’t your typical band where maybe one or two guys will write the song and the band will hash out the arrangement. They are big business with top producers, top songwriters, arrangers, music directors, musicians/programmers, and engineers. And that’s just the music end.
Next time you browse the magazine racks, check out mags like Mix, Keyboard, Modern Drummer, Guitar Player, and you’ll see who’s going out on tour with the big acts. After a few years you’ll notice the same names coming up again and again.
Chuck Berry was (in)famous for using local pick-up bands for his tours. I think part of the reason Keith Richards put together that ‘Hail Hail Rock and Roll’ thing a decade or so ago was because Chuck Berry never had a proper back-up band, and Keith wanted his hero to have one at least for a little bit.
I would guess that, if they have made no other arrangements (but, mind you, every big band HAS made more complex arrangements) they would be considered a partnership by default (for tax and legal purposes). They would likely have to file a partnership form with the IRS (ha! not that too many probably bother being that legit…).
I may be misunderstanding your question, but credits for writing lyrics or music are generally listed somewhere in an album’s liner notes or under the song itself. Writers (song and lyric) register stuff through ASCAP (I believe) so that the song and its music becomes copyrighted and everyone can get paid.
I’d think it would be very taxing to actually PLAY during filming. Filming usually takes a few days so imagine playing more than 2 hours or so straight. I remember when I was in college we would go on tour and play 3-4 times a day and the guitar players would be worn out for playing for 5-6 hours.