Either Allen B. Klein or Saul Zantz, both of whom would be a great place to stick the nozzle should the entire Earth need an enema.
On the other hand, there are, or at least used to be, decent and honorable people in the music business. Ahmet Ertegun was generally well-regarded by the artists on his label. Bob Mercer of EMI tore up Kate Bush’s original contract after the success of “Wuthering Heights” and allowed her to make one that allowed her complete artistic freedom - the label doesn’t even get to hear hear albums until they are finished and ready to release.
While Madonna was the marketing breakthrough, Britney Spears was the perfected formula. My vote goes to Spears. Her musical talent is irrelevant to her success. All Spears has to do is stay sane throughout the media hype and collect her money. She can’t even do that, but I understand it can be hard.
Don’t know if this applies to Klein as well, but regarding Zaentz: I’ve heard that he can’t even dance. Don’t have a hard cite for that, could just be hearsay.
Benny Anderson & Bjorn Ulvaeus of ABBA. People bought the music for the vocals and the female eye candy. And they’ve made a bundle from the songs they write being used in Mamma Mia!.
Proves if you write 100 listenable songs and the gods roll a dice (sic) your way, you can become very very very very very rich.
How many of you have worked as a professional musician? Every single second or third (or fourth) banana mentioned here made **some **contribution to the group’s success. Maybe not in technique or creativity or talent, but everybody in a successful working group fills some role or another that is useful and necessary to the further continued success. Whether it’s corralling roadies, moderating the more ‘artistic’ types, putting the brakes on excess (artistically or personally), managing schedules, business, cash flow or other necessities, etc etc. This is a pretty Darwinian business and for an act to maintain success over a long (ish) period of time every member of the group (incl. business types etc) need to contribute something. Without which it might be considerably more difficult to continue to function at a high level and stay on the top of the heap.
100% true? No, not at all. But I’ve not seen a single name bandied about in this thread that couldn’t have made **some **positive contribution to their group’s overall success.
I think you tend to see a lot more dead weight and artistic lumps of shit at the lower echelons - the bar bands and club scene. I’d be surprised if the dead weight at that levels isn’t **hindering **the success of their respective groups. The ones that make it to the higher levels are the groups where everyone is contributing to the overall success of the group in some way, shape or form.
People would be amazed to find out how little the "artists"make. They wind up broke ,often not because they overspent, but because a teenager signed a horrible contract. The recording company just rips them off. It should be investigated.If they get hot, they spend all their time on the road or recording. A couple years of their lives are gone and the money is too.
I’d nominate Wright instead. Many don’t give Mason much respect for his techinical skills, but DSOTM has Mason’s stamp all over it. You can identify his unique style on their other albums, but for Dark Side alone he is a stylistic genius.
Wright, OTOH, doesn’t really stand out in any way for me.
My vote definately goes to Britney Spears. Totally manufactured. Can’t sing, doesn’t play an instrument, never wrote or produced any of her own stuff, doesn’t cheoreograph any of her own dancing, etc. etc.
She had zero input on any of her own material because she has zero talent.
She puts the vocals on somebodys else’s work (and I use the work vocals loosely), learns a few dance steps someone else put together so she doesn’t look out of place with the pros, and let’s hair and makeup people make her pretty.
And she makes millions from it.
I always thought Michael Anthony (formerly) of Van Halen had a sweet gig. Apart from his falsetto voice harmony, he contributed squat to the songwriting and anyone who has seen his solos will testify his bass playing is downright awful. Apparently on the later albums, Eddy just recorded all the bass lines himself then had to teach them to Anthony before they went on tour.
Don’t get me wrong he’s a real nice guy and can rock, drink, and party like a champ but he definitely caught an awesome ride with limited, if any, musical talent.
I’m not surprised that there have been some very silly answers i nthis thread, but among the silliest:
Bill Bruford has long been a superb drummer, one with the ability to play numerous styles of music, and in all kinds of tricky meters. The average rock drummer could not step into King Crimson and start playing in 21/8, trust me on that.
I hate ABBA as much as anyone, but if Benny Anderson and Bjorn Ulvaeus wrote most of the group’s hits, then by definition, they were MAJOR contributors, and NOT just along for the ride.
I hate Britney Spears as much as anyone, but assuming she really did sing all her hits, then SOMEBODY (actually, millions of somebodies) likes her, and she deserves every cent she gets.
Richard Wright’s work may or may not be to your taste, but his keyboards were an intregral part of the Pink Floyd sound. No, he didn’t write much of Pink Floyd’s music- but Roger Waters’ DID write most of Pink Floyd’s music, and yet his solo records rarely sounded much like Pink Floyd, and the absence of Wright is a big part of the reason. If a HUGE portion of a band’s sound depends on you, then you are a MAJOR contributor.
If “money hog” means anything, it’s “somebody who’s a member of a hugely popular band, and who makes tons of money, but isn’t very good, doesn’t sing lead or write songs, doesn’t seem to contribute much and could easily be replaced by someone just as good or better in a New York Minute.”
Michael Anthony of Van Halen certainly fits that description.
And it’s hard to see how the Bee Gees or Beach Boys would have been any less successful without Maurice Gibb or Al Jardine.
Oh, and while he’s a very good bass player, and was undoubtedly a more important part of the band when they were part of the British blues scene in the Sixties… John McVie hasn’t contributed anything important to Fleetwood Mac in decades.
Of course she deserves the money. She is an excellent performer. No one likes Britney because of the music, they like the music because of Britney. Without her behaving the way she does the music will just stop selling.
Since the OP is asking for artistic contribution, Britney is the perfect choice since has made almost none. She still deserves every cent she gets, but it’s not because of any artistic contribution that she has made.