Originally Posted by
BillBailey1976
And that's really the divide isn't it. People who feel like the songs and experience are more important, and people who think the person singing them is more important.
I will say that in some forms of music, the song is more important. In Southern Gospel music, specifically in the male quartet world, the members of groups change ALOT, and it is all about the sound, and the song.
One group that I really enjoy are the Kingsmen quartet. They have probably had 100 members over the 50 or so years the group has been around.
I think precedent is an issue too though. Those groups were changing from the beginning, through the entire life of the group. And they typically don't write their own songs.
And another issue that we don't see with groups like the Eagles, is that these gospel groups setlists change almost entirely over time. The Kingsmen probably only play a couple of songs that are over 10 or 15 years old. They don't do 3 hour marathon performances of all the "hits" because they have many many hits, and release many albums. They have done 12 albums since 2000.
I think like Freypower said, Rock music is very different and very unique in the way the song is associated with the person.