Why are so many live preformances becoming karaoke these days?

Before any one get offended : I think lap tops are great if you're a DJ. I think Electronic bands that sequence or use laptops as sequencers is just fine ( double standard? maybe). But Lately I've seen lots of guys/girls that have either recorded all drums tracks (along with a few others) and basically show up and strum a few chords and sing. Its just kind of weird to hear backing vocals by the same person singing along. So I'm left thinking 1. You can't get along with others and no one wants to play in your band. 2. Doesn't Britney Spears and Madonna do this? Are you lip syncing? LOL! 3. This would really rock if you had a live drummer and guitars!

Please keep in mind I may be a bit old school. I'm just trying to wrap my head around why you wouldn't want everything live ( I know setup time is a pain). I have seen one of my favorite bands ( the Cocteau Twins) actually play along to tape and it was a great show! But when I saw them later they had not one but TWO drummers and sounded phenomenal!

What happened to just rocking out or getting live and loud? Or having an amazing sound live?

I think a lot of people are afraid of failure. Editing the music elsewhere and have it cut to the right tempo and increments allows them to play the music without having to actually play the music live.

Yeah you might be right. I've always loved those small imperfections though. Like feedback from guitars in just the right place. Or hearing a nicely tuned drum kit with great cymbals! Maybe they should bring a MP3 player instead of a laptop! Or would that be to obvious? lol!

I also think its hard to find decent drummers and doubly hard to find ones who will play for free... and nigh impossible to find drummers who are good live, play free and aren't rabidly insane... I never had an issue when I travelled in professional music circles, I could always call in a studio grade drummer, but now? phew

Im feelin ya on the rabidly insane part! LOL! I will say I have recorded a handful of drummers that were spectacular! Things I noticed about the good ones. They LOVED their kits! They had travel cases for every damn piece of the kit. Not a squeak from a kick pedal or buzz from a chain. And They actually TUNED their kits! These guys were a pleasure to record. And they were just time on with the click track! I also noticed HUGE egos (even more so than guitarists haha!). Most of them were in at least 2 bands, usually 3 though. These guys were really good! I enjoyed watching them play! One dude COLLECTED drum kits. He own upward of 50 kits! NO BS!

First, I am jealous you got to see one of my favourite bands.

Second "this is the modern world." We are so sheltered we as a society don't get out of our phones and mix and seek people vis a vis for an interchange of ideas. It is too easy to buy some gear and mix down some Rthymn than find another musician let alone wanting pay them.

Side note: ECONONICS. Speaking with many Bar Bands there is a general consensus bands that gig are getting 1980's prices. Proprietors don't want to pay out for the amount of musicians and have a set price they are going to pay. I see a lot of bands that will forego additional musicians just to get paid. If they can get more money they will bring in musicians and this is the band is know for drawing power. The same may be true to traveling musicians. The ideal of making money hah.... Pro Athletes don't get paid for the endless hours of practice for the training equipment the same is true with musicians. If you are good you have a sponsor or endorser that gives you gear however, many do not. Lets not mention liabilities, insurance, and overhead.

Back to the theme. Helio Sequence great band/duo out of Portland manage with a guitar, drums and loopers. This duo rocks and I don't think their sound could be any better with additional musicians.

Bands are getting to polished to the point of sonic hegemony. If you want to hear it like on the record buy the record but this is what most concert going pseudo fans expect. Especially if the performers are a cash cow for some label. If you want to hear a band rock out well it is a dying form unless you are seeing a classic rock/blues/jazz/old skool punk band play for the love of music first and not the money. It all boils down to the money.

Yeah...no one wants to actually pay a band/musicians up front. But many club owners expect you to play for free! They always give you that line about exposure. Well with the all the social media and such most bands have more exposure or access to fans than ever before. It KILLS me to see some of those venues pay a headlining act and wont give the opening local band squat! Its shameful. But some owners have no problem in asking bands to bring all their gear (sometimes including PA) and set up to play for a couple of hours and not pay them. IF you're lucky you may get a percentage off the door. That just been my personal experience. In that sense maybe i can understand Someone doing a gig with a PC at their side. Its just a shame though IMO. Things have changed so much in the music scene.

I find myself unwilling to start over or play many shows as an amature because I got spoiled getting paid to play larger venues, even as a support act for big time bands. At worst we broke even (including gas, tolls, road crew and food/lodging). When things shrunk down at the end of my successful band I felt quite bitter about it was still making demands of small club owners that we would never have had the balls to make when we were starting out, just feeling excited to get on any stage at any cost...

as far as drummers, I am really spoiled having worked with some great ones on both sides of the glass including having had a long musical relationship with the drummer for Thrill Kill Kult from the late 90s until the end of the so-called noughties... I would rather make techno music than train another mediocre drummer to be a first class ensemble player. In my successful band we started with 2 different studio drummers who cycled in and out and were both demanding, fixated on money (one ofthem had a serious gambling problem he was always trying to fund at my expense) and were just generally insane (and I am not usually one to talk). At the behest of the other band members we dumped them in favor of a guitarist who experimented with drums in his free time who I had to sit and train. Ironically he became very 'in demand' in philly after our band broke up, not because of his fancy chops but because I gave him metronomic time and harnessed his guitarist's sense for ensemble playing and helped him apply it to his fills etc. I can't even get that guy to play with me now even though I literally MADE him the drummer he is now.

these days I just find it easier to go down the electronic path

no humans were harmed during the making of this track

Karaoke? I dunno, there's a lot of legit playing mixed in with the sequencing on this song, even some of the unorthodoxed percussion is loops of me actually performing with broken bike chains, pipes, cookie sheets and rubber mallets, LOL... and the tonal instruments have a real 50/50 mix of performance and mechanical sequences....

wait, since when did venue owners at any level below the big time pay per musician?