Talk:Backup band

Shouldn't genesis not be on this list? Phil collins was the drummer originally.

I was thinking exactly the same thing. Genesis are a real, cohesive unit. Not just Phil's backing band. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.52.67.90 (talk) 04:47, 22 April 2009 (UTC)

band vs singers

Perhaps I'm being a bit picky, but I don't consider some of the groups listed here as being bands, backing or otherwise. To me, a band implies people playing instruments, not merely a group of vocalists. The Jordanaires and the Miracles, to name a couple, to the best of my knowledge never played any instruments but rather provided backing vocals to Elvis and Smokey respectively.Wschart (talk) 20:03, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

trainwreck

This is a terrible "article." If I could pretend to be enough of a sunny optimist, I might describe it as "a dictionary entry with a bunch of random supposed examples."

…except that in all honesty the list (as with the majority of WP "notables" lists) is a bunch of unsubstatiated nonsense posted by various fans & triviologists. In order to be truly notable, such a list ought be derived ONLY from one or more credible outside sources, else it's pretty much a shining example of original research.

Even if the list were to be allowed to stand, it's a hodgepodge that makes "apples and oranges" seem entirely reasonable as a grouping (they are, after all, both fruit). This I blame on the opening "definition," which is poor in the extreme. Disparate categories are lumped together:

• musical groups that existed independently AND supported solo musicians, such as The Groundhogs who backed solo artists such as John Lee Hooker and Little Walter when they toured the UK.
• similarly, groups that existed before being recruited for the job (The Shondells were gigging as The Raconteurs).
• groups that existed as a cohesive unit and eventually had one member step to the forefront (The Supremes).
• groups that continued independently after their headliner embarked on a solo career (The Shadows).
• revolving-door bands that existed at the whim of an individual artist (The Mothers of Invention) or two (Kiss (band)).

In each case, "backing band" clearly means something different. I could make the argument that the term should be reserved to mean a group that is assembled for performance or recording by an artist (rather than hiring professional jobbing musicians).

The list somehow fails to mention groups that inarguably existed to support a "name" artist, apparently due to lacking the all-important AND — examples abound, but begin with Warren Zevon and Jackson Browne.

Foremost, the article title isn't right: much as with backup singers now being redirected correctly to backing vocalist, the misnomer "backup" is both popular and wrong.
Weeb Dingle (talk) 08:32, 3 October 2017 (UTC)