How do you feel about groups that "reform" or have revolving members?

[CellarDweller]

Ok, so if a group gets together, records music, gets famous, and then members leave and new members come in, or original members come back, or get a new lead singer to replace the original, what do you think?

I'll use my favorite group as an example.

Sweet Sensation was a girl group who recorded freestyle. Their debut CD was "Take It While It's Hot" and the line up was Betty Dee on lead vocals, and sisters Mari and Margie on background. This line-up gave us the hits "Hooked On You", "Victim Of Love", "Take It While It's Hot", "Never Let You Go".



Mari, Betty, Margie


After the release of "Never Let You Go", Mari left the group and was replaced with Sheila Vega. The album's cover was re-shot to reflect the change in line-up, and Sheila lip-synched to Mari's vocals for the next two videos, "Sincerely Yours" and "Hooked On You". The group released their second CD, and gave us the hits "Love Child", "If Wishes Came True" and "Each & Every Time".



Sheila, Betty, Margie


After the success of their second CD, and numerous club appearances, and a tour where they opened for New Kids On The Block, Sheila and Margie opted to leave Sweet Sensation. Still under contract to Atco records, a 3rd CD was released, which featured remixes of their prior hits, with Betty Dee now performing with Belle & Jenae, who would lip-synch to the prior members' vocals.




Belle, Jenae, Betty


After some time, Sweet Sensation officially broke up and left the music scene. In the mid 2000s, some members decided to return to the music scene, and said that they were Sweet Sensation "reloaded".





Betty, Jenae, Sheila.


After some time this group broke up as well, and hasn't been heard from since. Now, with numerous multi-act freestyle shows and tours going on, Sweet Sensation has again reformed. One major change, this time the original lead singer is not in the group.




Sheila, Mari, Margie




So, what do you think when groups do this? I have mixed feelings about it. While I really like Sweet Sensation and their music, reforming again, without the lead singer, just seems off.

[Cridders88]

Yeah I would agree. The lead singer has to be still there otherwise it may aswell just be a different band with a different name. That's just like if one of my favourite rock bands, Evanescence, came back without Amy Lee (the lead vocalist), it just wouldn't be Evanescence anymore.

[Wade]

It's kinda like that question "if you keeping darning the holes of a sock, at what point is it no longer the original sock?" Also, why is my body so slippery when I wake up in the morning? Not all questions are meant to be answered in this life.

[Anocxu]

Now that this topic is being brought up...
Bands are pretty much like a dysfunctional romantic relationship...

Love, hate, chaos, forgiveness, sex scandals, cheating, abandonment, keeping up appearances...

I have a headache just thinking about it...

[Rareboy]

My response?

No. Just no.

[Virge]

Formula Music. Once someone comes up with a semi unique variation on it they milk it for all it's worth on the music market... I hate it. Give me something original to listen to.

We recently had a B&B guest who's been a studio musician/ recording engineer/music arranger for over 38 years... The list of musicians he's worked with was amazing... He was going through my music and blown away at there being no apparent rhyme or reason, no common denominators, no one single dominating genre... then he broke out his music and there was a 2 + hour discussion about music in general.

He'd never heard of some of my music and dug into them and copied some... But the part of the evening I'm going to remember the rest of my life was him taking about this guy... who really put music into formulas... Scroll down the page to see all the musicians who've been influenced by him.

And I've posted this song a few times in here a few times because it's the anthem against formula music....

[meridannight]

i don't have a problem with it. Marilyn Manson has gone through a number of guitarists, bassists, and drummers, but the bulk of the weight is carried by Manson himself. as long as he's part of it, it's Marilyn Manson. although who's to say there's not another guy on this planet who could pull off replacing him if Manson ever decides to retire. anything's possible.

it would also depend on whether the band even has one leading figure. Motley Crue is one such example where it is really difficult to pin this role on any one of them. Nikki Sixx and Mick Mars are the only ones who have been there from the get go but if either left i'm not sure the band would fall apart. Tommy Lee is a central character, but he doesn't carry the whole Motley Crue on his own either. depends on how well they integrate the new members and how big of a change it produces. and change can be for better or for worse. it's not always a bad thing. Manson's latest album was written in collaboration with Tyler Bates, and though he's not even a member of the band, there's was a change but it was for the better.

Guano Apes' vocalist Sandra Nasic went out on her own and released an album. John Fogerty was the creator behind Creedence's music; then CCR broke off and he started to successfully release under his own name. Robbie Williams started out in Take That and anybody barely even remembers he was there today. I'm not saying any of these examples were better or worse before or after the band, it just becomes a different thing. things change, and sometimes you have to let them go. the music is still there, nobody can take that away.