What Is The Leader Of The Band?

The leader of the band is typically the person who gets everything done, they’re the person who organises the gigs (at least in the early days), who are on top of all the updates to myspace, they’re the person who take control during band practice sessions. The leader of the band is the person who the rest of the band look up to, and the person who takes charge of situations which the band are placed into.

Why You Should Be The Leader of The Band

It’s a bit of a double-edged sword, the leader of the band gets a lot of attention, a lot of air time, and is at the forefront of it all. The leader of the band is often the lead singer because that type of personality (the one with the balls sing his or her heart out front and centre on stage) works well in a leadership role. At the same time however this person is also likely to have the most responsibilities, for example taking on the majority of work that needs to be done and really going the extra mile when no one else wants to.

If you aspire to be the person who’s name everyone knows, and the person who gets spoken to the most then this is definitely something that you need to be.

How To Tell If You Already Are The Leader

It isn’t always instantly apparent who the leader of the band is, particularly in newly formed bands you may find yourself wondering “actually, who is leading us here?”. Here are some things that you can ask yourself to find out if it’s you:

• Are you the person who decides when to start and stop playing during practice?
• Are you the person who’s typically on MySpace more than anyone else adding new friends and updates?
• Are you the person who usually calls up the rest of the band prior to a gig to arrange transport for instruments and times for soundcheck?
• Are you the person who is listened to by the other members?
• Do you find that you get the most attention after gigs or during interviews? (and not just because of your good looks!)

If so then you may already be leading your band (well done!) if not, then maybe you have some idea of the things that you need to do to take a more significant role in progressing your group.

What Makes Being A Leader Tricky

Being the leader has its advantages (as mentioned) but there are also some tricky situations that you can be placed into. Generally if you’re the leader of the band then to an extent you are holding the band together, and without your continuous input and dedication there is the potential for it all to break down. To be the leader you need to work hard and you need to work hard continuously. If other members argue it will most likely be down to you to keep a cool head and help resolve it because no one looks up to someone who’s always in the middle of the fights.

Effective Leaders of Current Popular Bands

Here are some band leaders who you may have already heard of noticed in the industry:

• Billy Joe Armstrong - GreenDay, he commands the stage and the 60,000+ people in front of it with just one hand, I’ve seen it and it’s quite a sight to behold.
• Nicole Scherzinger - Pussycat Dolls, all the other girls surround her and she is always the centre of it all, and she does a pretty good job of it too.
• Adam Lazzara - Taking Back Sunday, he prances all over the stage like a pony and commands every ounce of attention that the audience have. He’s also the centre of almost all interviews and at the front of most band photographs.

Conclusion

Is it worth being the leader of the band? Absolutely, be prepared for a long road and a lot of hard work but don’t let that get you down. Every band needs a good and efficient leader, and that person can generally make or break a band.

So, are you the leader of your band? Or do you have any other great examples of people you’ve seen leading a group of modern musicians? Drop me a line in the comments and let me know!

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You Need To Completely Rethink You Game Plan

Back in ‘the olden days’ the most common cause for someone breaking through the ranks and (often controversially) standing out from the crowd was down to three things.

1. Sex (Elvis)
2. Obscene Language/Behaviour (The Sex Pistols)
3. Music with no apparent melody or rhythm (Slipknot)

I’m by no means suggesting that any of the above names were the first to do such things, but we could sit here debating who was all day so for now I’ve simply given well known examples.

The point here is that it’s far harder to shock people nowadays, there are very few people who are going to be impressed by musical ability, semi-naked performances, or downright offensive behaviour. It’s all been done before.

Like It Or Not, Your Band is a Business

Music has evolved tremendously over the last ten years alone and more than ever the music industry doesn’t care about music, it cares about making money. You’ve more than likely realised by now that you don’t need to be a good musician to make money, you need to be able to sell products.

When it comes to selling products you have two choices, you can either keep blindly “being loyal to yourself and your music and waiting for a legitimate record deal” which will give you a minute chance of getting anywhere, and if and when you do it will be because the record label dropped so much money into your promotion that it was impossible for you not to get famous, not because you were so extraordinarily good at what you do.

The other choice of course, is to face reality. Music is the industry, and your band is the business.

Let’s Make a Comparison

Have you ever watched Dragon’s Den? If you live in the UK I’m going to bet that you have, or at least that you’ve heard of it - and if you live in the US don’t worry, I hear they’re starting up a brand new series over there.

Week after week on Dragon’s Den you see half-hearted businesses being ripped to shreds by some of the wealthiest people on earth because they have no investment potential. Once in a while, someone comes in with an exceptional idea that makes sense, and these same people all claw to be the first to invest.

Now consider it like this:

The ‘Dragons’ are record labels, and you are the business - why should they invest in you, and what potential return on investment are you going to give them?

It doesn’t come down to your music, and it doesn’t come down to your haircut. It comes down to your track record.

Nearly all of the businesses who get offered investments from one (or more) of the Dragons have already sold hundreds of their products, and have already been offered contracts by major suppliers. They come seeking further investment because they need help to dramatically increase the size of their company.

Remember the Arctic Monkeys? You should do, for some reason they’re still around despite their questionable music, yet none of that matters. When they were unheard of they proved themselves by distributing their music for free. At every gig they gave away free demo CD’s to everyone who came to see them. They realised that they shouldn’t be charging people for music when all they wanted was for more people to hear them. By the time a record label noticed them they had already built up a huge fanbase across the country of people who already had their music, and had passed it on to their friends, who had passed it on to their friends, which in turn caused the many sold-out gigs.

As a record label, that looks like a pretty sound investment doesn’t it?

You Need to Stop Being Naive

Your amateur MySpace page and your gigs once a week just aren’t going to cut it. You need to stand out from the thousands of other unsigned bands, and not just with your music. You need to come up with a plan, and you need to prove that you are a worthy investment to the business-savvy record label.

And if you don’t want a record label, you want to do it all yourself - then you’ve got an even longer road ahead of you, because not only do you have to be a good investment, you have to be the business-savvy record label too.

How Are You Going To Stand Out?

Not just with your music, but with your career as a whole. Who have you come across who’s done something really remarkable? Do you think it’s a coincidence that you’ve heard of that person? Let me know your thoughts and leave me a message in the comments below.

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