The golden age of bass?

[Barking Spiders]

What do you folks consider to be your golden age for bass - not just the quality of players but great and memorable basslines. As big a fan as I am of Motown, classic funk and Stax for me it was UK pop 1980 to about 1987, when slap and fretless bass had high profiles in the UK charts. Great bass lines all over the shop, even on some really cheesy pop tunes.

[CamdenRob]

Not now...

[BigRedX]

Definitely now.

You can do what you want without any regard to what is considered "fashionable". If you want to rumble away with root notes in the background that's perfectly OK as is upfront virtuoso playing and anything in-between.

If you're not hearing the bass you want in recently released music it's because you are not looking hard enough!

[chris_b]

From 62 to 74 and Stax and Atlantic was my real Golden Age.

But every year has great bass playing and the last 20 years contains some of the best bass playing yet.

[Cat Burrito]

I don't think any one era can lay claim. Personally I didn't like the 80s (when I started playing) but the OP makes a valid argument for it being something of a golden age. The 50s with the move from doghouse bass to Leo's electric bass must be a contender. Also the early 60s with McCartney's innovative lines, plus what was going on at Stax and Motown must be worthy of note. And the style in the 70s with players like Dennis Dunaway too. The quality of amps and basses now would even make today something of a golden era too.

[Len_derby]

It must have been quite a thing to sit in the congregation when JS Bach was pumping that big old organ of his.

[neepheid]

We're in it. Electric bass has only been a thing for mere decades, we're all still pioneers.

[Conan]

I'm sure Blue will have an opinion on this...

[BassBus]

[quote name='CamdenRob' timestamp='1472808644' post='3124384']
Not now...
[/quote]

Oh I don't know. Lawrence Cottle, Janek Gwizdala, Gary Willis, Mark Egan, Kevin Glasgow, Damien Erskine, Dominique di Piaza, Steve Lawson. They are just the ones I know about. There are many other top quality players who are developing the instrument who don't get public adulation.

Edited September 2, 2016 by BassBus

[Barking Spiders]

Not sure I reckon 'now' is that great. Sure there are niches like jazz, fusion and prog metal where there are top players but in much mainstream and dance stuff the bass is all computerised. Back in the early-mid 80s the charts were chocka with songs that had upfront bass playing what with Level 42, Sade, Duran, Paul Young, Associates, Smiths, Japan, ABC, Jacko, Paul Simon etc doing their thing.

Edited September 2, 2016 by Barking Spiders

[EliasMooseblaster]

From a public point of view, I don't know if there's ever been one - your average punter is oblivious to "the guy/gal playing that other guitar." But from our own strange, insular point of view, I'm inclined to agree with those who say we're living through it now. I'm not sure when it began, but I certainly think it's still ongoing - there are some people out there doing fantastic things with bass guitars (and indeed upright basses), whether it's straightforward virtuosos spanning the spectrum from Wooten to Sheehan, or people like Steve Lawson combining their bass with electronic trickery to create vast, colourful soundscapes by themselves.

We also have growing numbers of companies who make basses, bass amplication or bass effects almost exclusively, and examples like Ashdown demonstrate that this isn't restricted to the top-end, boutique corner of the market. Plus, modern bass luthiers are arguably quite a bit a more adventurous with their designs that modern guitar luthiers - sure, extended-range, active, headless, fretless, and other exotic guitars exist, but I feel like their uptake hasn't been as widespread as the variants on a "standard" bass guitar design. It's increasingly hard for your lead guitarist to dismiss the bass as "the easy guitar with four strings" when you can now quite easily buy a bass that has more strings than his Strat or Les Paul!

It's a good time to be a bassist.

[Coilte]

[quote name='Conan' timestamp='1472813506' post='3124438']
I'm sure Blue will have an opinion on this...
[/quote]


Let me take a wild guess...the 60's ?

[ambient]

Definitely now.

There's so many players out there doing stuff that's trying to push what bass is meant to be.

[BigRedX]

Interesting bassists have always been trying to push what bass is meant to be/do. It's just that these days everything is acceptable so long as you can make it musical and not just a gimmick.

[Misdee]

Definitely not now. That is, if you are talking about mainstream rock and pop music.

Back in the '70's and '80's the bass guitar was far more evident on most popular music than it is now, not least of all because there were far fewer options. Nowadays, what with synth bass, 808's, sine wave etc. there is more competition for the low end of the musical spectrum.

Different styles were always permissible, encouraged, even, and there was just much more bass guitar about back then. Listen to Radio 1 and then listen to an oldies station and compare the bass playing (or absence thereof) - it will prove my point.

I started playing at the tail-end of the 1970's, inspired by a lot of the post-punk New Wave bands, so many of whom had exciting and interesting bass players who still stir my blood nearly forty years (!) later. Of course there are great young players coming through, but I just don't see the same number of innovative bass guitarists as in those heady days. Everybody knows that when they were young it was better than now, but when it comes to bass playing, the old days really were the best.

[kusee pee]

[quote name='Barking Spiders' timestamp='1472813999' post='3124448']
Not sure I reckon 'now' is that great. Sure there are niches like jazz, fusion and prog metal where there are top players but in much mainstream and dance stuff the bass is all computerised. Back in the early-mid 80s the charts were chocka with songs that had upfront bass playing what with Level 42, Sade, Duran, Paul Young, Associates, Smiths, Japan, ABC, Jacko, Paul Simon etc doing their thing.
[/quote]

The era and bands you mention are the reasons I play bass. For me, definitely a golden era, both for bass and for pop music. I'd throw in Talk Talk, China Crisis, Simple Minds, Curiosity Killed The Cat, Nik Kershaw, Kajagoogoo and many more - great basslines all over the charts.

[Cato]

As others have said the best era is now, because everything else from every other era is still available.

Having said that, it seems to me, as someone who was too young to remember the decade, that the 1970s was a bit a a golden era/game changer for bass guitar as it really started to come to the fore in any number of genres from the funk/soul of the Meters and Tower of Power, the jazz of the likes of Herbie Hancock and classic rock bands like Free and Queen.

Not to mention the emergence of bass driven dance music such as disco.

Edited September 2, 2016 by Cato

[skej21]

I can take my phone out, plug my headphones in and turn on Spotify/YouTube/Apple Music and queue up high quality tracks with bass lines from Jack Bruce followed by Matt Freeman, followed by Michael Jackson, followed by Dirty Loops, followed by Young Blood Brass band. Rock, Punk, Synth, virtuoso and bass lines played by Tuba players... The possibilities are endless. I could listen to all of the above in a 30 minute listening session at the touch of a button.

When I first started listening to music, I had a tape Walkman and the options of what you could listen to were restricted by what you could afford to have and store!

'Now' would be the time for me.

Edited September 2, 2016 by skej21

[Guest]

[quote name='skej21' timestamp='1472822387' post='3124540']
I can take my phone out, plug my headphones in and turn on Spotify/YouTube/Apple Music and queue up high quality tracks with bass lines from Jack Bruce followed by Matt Freeman, followed by Michael Jackson, followed by Dirty Loops, followed by Young Blood Brass band. Rock, Punk, Synth, virtuoso and bass lines played by Tuba players... The possibilities are endless. I could listen to all of the above in a 30 minute listening session at the touch of a button.

When I first started listening to music, I had a tape Walkman and the options of what you could listen to were restricted by what you could afford to have and store!

'Now' would be the time for me.
[/quote]

Surely then it's a golden age for technology and the availability of music rather than bass itself?

For my part I'm a big fan of the late 70s/ early 80s. New Wave was great for basslines. Indie had a few good ones in the early 2000s which are worth a mention.

[TheGreek]

I agree with every word that the OP says - Stax/ Motown opened doors which the players of the 80s used as inspiration for pushing the frontiers of Bass playing. Take away the 80s and today's playing would be far less diverse - other than say, Jameson, who would have been the inspiration for today's hero's had it not been for that decade...

[Barking Spiders]

Indeed The Greek. While James Jamerson, Larry Graham and other bass pioneers back then came out with cracking stuff they were anonymous to the music buying public. When Mark King et al turned up they took bass right to the front of the band, often eclipsing the other members. For your average music listener, this was the first time they heard slap funk and fretless bass playing. It was King on Love Games and Pino on Wherever I Lay My Hat that got me into bass. These guys weren't the first to play these styles but they sure brought them to the mainstream.

[skej21]

[quote name='Spaced' timestamp='1472824468' post='3124564']
Surely then it's a golden age for technology and the availability of music rather than bass itself?

For my part I'm a big fan of the late 70s/ early 80s. New Wave was great for basslines. Indie had a few good ones in the early 2000s which are worth a mention.
[/quote]

Maybe missed explaining my point properly. There's access to bass lines in music that may only have 400 listens on youtube that I would never have even discovered/fallen in love with (and taken influence from) in a time when music was not so accessible!

[danbowskill]

90's rock had some lovely bass mixes and lines going on.......that twangy pick playing

Edited September 2, 2016 by danbowskill

[Hobbayne]

The late 70's for me. JJ Burnel and Bruce Foxton with their plectrum powered, almost lead basslines to the fore. No more bass is easy to play and anyone can do it. Right up there in the mix showcasing the power of the bass.

Edited September 2, 2016 by Hobbayne

[JoeEvans]

Somewhere round '69 to '72 for me - Noel Redding, John Paul Jones, Bootsy Collins in his youthful prime... Maybe extend it to '73 to include 'Blackboard Jungle Dub'.