What makes a successful band/artist.

There are a lot of things that make artists successful. I believe that first the band has to be able to write good songs that are unique and interesting. They need to be able to attract an audience. I think musicianship is quite important. It's always good to have musicians in bands who are virtuoso's with their instruments, this does help to gain attention. But you have to take into account whether they're actually able to create and write original music, songs which are soulful and melodic. I notice a lot of musicians who have a high technical ability who can play a thousand miles an hour and they're recognised by some musicians as being "amazing". It doesn't actually make you good in my opinion. Although I do like it when musicians show off but I believe that they need to incorporate melodic melodies. When I talk about this I mainly link it to guitar solos, but it relates to general songwriting and chords used in songs as well. Sometimes its important to cut back and have less rather then adding more. Bands that don't necessarily have virtuoso musicians aren't technically a bad band though because they may be good songwriters.

I think that to become successful you have to do a lot gigs and tour and awful lot. Some bands can get lucky and therefore they may not need to tour as much but when it comes to bands that are just starting off, they need to do a lot of touring to get noticed. Rush are a good example of a successful band who made it from doing a lot of touring from 1974 -1980 when they became big. They did obviously carry on touring after that but thats when they truly became successful, especially after the release of their 8th studio album Moving Pictures where they became very successful.

In relation to touring, you need to be a good live band. That will definitely help to grab the attention of potential fans. A band like The Who are very successful possibly due to their live performances. Of course Pete Townshend's songwriting ability and the bands overall high level of musicianship were main factors why they are so successful but back when they were doing insanely good live performances like the famous Live At Leeds, which is easily one of the greatest live albums ever recorded, and Live At The Isle Of Wight, which are both from 1970, is why they're recognised as being a good successful live band. A lot of fans like bands who are able to recreate studio recordings in a live situation and there are successful bands out there who are able to do so. Pantera are a good example. Dimebag Darrell once stated in an interview that he likes to play his parts exactly the same as the studio recordings because he thought that the fans would think he messed up if he played something differently. Then there are artists like The Allman Brothers Band and The Grateful Dead who were notorious for improvising which most likely resulted in a lot of their success.

This isn't a massive factor for being a successful band but I think it's good when artists use different forms of media to keep in contact with their fans. Pearl Jam are great at doing this, they're great at the other points I've mentioned as well, because they're able to constantly post on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. I believe by doing this fans can keep up to date with their favourite artists and it brings a connection between the fans and artists. At the end of the day, the artists are ordinary people, so it's important to have a public image that is able to connect with other people.

Usually the bands that work the hardest gain success in some way, I think there is a bit of luck in there but it's quite easy to spot bands that work hard. Bands who tour a lot, possibly release a lot of music. Some artists/bands constantly go to practise rehearsals, usually in preparation for a tour so that they can please their audience.

Some artists try to use market research to branch out and connect to more potential fans so that they can become more successful.

I think if artists are able to have good studio recordings then that can help them gain success. There are thousands of examples of this like Mike Oldfield who released the ground breaking album Tubular Bells in 1973 with Virgin Records. This album not only gave Mike Oldfield huge success but completely transformed Virgin.

I think that it's important to note that a lot of bands are out there just to become successful, they could simply be motivated because they love to play music or for political reasons. Success isn't the main reason why so many young artists decide to pick up music, they could be driven by another form of motivation.