Kaiser Chiefs doubt future of guitar bands

Kaiser Chiefs have cast their doubt on the future of guitar bands, suggesting that “five guys with guitars” cannot have a viable career owing to the current state of the music industry.
They did not put the demise of the guitar band down to today’s pop music or to reality TV, however, but blamed the record companies.
“What you need when you’re a band, what it took for us was for a record company to give us a little money to get us on tour in a van, to get people to see us, to like our band, to get us on the radio and the telly,” explained the band’s bassist Simon Rix.
Speaking to BANG Showbiz, he added: “That’s what record companies do, and how bands get somewhere, but now they don’t do that because they never make it back.”
The Leeds-based band, who made it big with their first album Employment and number one single Ruby from their second album, lamented the future of guitar bands after having taken a hiatus at the end of 2008.
On returning to the music scene, they say the music industry has changed in just that short time, largely through the rise of social media and greater numbers of people downloading their music.
Simon noted that back in 2008 Twitter was not widely used and singles were a dying breed.
“Now, singles are massive again and albums are on their way out,” he remarked, although adding that this change “is good” as it makes music accessible to everyone.
Kaiser Chiefs hit the headlines when they released their third album, The Future is Medieval, in June. Through their website, they allowed fans to create their own album by choosing ten out of 20 songs and their own playlist.
If they chose an album that had already been created by another fan, the original creator would be reimbursed £1 for each copy downloaded.
The official track listing of 12 songs was released later in the month.