Record contracts

Apparently, something called a “Jedward” no longer has a record contract. I know, I know, it seems tragic that these two disgraces to humanity are going to find it more difficult to produce new music, but I’m sure that – unless you are the sort of idiot who cares about the state of Cheryl Cole’s marriage or the love life of Simon Cowell – most people will be able to deal with this tragic turn of events.

Nonetheless, this article does make a interesting point about how it might make more business sense to drop some bands after their first album:

It might seem ruthless, but imagine the misery and wasted time and money that could have been spared if this practice were applied outside of X Factor acts. Take Hard-Fi, a band precisely nobody in their right mind could really have expected to ever get any better after their first album. What if their contract with Atlantic had been quietly knocked on the head after one album? Right now we're all watching MGMT's label beginning to flog a second album which the band themselves have breezily claimed contains "no singles". Would the world continue to spin if Columbia said to MGMT: "Do you know what lads? Thanks for the first album and everything but if you're going to turn in a follow-up with no singles and announce that to the world with some bizarre sense of pride then maybe it's best if you find someone else to throw millions of pounds at launching what is essentially a sonic turd in a basket"? Yes, the world would most certainly continue to spin.

It sounds about right to me, and you can easily name some other bands who should have been politely disregarded after their first record. Take the Stone Roses. It took them half a decade to come up with a follow-up to their admittedly really rather good debut album. How come that didn’t set off some alarm bells within their record label? And when “The Second Coming” was finally delivered, how come no-one within the record company politely took the band to one side and said “guys, we’re going to have to pass on this. If sub-Led Zeppelin rock sludge is really the best you can come up with after several years, then we think it is best if you focus on performing rather than selling records. And by performing, we mean doing the pub rock circuit.” Elastica are another good example. It took them years to come up with a follow-up to their interesting yet highly derivative debut. And why did no-one question the financial benefits of releasing “The Menace” when the best track on it was the cover version of an slightly obscure, twee track by German New Wave band?

Of course, most band managers worth their salt will negotiate a contract for more than one album, making it very difficult for a record company to back out after just one release. And some great bands would have been consigned to the abyss long before they had a chance to be great based on a passable first album and a lacklustre follow-up, including the Jam, Manic Street Preachers, Ash and the Clash. But so often that first album remains the best ones, no matter how many records the band in question gets to make. The Stone Roses and Elastica are just two of many, many examples.