Mediocrity

[Mitch Towne]

Whether or not the guys in the second band are actually Toto or not, there is a level of professionalism that they are DEFINITELY not showing when the two guitarists are having a conversation and making observations about the crowd during the keyboard solo at 6:00. That's some amateur hour bullshit right there.

[Stokely]

Putting aside any question of professionalism or actual talent disparities here--this goes to show again that poor audio quality equates to many people thinking the band isn't as good. This is the argument I have made in bands about demos--they need to be high-quality, or don't put one out there. Obviously you can't help someone recording you on a phone and posting to facebook.

 

If people on this forum are being influenced by audio quality, imagine average joe non-musician public.

 

And I agree that the way you look and dress are important. More's the pity for me in the first dept, I'm losing weight but it's hard to fix ugly!

[marczellm]

Wow, how rude I could be 5 years ago. Sorry.

[nadroj]

Wow, how rude I could be 5 years ago. Sorry.

 

I was thinking something similar. The first video is mixed professionally and sounds great. The second one looks (and sounds) like it was recorded directly into a camera, and wasn't mixed.

 

If we heard a recording of both bands by the same guy, band 1 would still be better, but the gulf in quality wouldn't be as big.

[Rustar]

The difference between excellence and mediocrity is that the excellent have a concept of excellence, and the drive and talent to achieve it, and will accept nothing less. The mediocre are those who don't do or have that. Thus it is written.

[montunoman]

T

 

Mozart is a great example. He grew up in a musical family, surrounded by music from birth. He had his first lesson (from his father) at four but you can bet he'd been drinking in everything he saw and heard prior to that. But his sister was exposed to the same environment yet didn't rise to the same level as Mozart did. Why not? I think one difference was the great speed at which young Mozart could learn. I suspect he would have become a genius at anything - it just happened by accident of birth to be music.

 

 

 

Sorry, I didn't realize that this is a 5 year old thread but it is interesting.

 

I'm not sure if you could fairly compare Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to his sister. Due to the extreme constraints of the society, I can't see how a women could have gained much recognition and more importantly the training and encouragement that's necessary to achieve a high level in just about anything outside of being a mother, wife and house keeper.

[Ed A.]

Mediocrity:

 

The singer in the second video keeps taking swigs out of his extra-large water bottle throughout the performance.

He also projects an obnoxious "Tony Clifton" aura and it doesn't help that he's flat in multiple places.

[AnotherScott]

Mediocrity can have its upside...

 

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/how-to-be-mediocre-and-be-happy-with-yourself

[Delaware Dave]

To have this topic revived after 5 years speaks to the mediocrity of the recent topics opened.....

[pinkfloydcramer]

Wow, how rude I could be 5 years ago. Sorry.

 

That's ok, brotherman. I'm jealous of you though, having to go back 5 years. I cringe at things I said 5 minutes ago.

[Mykhailo]

Just saw the initial clip...

 

Full disclosure, I"m not a Toto fan, though like everyone, I dig the big hits. Lot"s of comments here talking about 'individual' musicianship qualities...what it comes down to is the difference between being part of a band vs simply being a hired gun on a gig.

 

The musicians in the second clip sound like a group of hired guns who have been brought together to do a one off, whereas the original clip contains the intangible dynamic that can only come from years of living together on stages, tour buses, hotels, recording studios, etc.

 

Now I may be wrong, not knowing the history of Toto, but to my ears you can"t discuss what 'mediocrity' vs 'excellence' is in a rock band and reduce it to individual qualities. Things such as 'this individual drummers pocket' vs 'that' drummer or, sharp vs flat vocals, etc. Over the course of time, a successful band melds and adjusts to those individual aberrations to create an intangible band dynamic. i.e. Daryl Jones is a monster bassist who played with the likes of Miles Davis, but Bill Wyman was/is/always will be the the bass player for the Stones...that band just never sounded quite the same once he left.

 

A band is a band. A group of 'jobbers' brought together for a singular moment in time by a paycheque that does not make...just my two cents.