Band (rock and pop)
[1] Two-member rock and pop bands (such as the White Stripes, Tenacious D, the Black Keys, Twenty One Pilots, and Royal Blood) are relatively rare because of the difficulty in providing all of the musical elements which are part of the rock or pop sound (vocals, chordal accompaniment, bass lines, and percussion or drumming).
Sequencers allowed bands to program some elements of their performance, such as an electronic drum part and a synth bass line.
Other pop bands from the 1980s, who were ostensibly fronted by two performers, such as Wham!, Eurythmics, and Tears for Fears, were not actually two-piece ensembles, because other instrumental musicians were used "behind the scenes" to fill out the sound.
[4] In the 1990s, Local H continued on as a two-piece when their bassist departed, with guitarist/singer Scott Lucas modifying his guitars by adding a bass pickup for the lower strings.
In a hard-rock or blues-rock band, or heavy-metal rock group, a "power trio" format is often used, which consists of an electric guitar player, an electric bass guitar player, and a drummer, and typically one or more of these musicians also sing (sometimes all three members sing, e.g. the Bee Gees or Alkaline Trio).
[citation needed] Some well-known power trios with the guitarist on lead vocals are the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Green Day, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, Nirvana, and Muse.
Some bands have a guitarist, keyboard player, bassist, and drummer, for example Talking Heads, the Small Faces, and Pink Floyd.
An alternative lineup replaces the rhythm guitarist with a keyboard–synthesizer player (examples being the bands Yes, Journey, Bon Jovi, Dream Theater, and Deep Purple).
[9] Further alternatives include a keyboardist, guitarist, drummer, bassist, and saxophonist, such as the Sonics, the Dave Clark 5, and Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs.
An example of a six-member rock band is Toto with a lead vocalist, guitarist, bassist, two keyboard players, and drummer.
Other examples include Australian band INXS and American Blondie; both consist of a lead vocalist, two guitarists, a keyboard player, a bassist, and a drummer.
The American heavy-metal band Slipknot is composed of nine members, with a vocalist, two guitarists, a drummer, a bassist, two custom percussionists, a turntablist, and a sampler.
More rarely, rock or pop groups are accompanied in concerts by a full or partial symphony orchestra, where lush string-orchestra arrangements are used to flesh out the sound of slow ballads.
"[13] "Women are mainly regarded as passive and private consumers of allegedly slick, prefabricated – hence, inferior – pop music..., excluding them from participating as high-status rock musicians.
[15] Philip Auslander says that "Although there were many women in rock by the late 1960s, most performed only as singers, a traditionally feminine position in popular music".
[16]: 2–3 In relation to the gender composition of heavy-metal bands, it has been said that "[h]eavy metal performers are almost exclusively male"[17] "...[a]t least until the mid-1980s"[18] apart from "...exceptions such as Girlschool.
"[20] When Suzi Quatro emerged in 1973, "no other prominent female musician worked in rock simultaneously as a singer, instrumentalist, songwriter, and bandleader".
[16]: 2 According to Auslander, she was "kicking down the male door in rock and roll and proving that a female musician ... and this is a point I am extremely concerned about ... could play as well if not better than the boys".
For decades Genesis maintained two consistent lineups: Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford and Phil Collins in the studio with Chester Thompson and Daryl Stuermer always additionally appearing as band members in live performances.
