It’s my observation that when bands break up, the individuals are rarely, alone, able to recreate the magic or synergy they created when they produced original music as the band itself. Whether it’s the Beatles, which spawned four individual careers, or Simon and Garfunkel, which spawned two individual careers, or any number of others, the popularity of the individual artists’ songs and the magic of the music never quite satisfied the baseline produced of the prior musical contribution.
If that’s a correct observation, then the question becomes why. Is it because there was simply a moment in time in which that particular band or group matched the personality of the time, or is it because the synergy of the band members together produced a quality of work which any of the individuals would not have been able to have achieved alone, even at that moment in time?
Or a combination of those and other thoughts?
Original writing date: May 6, 2008