Talk:Backup band

Shouldn't genesis not be on this list? Phil collins was the drummer originally.

I was thinking exactly the same thing. Genesis are a real, cohesive unit. Not just Phil's backing band. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.52.67.90 (talk) 04:47, 22 April 2009 (UTC)

band vs singers
Perhaps I'm being a bit picky, but I don't consider some of the groups listed here as being bands, backing or otherwise. To me, a band implies people playing instruments, not merely a group of vocalists. The Jordanaires and the Miracles, to name a couple, to the best of my knowledge never played any instruments but rather provided backing vocals to Elvis and Smokey respectively.Wschart (talk) 20:03, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

trainwreck
This is a terrible "article." If I could pretend to be enough of a sunny optimist, I might describe it as "a dictionary entry with a bunch of random supposed examples."

…except that in all honesty the list (as with the majority of WP "notables" lists) is a bunch of unsubstatiated nonsense posted by various fans & triviologists. In order to be truly notable, such a list ought be derived ONLY from one or more credible outside sources, else it's pretty much a shining example of original research.

Even if the list were to be allowed to stand, it's a hodgepodge that makes "apples and oranges" seem entirely reasonable as a grouping (they are, after all, both fruit). This I blame on the opening "definition," which is poor in the extreme. Disparate categories are lumped together: In each case, "backing band" clearly means something different. I could make the argument that the term should be reserved to mean a group that is assembled for performance or recording by an artist (rather than hiring professional jobbing musicians).
 * musical groups that existed independently AND supported solo musicians, such as The Groundhogs who backed solo artists such as John Lee Hooker and Little Walter when they toured the UK.
 * similarly, groups that existed before being recruited for the job (The Shondells were gigging as The Raconteurs).
 * groups that existed as a cohesive unit and eventually had one member step to the forefront (The Supremes).
 * groups that continued independently after their headliner embarked on a solo career (The Shadows).
 * revolving-door bands that existed at the whim of an individual artist (The Mothers of Invention) or two (Kiss (band)).

The list somehow fails to mention groups that inarguably existed to support a "name" artist, apparently due to lacking the all-important AND — examples abound, but begin with Warren Zevon and Jackson Browne.

Foremost, the article title isn't right: much as with backup singers now being redirected correctly to backing vocalist, the misnomer "backup" is both popular and wrong. Weeb Dingle (talk) 08:32, 3 October 2017 (UTC)