PopcornTreeCt

Eddie Vedder how dare you!

When artists go solo is it really a big slap in the face to the rest of the band? Sure, there are those occasions where the band is on the verge of breaking up anyway.

To me it just comes off as selfish and a bit egotistical.

Adam Tyner

Depends.

It seems kind of pointless to me when the solo album really doesn't sound any different than what the band itself has been putting out, but I can see the appeal of wanting to try something other than the same old routine or even just taking the chance to work with different people.

jus10

Eddie is actually the last of the band to go solo (or have a side project band).

I do not think it is a slap in the face to the rest of the band when someone wants to go solo. Sometimes they go solo to try something different. Sometimes it is to keep the creative juices going when the rest of the band would rather have some time off. Sometimes it is just to take a break from the band. Sometimes it is to play with other musicians/friends.

cdollaz

Sometimes they do solo albums because they like to work more than the band prefers to work. Can't fault them for not wanting to sit on their ass.

nothingfails

I think there's different scenarios. The band breaks up? Okay. The "I wanna do a solo album but when the tours over, let's start work on the next cd" (Stevie Nicks, Phil Collins, Gwen Stefani, Rob Thomas, etc...) scenario? Fine. But what Justin Timberlake did, I found selfish. He led the other four guys to believe the solo album was a stopgap thing he wanted to do before the next N'Sync album, leading the four of them to become hasbeens by not working and sitting and waiting for Justin to come back, and then at the end of the tour decides "you know, I make enough money on my own, you losers can kiss my butt", turning his former bandmates into hasbeens. (In comparison, while 98 Degrees has been inactive for a number of years, since they've all been doing their own thing, with Drew doing Dancing With The Stars and Jeff and Nick doing the solo thing and Justin going into politics, all four members, including Nick Lachey, have said that the group didn't split up and will get back together when the time is right).

argh923

Yeah, because No Doubt has brought out so many albums since Stefani went solo.

Sorry, I lump her into the Timberlake category.

nothingfails

Gwen and No Doubt were in talks about getting back into the studio, but now that she's pregnant, who knows? She has already said that the next album she releases will be with No Doubt, not solo.

Breton

I had to look up Eddie Vedder's solo career (I lost track of him and Pearl Jam a long time ago), and it consists of a few songs on film soundtracks. He's doing a short club tour in April for a few dates, related to the soundtrack work, and the tickets are around $65, which isn't a lot. He goes back to Pearl Jam to appear at the Bonnaroo Festival in June. That doesn't seem like too much of a solo career.

DVD Josh

I completely understand this. I play in a hard rock band but am currently recording a solo record of my own material (playing all the instruments).

This is NOT because I think I'm better than my bandmates. To the contrary, I'm not.

However, I write slower songs, acoustic songs, etc, that just don't fit in with the style of the band. Rather than just dump them, I want to develop them, and get them down.

I'm sure it's the same for guys like Eddie. Most of his solo stuff would never make a Pearl Jam record. But they are still good songs.

I'm not comparing myself to a guy like Eddie, but I do understand where he and other artists are coming from.