JeffTheAlpaca

A lot of people don't want to hear the new songs and prefer the classics when they go to a concert.

How important is it for a band or artist to consistently put out new material?

U2 maybe one of the rare bands that can produce new hit songs every time they release an album.

statcat

not too important I guess to me because usually newer material for older bands is kind of disappointing most of the time anyway.

Chrisedge

Huge U2 fan here, and I actually (like a lot of "hard core" fans) am disapointed they aren't play MORE new music on their current tour...

Supermallet

Depends on the artist. If it's my all time favorite, David Bowie, I want to hear new music from him, because he still has good ideas and takes the time to hone them. If it's Prince, I'm less interested in new music, because it's so scattershot, and can be anywhere from great to terrible. If it's a band like Wire, where their new music is about as good as their old music, I want as much new stuff as I can get.

Ultimately, every artist has a general artistic peak, and once they're past that, the music becomes less essential. I wish some bands would stop releasing new material entirely because it just tarnishes the legacy of their better work.

MR Round

It doesn't really matter to me I'll always give the new material when/if it comes out a try and if I like it great..if I don't I still have the older music to listen to

Dr Mabuse

Almost all of my favorites are no longer with us.

So "no".

Bowie is such a talent, his 'Heathen' album, relatively recent, is one of the best he ever recorded.

Supermallet

Yes, Heathen was excellent. There are definitely some artists whose later work would be hailed as visionary if released by a bunch of young'uns and Bowie is one of them. I remember when Heathen came out and I tried to tell people how great it was (along with Peter Gabriel's Up, Tom Waits' Blood Money, and The Residents' Demons Dance Alone, all from the same year), and they were all like "No way, those guys are all old durr."

PopcornTreeCt

It's not so much about wanting new material as it is that usually new album = tour. I'm more interested in the possibility of see Red Hot Chili Peppers on tour than hearing their new album.

Numanoid

I don't mind a bit that the bands I like release and play new material. New albums in the past year from favorites of mine like OMD, Duran Duran, and a-ha have all been amazingly excellent. It's only when a band insists on playing a shitty song live just because they intend to release it as a single or whatever reason that irks me. But if it's a good song, odds are that I'll have memorized it by the time I see the concert anyway. And isn't that the real question? Do you want to hear a song for the first time at a show?

jrsl76

If they're still in the music world, then yes, but at concerts I do want lots of the classics. This weekends Big Four is a perfect example. I was most excited for the classics.

mndtrp

Absolutely. New music from artists I like is something I look forward to, provided I'm enjoying the new direction their music is taking. If an artist changes styles too much, I'm looking at you In Flames, then I'll just skip the new stuff and listen to the old albums. It's still likely I would see them in concert, though.

gmanca

I want new music from bands who are actually putting an effort into making quality music; I'll give a new album a chance and if the band releases consecutive total duds, I lose interest in them. Specific example is the past two Cure albums and with that I haven't been anticipating new stuff from them.

Supermallet

The first time I saw Sonic Youth they played almost all of Murray Street before they had even finished recording it. It was amazing. I can't listen to the album because it pales so much in comparison to when I first heard the songs.

So maybe it is better to not hear songs for the first time live.

Michael Corvin

It really depends on the artist. Dream Theater? Hell yes, I'd rather them tour less and do more albums. Queensryche? Tour more and forget new albums.

reverie

No question- I always look forward to new stuff! It may not always be great, but what really can? A good mix in concert is nice too, all hits kinda sucks.. a little boring.

Hokeyboy

To me, it's not as important for classic bands to put out new material. Given a choice between Yes or No, I'd say sure, yeah, do new stuff. But there's so much amazing new material out there from new bands and artists that I'm not gonna sweat it if I don't bother with, say, the latest Judas Priest or Tesla album.

What I do prefer, though, is if artists/bands diversify their live set a bit. Greatest Hits Live is SO boring. I know that's what "The Masses" want to hear, but it can get awfully stale (moreso for the performer(s), I'm sure). For instance, I saw Billy Joel live in 2006 and he shook up his setlist with a lot of deep album tracks. Many of which I hadn't heard before, but I enjoyed listening to because he REALLY poured a ton of energy into playing them. You could just see people rushing to the exits throughout the show because he was playing "Laura" or "Zanzibar" instead of "We Didn't Start The Fire" or "Tell Her About It".

I'm a huge Jimmy Buffett fan. HUGE. And if I never hear anything from his "Songs You Know By Heart" greatest hits collection again, I will be more than satisifed. As an album artist and songwriter of the 70s and 80s, he wrote a ton of great songs that have never been heard or bothered with by 99% of the pale, bloated Baby Boomers showing up at his shows wearing Hawaiian shirts and parrot hats and drinking Coronas. Buffett makes something like $60 million a tour when he caters to these tards. But the look on his face when he has to sing "Volcano" or "Margaritaville" to these jackballs... you can see a piece of him dying. And crying all the way to the bank. But man I'd love to hear "Nautical Wheelers" or "The Wino and I Know" or "The Great Filling Station Holdup" or "Livingston Saturday Night" or... *sigh*

islandclaws

Of course. If it's my favorite band, I'd always rather have something new to listen to than nothing new at all. Sure, many old-school fans of any band will always prefer the classics, but I think that there are always a few new tracks worth hearing from your favorites' new releases.

rw2516

If they do, they do. If they don't, they don't. I ignore new stuff from bands that only resemble the original band in name only. I still buy new Rush and ACDC because it's still the tried and true. I bought the two recent Whitesnake cds because it's tried and true Coverdale, although other members have changed. When Blue Oyster Cult put out two new cds about 10 years ago after a 15 year layoff it was like they never went away.
Tom Petty's new stuff, is just like the old stuff, and I eat it up. A lot of the tracks would have been hits if released 25 years ago. Same with Springsteen. One guy who continues to be great, and often better than his classics is Neil Young.
When the original Bad Company reunited in '99 after almost 20 years the new songs on the anthology were just as good as their old stuff. They played three of them in the 1999 PPV concert(this is the show to put out on DVD/CD with all four members), but anything since has just been a classic hits show. The new tracks are MIA.

Ky-Fi

I don't like it when bands only do "oldies" tour. It's like they've given up on the present or the future, and are just wallowing in nostalgia. Don't get me wrong, I don't have a problem if a band chooses to do a specific tour of just old stuff, but if they're doing that and for years on end they're NOT writing any new material and releasing new tracks here and there, I think that's kind of lame.

jmu878

This...although I do love me some Margaritaville...

Nesbit

I'm a big Aerosmith and Weezer fan so no

cungar

It is?
Echo? Yech
Last DJ? Ugh
Highway Companion? Halfway Decent
Mojo? Meh

Tom Petty is definitely an artist whose quality has taken a big hit the last 10-15 years.

auto

Have to agree with this Petty assessment. I always want the new albums to be good but the last decent album he put out was Wildflowers, IMO.

CRM114

Current, young bands, yes, of course.

Old, established icons? Not so much.

B5Erik

My favorite bands (Iron Maiden, KISS, Deep Purple, etc) are still putting out albums so I'm digging that. I love getting new material from my favorite bands.

There aren't that many new bands over the last 15 years that have won me over, so I'm glad that the classic guys are still cranking them out!