MusicRadar
The place for music makers
BLOG: Is iBand really a band after all?
What about iGroupies?
The MusicRadar Team, Fri 7 Mar 2008, 7:28 pm UTC
Ten years ago, demonstrating my usual impeccable business sense, I applied for a patent for a combination cell phone/fax machine/word processor/makeup mirror/hair dryer. My reasoning at the time was sound: It wasn't enough that your phone should accomplish all of your business needs, but it should help make you look good too. Form and function all the way, baby.
Okay, so perhaps the hair dryer wasn't such a good idea. But you have to admit, I was on to something. Since that time, mobile phones have become nearly all things to nearly all people. To the entertainment world, this has been a major boon: Consumers can download music anywhere, anytime, onto their phones. Major artists, realizing the importance of reaching an increasingly fragmented (and distracted) audience, have jumped on the bandwagon by releasing exclusive tracks to cell phone providers.
Now it appears that phones can play a part in the music-making process as well. Witness iBand, three art students from Austria who have hit pay dirt with a couple of ditties played on little more than their hacked and hot-rodded iPhones. Their first "release," a rudimentary number described as a "jam session," was a YouTube hit when it appeared last month. In the video, the three members (Marina, Seb, and Roger) play two iPhones, one loaded with Moo-Cow-Music Pianist software, the other with the Moo-Cow-Music Drummer, and a Nintendo DS, with an interactive music video game called Electroplankton.
And iBand's follow-up, a full-blown track with Marina's vocals called Life Is Greater Than The Internet, is an even bigger hit. The video shows the students playing two iPhones and an iPod Touch (the units are customized with PocketGuitar and Moo-Cow-Music Drummer).
As a neat little throwaway, Life Is Greater Than The Internet is engaging fluff. But is it music? Well, it does have a melody, and lyrics you can even sing along to, so the simple answer would have to be yes. But perhaps the bigger and more important question is this: Are iBand really a band after all?
User comments (4)
-
i would like to do as wat dey r doin now...
after i have enuff money, ill buy an ipod touch so dat i can play its music application & do jamm session wit my friends -
Ah, guitarists. Always complaining about how music made without guitars is not music. Just imagine how the first trombone player ever was ridiculed by their peers.
-
Of course they are a band! Anyone with enough imagination to make use of mechanical or electronic devices that produce sounds, and this way create music, deserves the right to be called a band. Let's just wait and see how long it will be before Apple realises that someone has beaten them to he iName (iBand) and actually tries suing them! ;-)
-
I think iband are a band. They might not have the experience of playing with what you call "real instrument" but they do do what every musician want to do and that play music. I have to say they play music better than a lot of bands that I have seen.
They also have a point to there music which again I don't really see a lot of now a days. Most bands just seem to be in it for the groups of people clapping them or to sound like there favourite bands. There are only a hand full of bands that I would say that are trying to change things and make thing there own.
So I surpport iband and hope them the best in this changing industry.
Cheers
Sound tech dan
You need to be logged in to post a comment. Login or Register to post a comment.
Poll
ReviewFinder
Click to find gear in the following categories:
- Guitars (2983)
- Amplification (787)
- Computers & Software (1390)
- Recording (370)
- Keys & Synths (131)
- Drums (641)
- DJing (22)
- Publications (47)
- Clothing (2)
- Gadgets (13)
Buy here
MusicRadar Marketplace
If you're looking for great deals on gear, tuition, mastering, education or kit hire, click here for our new and improved marketplace.
ukulele_metal
39 weeks ago.