Musings

Just a quick note before the post – as well as my personal Musings up here, I also regularly post on the Tonic Music blog and thought some of those might be of interest. Rather than reproducing them here every time, I’ll try and include short excerpts so if anyone does want to read on, they can click through to the full post. They’ll all be tagged ‘Tonic’.

Free doughnuts for all!

The “&” band phenomenon of the late Noughties has raised some questions for me recently. Why did it happen? How do they come up with the “&” collective? Does there always have to be an actual “&”? Don’t the “&”s mind that they may come across as an afterthought, or a support for the main event?

Perhaps it came about as a protest against the loss of individual identity arising from its precursor – the “The” band phenomenon in the late 90s that spilled over into the start of this millennium – with the lead singer demanding separate recognition. Or perhaps the rest of the band wanted it made clear that…Read more