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Originally Posted by Rob Instigator
if you are just dudes in other bands that formed a new band, that is just a BAND, not a supergroup.
a suprgroup is so titled because, due to the supposed worth of the individual famous artists involved, everyone expects something transcendent from the supergroup, something even greater than the sum of their parts.
kurt cobain's clothes are more "famous" than King Buzzo. hell, courtney love is more famous than everyone in fatomas put together.
Fame is NOT relative. the more people know you the more famous you are. it is as simple as that, and easily quantifiable.
there ahve been a lot of supergroups that amounted to flat out shit.
one that did not, and I am not a fan of eitrher the or their previous bands, is crosby stills and Nash (and later young, whom I do admire and listen to).
crosby was in The Byrds
Stephen Stills was in Traffic
Grahma Nash was in The Hollies
(neil Young was also in Buffalo Springfield)
The backbeat band is as close to an indie/alternative supergroup as there ever has been, with key members from REM, Sonic Youth, Afghan Whigs, Soul Asylum.
if the criteria were otherwise then any band is a supergroup, since most musicians have been in countless previous bands before they hit it big.
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I sort of agree except the people in the bands don't have to be famous themselves, just the bands they are from (I'm just basing this on how I've seen the stupid term used in the media to begin with). The ultimate example is Asia who were tauted as the "first supergroup of the '80s". Nobody in that band was a household name, they just played in top-selling FM prog rock groups. Based upon that successful marketing and some stupid ass videos of a gymnast on MTV they got a huge string of hits with songs that nobody in their right mind would have listened to if it weren't for the "suprergroup" label.
So yeah, real supergroups tend to suck by definition. I do think there is an indie scene equivalent, like the Halo Benders when you have two demi-famous guys getting together and performing caricatures of themselves. I even like the results in that instance. Obviously it isn't a bound for the arenas real supergroup, but in their little world it has an instant popularity quotient.
The ultimate "alternative" real supergroup would be Temple of the Dog, who I would rather not even know existed.