What makes music come alive. True, there are exceptions,
but practically all of my favourite music has interesting
bass lines:
If you're a musician, and you want to sell your music to my ears,
pay attention to detail, and most of all, to the bass lines.
A common, and very effective, technique is to let the bass play faster lines, while guitar, organ or voice lay down the chords.
- Tamla Motown did this a lot; try You keep me hanging on or Reflections by the Supremes, and I want you back by the Jackson Five, for some good bass playing
- Paul Mc Cartney was very good at this: songs like Drive my car or Lady Madonna are made by the bass line, Mrs. Vanderbilt even has the bass guitar as the main instrument
- Yes is another band that, for me, completely revolves around the bass player: try the Yes Album and Fragile for demonstrations
- Straight up by Paula Abdul is based on this principle
- arguably, the basslines are what differentiates Slade from bland generic hard rock
- Coffee and TV by Blur if carried musically by a very unusual chord progression, which is mainly played out in the bass
- needless to say, Johann Sebastian Bach offers many examples, e.g. the prelude 24, book I, of his Well-Tempered Clavier
If you don't happen to know any of this music, the point is that a lively bassline is an established technique for spicing up music, that works well in all kinds of genres. There really is no excuse for not bothering with the bass.