More and more bands are recruiting members who don't perform or play instruments
Some bands suffice on music alone, but others realize that success is dependent on much more than a few guitars, a drum kit, and some singers. Remember I’m From Barcelona? They were a solid Swedish indie outfit that wouldn’t have made much of an impact if not for the fact that they always had somewhere between 16 and 28 members in the band. The thing was, a five-piece could’ve produced their tunes; most of their members did stuff like play the kazoo or shout along with some choruses. It was marketing, and it was smart.
The question of what constitutes being a member of a band is at the heart of this Tedium piece, which focuses first and foremost on Coldplay’s fifth member, Phil Harvey, who doesn’t play an instrument but has long served as a jack-of-all-trades for the band behind-the-scenes. Other bands count non-players in their ranks as well—The Grateful Dead’s primary lyricist, Robert Hunter, for example, became the first non-performing individual to grace the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, despite him never taking the stage with the band.