{"id":147825960,"date":"2024-08-21T12:30:46","date_gmt":"2024-08-21T12:30:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/?p=147825960"},"modified":"2024-08-21T12:30:46","modified_gmt":"2024-08-21T12:30:46","slug":"should-you-play-bass-with-a-pick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/?p=147825960","title":{"rendered":"Should You Play Bass With A Pick?"},"content":{"rendered":"

“I need oxygen to the stage, please…” – Mark Hoppus, ‘The Mark Tom and Travis Show’<\/h2>

As I\u2019ve gotten older, certain things that used to seem world-defineing have firmly been moved to the \u201cno big deal\u201d folder in the ol\u2019 brain hard drive. Here\u2019s one of the more horrifying things from my 30s: younger people not only exist and are younger than me, but sometimes they get embroiled in the same stupid debates my friends and I would get embroiled in. <\/p>

When I first started pitching Cracked<\/em>, the internet was new enough that there was a \u201cno recycling information from earlier articles\u201d rule. Sure, one article might be \u201cThe 6 Most Baffling Decisions In Superhero Movies\u201d and another article might be \u201cThe 6 Most Mind-Blowing Decisions In Superhero Movies,\u201d but those would be entirely different articles. By the time I was there full-time, everyone was recycling stuff from earlier Cracked<\/em> articles. I was tasked with taking a 7-item column<\/a> and blowing it out into a 15-item listicle<\/a>. Then I did it<\/a> again, two<\/a> for one<\/a> this time. <\/p>

Think what you want about that practice. I came around to at least understanding it. In pitch meetings, this was referred to as \u201cre-introducing things to a new generation of readers.\u201d Sure, I\u2019m optimistic enough to buy that. Besides, repeating things isn\u2019t the worst. Information changes, the world changes, you approach things with fresh eyes. <\/p>

All of this is to say: how are we not done with the bassists using picks debate?<\/p>

My instagram and YouTube algos, at least, won\u2019t let this die. Personally, whether or not to use a pick has been decided for a long time. But who cares what I think? Let\u2019s look at some bassists. <\/p>

The Case For Using A Pick: Mark Hoppus<\/strong><\/p>

You might think a better punk bass player to bring up would be Matt Freeman, and you\u2019d be right<\/a>. I want to highlight Hoppus, though\u2014widely regarded as and self-admittedly a pretty bad bass player\u2014for his understanding of texture. I read an interview with him when I was in, like, middle school where he talked about thinking of himself as a rhythm guitarist sometimes. Blink 182 is a band that\u2019s very much the sum of their parts. Travis is always doing something wild on the drums (they\u2019d be nothing without him). Tom more or less controls dynamics with his guitar. But Mark holds things in place\u2014root notes most of the time, chords to boost heavy parts or add urgency to soft parts, the odd fill here and there. <\/p>

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