Does bass matter? Is it even that important?

There's been a ton of great comments so far and a lot of them comparing the absence of bass with other things, so leave your own by completing this phrase: "Having no bass is like..."

The bass is the best sound that intensifies everything. Without it it's all tiney and flat

Listen to and justice for all and then listen to the black album and you tell me if bass is important or nah

As a classical guitarist I don’t have to worry about a bass guitarist

Guitar is the energy, drums are the tempo and bass is the soul!!! I'm a 20 year bassist. Most people can't hear the real music and it's depressing. But I get it

Been playing bass for 20 years and trying to explain this. Thanks for validating my point. Ur a good dude and get real music

As a bassist,
I don't really care what people think about my pal the bass guitar,
We rock the band, we work with the drummer, we stand in the background and just rock it.
I love the bass guitar,
And the drums,
Drum and bass are awesome.
But bass is my life.❤

Basically without bass it’s sounds empty.

I've been listening to metal my entire life and honestly bass is irrelevant and hard to hear in most albums. 90% of the bands don't have bassists that talented, and when they do the bass track is always mixed at the minimum volume.

Try listening to "Whipping Post" or any Allman Bros song for that matter without a bass.

Having no bass is like...car with no suspensions/absorbers

If you can't hear the bass, you're either listening to 80s Metallica or you need to have your ears checked. If you need another example, listen to Smashing Pumpkins "1979". When the bass kicks in after "..you and I should meet" I still get chills since I bought the CD upon release.

When you remove the bass guitar from any song you notice the difference immediately!! The song feels lifeless and empty without the bass!

Imagine Zeppelin without JPJ. Changes everything, especially drive (just what I call it) and loses so, so much

My ears must be shit because I rarely hear the bass.

I'm a guitarist who can also play bass. I can tell you that the bass player makes the band. Just listen to John Paul Jones of led Zeppelin!

Without bass is like without mother an incomplete family..
Bass gives life to music whereas mother too.. make complete satisfied

The bass is what makes the band sound HUGE. Like, you can have all the members of the band playing except for the bass, and it will never sound like it actually "kicks off" until the bass comes in.

The bass, for me, is very important. It provides depth to the song. Some of my favorite songs are because of the bass lines.

I don't say bass makes the difference just because I'm a bassist.
I am a bassist just because bass makes the difference.

bass gives the music a FUNKY feeling

i saw a dude in spain playing guitar music with his 4 string bass it was exelent

a song with no bass sounds empty

bass is the base that makes the band

drums are the skeleton, bass is muscles. It's the bass that make one wanna move.

You WILL hear the bass on this song:
Tesseract - Of Matter (live in studio)

I CAN FEEL THE DIFFERENCE!!!!!!!!

For anyone that has ever come up to me (a bass player) saying bass doesn't matter, I have told them listen to "I want you back" by the Jackson 5 without bass, and then come talk to me

I can't think of a better example of how much a bass contributes (and how good a bass can sound) than in Alice in Chains' unplugged performance. Beutiful rich tone!!

Great video. Could you help me further? To get our multi genre band moving on I switched from guitar to bass. I know basic rock bass. Alternating country bass. Basic walking blues and jazz bass. Different bass grooves funk etc. Now to the question. When I hear certain songs I hear these odd strange bass lines. They seem to have nothing to do with the song when heard isolated. But in the song they just work perfectly. So I asked our keyboard player. He said its the bass part the bass harmony. Just like classical music its the bass part following the song but moving in other directions. Let me tell you. I just dont get it. Could you please try to explain this with some basic examples ? If you know what I mean?

If you ask why the Bass exist, you know nothing about music.

Bass and drum is for building beautiful scenery with fluffy grass where half naked guitaris can sit on the clouds and give that beautiful sound and solos. Thats what I always say to everyone. Jusst know your place, if you like background just play bass.. but if you like to be the front go with guitar.

Now I get it 🎉

Do we need bass clef on the piano? Absolutely. There will be something missing without bass backing. Same with bass guitar.

Crazy that this even has to be a video 😭😭

Bass is like eyebrows. You don’t notice it when it’s there but when it’s missing…oh god put it back

Having no bass is like taking a picture that is missing the colour red.

Perfect explanation.
Thank you.
Every video of yours is so easy to understand.

I still don't understand it. I don't know what's wrong with me.

Bass is reachness base is love

still don't hear bass in black metal

Song without bass is like cereal without milk

I was genuinely curious to how much an impact the bass had on a song. I was already convinced with the first 2 songs, but then thriller played and I came to accept how important the bass was. my mind played the bass even when it wasn’t there.

Damn.. it does add depth, like when you're drawing and you add shadows or shading.

When i listen music without bass, my ears really got a pain...

they are the glue that connects everything. Guitar takes the lead of the song. Drums keeps a solid beat while communication with guitar and the bass brings all of them together.

Still think bass is for people who cant play a real guitar

Bass helps you feel the song

Preaching to the choir brother. Don't get me started on this Quantization that happens especially with bassists and drummers that just destroys the life out of every recording. Guitarists also suffer a similar fate, and we can't have honest vocalists anymore. Is rock dead? At this point, yes. Always compression, auto tune, quantize, make the song as pedestrian as you can, One earbud, minimum volume for the "busy" masses.

What a great video. It's crazy how much bass adds to these songs. It's night and day.