Garbage Did Not "Break Up"

Garbage has made a press release, explaining their cancellation on the last leg of their 2005 tour. Since this announcement was made, musical pundits across the world have been spreading rumors that the band broke up.

On September 23, Garbage set the record straight. They are taking an indefinite hiatus; they are not breaking up.

Too many fans associate band break-ups like break-ups from bad relationships. I wish it were that simple, but a band with four members is four times more difficult to manage than a relationship with one significant other. Sometimes, other musicians want to "play the field", and make music with others. Please forgive the analogy, but this is fair play, and it's nothing like cheating on your partner, or being cheated on.

A band breaking up contains an assumption that the members no longer enjoy making music with one another, or they cannot get along with one another personally, or professionally. Thank the Beatles and the Eagles for engraving those assumptions into our pop-cultured heads.

More often than not, bands dissolve due to other factors. Members get married and start families. Taking children on tour and putting them through school on a bus is no way to raise a family.

There are as many reasons to break up a band, as there are bands out there, but the most likely reason for bands to break up is due to the constantly changing face of popular music. You have 15 minutes of fame -- if you're lucky. One moment, you're on top of the world; the next you're a bottom feeder, as the consumer conglomerate is a very hungry beast, yet so obsessive compulsive that it must feed only on the newest thing.

If a band isn't selling albums, and nobody is going to see them on tour, what's the point in staying together?

Breaking up isn't always a bad thing.