Disbandment

Far too many times do artists in the music industry disband and often times at the height of their career. The important question is why? Under artist management it is important to understand that issues will arise but how they are handled makes the difference in a solid group versus a former group.

Interpersonal issues may develop within the group due to a number of circumstances so we will consider music artists that experienced disbandment and why they separated. One of my all time favorites was Destiny’s Child (DC) with now mega superstar Beyoncé as the anchor artist. DC began as a quartet including Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, Kelly Rowland, LeToya Luckett and LaTavia Roberson but the group experienced interpersonal issues early in their career. Former band members Luckett and Roberson voiced concerns about desiring separate representation and management. Those issues resulted in replacement members Michelle Williams and Farrah Franklin but later Franklin was dropped completely, leaving DC to be a trio. Destiny’s Child disbanded after nearly 10 years as a group but they attributed the separation to individual interests in solo careers with different paths.  "After all these wonderful years working together, we realized that now is the time to pursue our personal goals and solo efforts in earnest. No matter what happens, we will always love each other as friends and sisters and will always support each other as artists. We want to thank all of our fans for their incredible love and support and hope to see you all again as we continue fulfilling our destinies."  (Yahoo Music, 2005) DC experienced great success and each member participated in solo projects from film to recordings. The begging question is whether or not egos were a part of the disbandment? Destiny’s Child did not disband on bad terms, at least not publicly.

So for this group, they merely decided their time as a group was outgrown by their individual dreams to go further as a solo artist. However, Beyoncé reaps the most rewards from the disbandment as she was destined to be a superstar.

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1503975/destinys-child-announce-split.jhtml

http://new.music.yahoo.com/destinys-child/news/destinys-child-to-disband-after-current-tour--20165416