To slap & pop, or not to slap & pop: that is the question...

My pop game is excellent, my slap not so much. I always found using the thumb to be difficult. This is why I voted "only sparingly".

As for your first statement, I agree. I do not like demo videos that only feature slap bass. Sure, doing some slap is an excellent idea. Only slap does not give you a total picture of what a particular instrument can do.

I can do it a little but I'm not great at it. I feel it is one of those techniques used best in moderation. I don't know what it is but it seems to me that many bass players use that technique to show off and make everyone appreciate how well they can play by doing slap and pop stuff. When I see a bass player do a solo and that's the only thing they do, it makes me want to leave because slapping and popping alone does not a great bass player make.

This is the truth.

I started to play around with it back in the late ‘70s (“Weekend” a song by Wet Willie pops up in my memory) but never got really comfortable with the technique. Like some said above, the stuff I play now days doesn’t call for it.

I don't see the use of slap and pop in music I play, however when I go to GC there is always someone using that technique solely

I feel the pain of the OP. Back in my sales days it was like no one trying bass gear would just play a groove. It was ALWAYS slap. Guitarists has their own peculiarities too, though I'm not sure what the exact analog would be. It can be frustrating if a bass player is only judged on his ability to slap.

Then again, when it is done well, it is great. I never complained when this guy came in:

I’m really would like to learn how to slap, there are some songs that call for it. Every time I’ve tried to learn on my own it has been ugly, so it’s probably time to look for good YouTube tutorials.

    No, can’t do it. I play right handed, never had a choice. Everything else I do left handed. I fell off a six story building back in the mid 70s. I was a mess, it took a year before I was moving around. One of the injuries  was to my right arm, they had to fuse the radius to the humerus. The right wrist does not rotate. I paralyzed the right bicep in a car crash in 1978, broke my neck. I can’t really hold the right arm up but I can rest it on the instrument and play, the fingers work fine.

    I’ve learned a lot about risk management since those early days of immortality. I’m actually a good bassist despite the early idiot me. A few times I was told by professional medical types that I would never play again. Around 2012 I managed to crush the left hand in a motorcycle accident, yet again I was told I’d never be able to play .  I sent a youtube link to the doctor of me sitting in with Albert Castiglia about 2 months after the accident