haha, nowadays it's just the way things are. notice in music video's its always focusing on the front man? i rate it's cos that's what people want, and the record companies want people to like the band, maybe because of how ATTRACTIVE the singer is or something.
although, some of the lead singers/guitarists are brilliant songwriters, so they deserve it. I agree with KissMeDeadly, that musicians are replaceable.
Think about red hot chilli peppers, frusticante left, and was replaced by nevarro, and then came back, and i don't think that affected them at all, where as if anotony klitsidis...(i duno if that's his surname, honestly can't remember) had left, it would have made a huge impact.
Also, Rage are so much different to Audioslave and they had a change in front man, same with New Order and Joy division, a lot different.
I think i just wrote so much crap, sorry ! made some sense in my head
EDIT: yer that didn't really stick to the thread title...