I guess when you write "bass freakin sucks", you can expect someone to disagree. Even though this is a guitar site, they're are some bass players here like myself. The bass plays completely different than a guitar. This is why peeps who only know guitar show little respect to the instrument. While the guitarist learns one set of skills, the bassist learns another. A guitarist can get away with just knowing how to play an E dominant chord, the bass player needs to know what notes make up that chord (previous post), but also what notes can work as passing tones. So he/she needs to know what scale works with that chord. So the thought process on a bass line threw a 3 minute song is equivalent to a 3 minute solo on guitar. And if that's not enough, the bass player must not only think of the chord progression but what the drummer is doing also to be able to lay down a good rhythm or groove. That's probably why it's so hard to find good bass players and if you find one consider yourself very lucky.

My answer to why the bass lacks so much in most music. Because alot of bass players are taught by guitarists. Not saying guitarists are bad teachers but the bass is quite different. Bass players should be taught by bass players, better yet bass players should start of in jazz band in H.S. There they learn to sight read which is important for the skills above.

If your good at bass and possess the skills above, the bass is one of the most lively and inventive instruments to play. Sadly though, there are so few who do represent such a skill. I picked up a bass first for that very reason.