Big swings for pop stardom

[E.H. Ruddock]

I think Silverchair might be a candidate for this with the Young Modern album. Daniel took full control this album and he always had wanted to do a more modern rock/pop sound. Just about everything before this was more hard rock. And they broke up after this.

[Bammer]

This is a band that had pop stardom for a while and tried to recapture it in 2012 with this pathetically desperate single



If you've never heard it and are in the mood to feel bummed out and a little icky, give it a play.

It got no traction.

You knew about this before you interviewed me, you sunuva...

[Jorge]

The Offspring's Cruising California is a horrible example, because like Green Day they had already committed to radio popularity. I'll reiterate that a slight update to your basic concept to appease a new generation of paying fans does not fulfill the concept.

A crass late-career pop single to reclaim faded relevance + capture the tween market fits with what I was going for here, especially when done as gaudily as that song + video combo. Whatever the case, it's not that serious, and it's OK if examples aren't perfect fits. We're talking about silly shit here, no need to get all bent out of shape over it

[Birds in Hell]

In my view, the Offspring example obviously fits while Nirvana doesn't at all.

My read on this is that it has to involve adopting the musical (and visual) tropes of contemporaneous top 40 pop music in a bid to attract that kind of audience. Barely anything about Nirvana's Nevermind or Smells Like Teen Spirit bears much relation to 1991 pop music.

[EJ]

At this point, Trag should just start his own thread.

[tragabigzanda]

[tragabigzanda]

Top 10 maybe?
Hello Morning
Close Captioned
The Kill
Place/Position
Do You Like Me?
Latest Disgrace
Recap Modotti
Nightshop
Break
Life & Limb

I'd maybe bump Life & Limb for Epic Problem

[tragabigzanda]

[tragabigzanda]

[Birds in Hell]

Apologies if I'm misrepresenting you but I don't agree that having singles reach the top 40 (or just becoming more successful than you were at an earlier time) is a watershed moment after which you are now a "top 40 artist" or a "pop artist" and all your subsequent work exists within that framework.

[verb_to_trust]

It was not risky for The Offspring to try something a little different, because they had long since proven themselves worthy of valuable real estate on the major FM stations with their silly hooks and corny antics. A new coat of paint was not at all risky.

Give it to me bay-be!!

Spoiler: show

UH HUH! UH HUH!!

[96583UP]

lol how this thread descended into diarrhea

[LoathedVermin72]

yeah thanks a lot trag

[evenslow]

Eh, the previous album debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 and they were already media darlings to a degree. This was more due to switching producers after the final Lillywhite sessions fell apart in my opinion.

might not fit perfectly into whatever definition we are working on now in trag world but it's a major band that had established a winning template, much of which with steve lillywhite. then they scrap the lillywhite sessions and pull (for them) a complete 180, working with the slickest producer of them all - glen ballard. not only that, but dave co-wrote the whole thing with the guy. a top-down approach from a formerly loose groove (tm stone gossard) band. in short, it's the dmb equivalent of jewel dressing like britney spears.

[tragabigzanda]

Top 10 maybe?
Hello Morning
Close Captioned
The Kill
Place/Position
Do You Like Me?
Latest Disgrace
Recap Modotti
Nightshop
Break
Life & Limb

I'd maybe bump Life & Limb for Epic Problem

[Norah]

Would Taylor Swift apply for this? For nearly a decade she released lighthearted pop-country albums, then made a pretty big shift with her 1989 album. I don’t think “Shake It Off” was necessarily that huge of a shift, but “Bad Blood” seemed to be really new territory and launched her into straight pop.

Nah, Red was a transition album where she had one foot in each camp so it was less of a turn and more of a progression.

[Norah]

The best example of this is really Tegan and Sara.

[Norah]

oooh, what about Sugar Ray?

[Norah]

also the Beastie Boys, considering what they were before Licensed to Ill

[Norah]

the Bee Gees