Red Mosquito

What are some examples of established artists who very transparently made a big stylistic move to increase their audience? And was it successful?

I'm talking like when Jewel went from folksy acoustic-guitar songstress to this:


Jewel's "Intuition" was interesting for a number of reasons: the song itself has an ironic self-awareness to it, with lines like "sell yourself, just cash in," and a music video that satirizes commercialism and objectification while also participating in them. But when the song was actually licensed out to promote a brand of razors, people started to wonder how many levels of irony Jewel was operating in. The song alienated her core fanbase and wasn't really that successful, so Jewel's big pop moment kind of fizzled out.

Please note that this thread is not meant as an indictment on the artists, nor of pop music as a whole. "Selling out" is a silly concept. I just find this kind of thing interesting to dissect.

Gwen Stefani: successful ($$$)

Before:



After:

Green Day tried it, but it didn't work

Of course, Scream is emblematic of this concept.



I know the album has its defenders, but I really can't believe how badly they botched this whole thing

E.H. Ruddock wrote:Green Day tried it, but it didn't work

It didn't? Wasn't American Idiot like the biggest thing in the world?

theplatypus wrote:Of course, Scream is emblematic of this concept.

knew this was coming - deep breaths

i agree but would counter that this rock-bottom moment was necessary for enough soul-searching to spur a reunion with Soundgarden

and therefore it was successful

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.

LoathedVermin72 wrote:

E.H. Ruddock wrote:Green Day tried it, but it didn't work

It didn't? Wasn't American Idiot like the biggest thing in the world?

I've completely lost track of Green Day, thought Rudd might've been referring to something that happened in the last decade

theplatypus wrote: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.

holy god

this basically captures everything about the entertainment industry that proves it should be destroyed

theplatypus wrote:

LoathedVermin72 wrote:

E.H. Ruddock wrote:Green Day tried it, but it didn't work

It didn't? Wasn't American Idiot like the biggest thing in the world?

I've completely lost track of Green Day, thought Rudd might've been referring to something that happened in the last decade

Yeah I'm talking about their last two albums. Very pop-ish

theplatypus wrote: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.

As big as Weezer already were, it's hard not to interpret "Beverly Hills" as one of these. It's pretty incongruous with what they'd done before, had a music video filled with Playboy bunnies, and marked the start of an amped-up media presence after the lukewarm commercial reception to Maladroit.

Also it is very bad, and was massively successful

evenslow wrote:

Is that Chris Gaines?

Wasn't that guy already the most successful recording artist of all time or something?

I take back everything I’ve ever said about the Offspring.

theplatypus wrote:

evenslow wrote:

Is that Chris Gaines?

Wasn't that guy already the most successful recording artist of all time or something?

He wanted to cross over though. Not just sell truckloads of records to hicks.

theplatypus wrote:As big as Weezer already were, it's hard not to interpret "Beverly Hills" as one of these. It's pretty incongruous with what they'd done before, had a music video filled with Playboy bunnies, and marked the start of an amped-up media presence after the lukewarm commercial reception to Maladroit.

Also it is very bad, and was massively successful

Weezer has become aggressively embarrassing. To the point that i've sold off the Blue Album and Pinkerton bc I just can't stomach to listen to them anymore.

The 2003 Liz Phair album with "Why Can't I" and "Extraordinary" comes to mind as an example of this. I'm not big into her stuff but I feel like it was pretty successful -- I remember the usual types raked it over the coals, but those songs definitely got played:


LeAnn Rimes's "Life Goes On" was a pretty blatant pop move after a few albums of very traditional country music -- she had that child star, "little kid with big voice sings music for your grandma"-type marketing push behind her, this seemed like a pretty deliberate attempt to break out of that:

Not sure how successful it was, but I do remember hearing it a lot at the time, and I didn't keep up with her music otherwise.

Along those lines, Michael Buble's "Just Haven't Met You Yet" always struck me as a shot at branching out beyond that Harry Connick Jr., handsome-guy-in-nice-suit-sings-standards image that still kind of dogs him (not unjustifiably so). Again, not sure how successful it was but I definitely heard this way more than I heard any of his other stuff:

I have to say I like Liz Phair’s pop stuff more than Exile.