LJ Idol Week #9 - Topic: "Normalization"

[prog_schlock]

This is my entry for Week #9 of therealljidol.

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Industry rule #4080Liz Phair brought her version of her self-titled 2003 album to her label, Capital Records, but they balked at releasing it unless she created some songs with hit-making team The Matrix. Phair recorded four songs with them, had her biggest hit to date, and pretty much ruined her reputation

Comments

[alycewilson]

I'm trying to think of a group with whom I fell out of love when they changed their sound. Honestly, I can't think of too many. I'm fairly forgiving when it comes to things like that. Although I may prefer to listen to their older music, if I don't like their current sound.

[prog_schlock]

Its very unusual also for me to stop liking a band just because of a style change. Indeed, I like Liz Phair's one big hit even as I acknowledge that its not an especially good song. Sometimes, ear candy is good, too.

Thank you for reading and listening!

[sinnamongirl]

I'm honestly blanking on anybody I've changed my mind about if they've changed their sound... though I was introduced to Incubus in their radio-ready phase, and went back to find earlier albums and rather liked that stuff.

Oh, wait... Red Hot Chili Peppers. I don't dislike them now, I simply feel they've spent the last 10ish years making slightly different versions of the same song. I will sing along to just about any of them, but I'd like to see them expand somehow. It's hard for me to find the right words to explain it, but, yeah... feels like the same song over and over for a decade or so.

Good entry!

[prog_schlock]

I have a complicated relationship with the RHCP. On the one hand, they created marvelous, mind blowing songs like this:

(That pots and pans breakdown in the middle!)

And on the other hand, they create dumb frat sex rock lyrics like this:

For every "Otherside" there is a "Hump Da Bump." Its a conundrum.

[sinnamongirl]

Breaking the Girl is one of my super-favorites of theirs, along with Soul to Squeeze, but yeah, I Like Dirt? meh.

Slight tangent: I have a friend who was a stripper in Portland, and apparently Anthony Kiedis's dad was a regular customer there. He'd get sloppy drunk and brag about like... his wolf pack (actual wolves?) and all the drugs and getting his son his first hooker and was basically a hot mess, it sounded like.

[dee_aar2]

I am a die hard fan ... I have a hard time giving up ... so when an artist I love switches to something I may not enjoy .. I juts stick to what they did before that and continue enjoying what I did before the switch. No compulsions to love the new one and no compulsions to forget what I loved once before.

Like I always say .. I enjoy your musical background on artists ... mostly those i do not know and would like to know because of you and some I know and happy to know more about ... again because of you.

[prog_schlock]

I write about stuff other than music sometimes, but I joined this season so I could share some stuff that I loved and hopefully learn some new stuff that everyone else loves. I'm glad that you've been getting something out of the entries!

Thank you!

[halfshellvenus]

My idea of one-hit wonders is perhaps less broad? Looking Glass ("Brandy") and Golden Earring ("Radar Love") would be in that category. The Grateful Dead, with its huge following (which I suspect is mostly about the drugs, unless people really like folk music that much), seems too popular. I'm thinking more about one glorious hit and apart from that, virtual obscurity. ;)

make the leap from indie-rock quasi-stardom to teen-pop levels of superstardom.
Given what teen pop sounds like, that seems like a horrible aspiration to me!

The group that "burned" me with their change in sound took a long time to do it: Electric Light Orchestra. There are parts of "Out of the Blue" that are more pop sounding (and others that are headphone ear candy), but "Discovery" was a disco album, and for the band that made "Showdown" and "Evil Woman" and "Nightrider" that was too far over the edge. :(

[prog_schlock]

Golden Earing has a second huge hit:

And, believe it or not, Looking Glass had a second Top 40 hit:

Which had a great New Wave remake by Josie Cotton (A No Hit Wonder):

The Grateful Dead, on the other hand, only had one top 40 hit: Touch of Grey.

On the other hand, The Romantics are best known for the song "What I Like About You," which is a reason people would consider them a one hit wonder. But that song didn't ever go Top 40. Two other songs by them did, though: "Talking in Your Sleep" and "One In A Million."

I'm a strict "total number of songs in the Billboard Top 40" one hit wonder person because otherwise the basis for identifying a band as a one hit wonder depends on a subjective "well, this is the only song I know by the bad" definition.

Did I mention I used to keep charts and graphs of how bands were faring on the Billboard chart? Because I was an obsessed - on the verge of being crazy - teenager. This is why I'm still no fun at parties. :D

[inteus_mika]

Mad props for this. For Liz Phair, and for saying what needed to be said.

[prog_schlock]

Liz deserves better from the music world. Sigh.

Thanks for reading! Go team!