According to Wikipedia, not necessarily the highest word of authority, The Knack ran afoul because they were marketed with too much of a Beatles-like presentation and targeted appeal to teen-age girls. But what's wrong with that? At the time, top 40 did indeed target the teen-age market. I recall, in the early eighties, a disk jockey say something like "with that song, we were expecting a band with a powerful future, but no, they faded away."
WI (ALTERNATE HISTORY TL CHALLENGE): What if certain bands/acts became massive names in music?
- Thread starter Garrett_Cartoonist
- Start date
So, if their follow-up single, Good Girls Don't (love that song), hit no. 1, what woukd that mean for them and the industry?
Good Girls Don't was too bubble-gummy. It probably hurt their future more than helped it.
NENA doing a US-Tour asap after hitting #2 could have led to the Band becoming more than a one hit wonder in the US.
Maybe not as important as in the German speaking area.
But with recording all albums also in English, a successful overseas market, the band might even not split up as it did in OTL.
Maybe not as important as in the German speaking area.
But with recording all albums also in English, a successful overseas market, the band might even not split up as it did in OTL.
Scorpions were already decently big, so Nena breaking through might entail a German music revival in america
I'm not familiar enough with the group to name another song. But in the business, there was a move to "nuke the Knack," an indication they might have done something to antagonize somebody. Their big hit made them an open door, but they lacked the depth to keep the momentum. 1980 was the year disco had faded and classic rock was picking up a "punk" element. Maybe that could have helped them.
In many cases, a one-hit group simply lacks the resources to produce a consistent string. Such was the case with the Ozark Mountain Daredevils in the seventies. The six-member group played a wide array of instruments. One track on their first album featured the sound of a saw, consistent with the hillbilly image. In 1974, they released a couple of songs, the second of which barely made the Billboard Top 40. Then, as the story goes, Jerry Garcia of Grateful Dead introduced them to the Dobro resonating guitar. Daredevil Randle Chowning had to have one.
Chowning would strum a score on the Dobro that would open into a 4-minute instrumental. The group’s producer at A&M records knew he was hearing a masterpiece. Given non-controversial lyrics, the song would become “Jackie Blue,” a song that would define the group large-scale. A&M wanted more songs like Jackie Blue. The group did not have it in them. Their claim to fame was more of a patchwork of songs that barely sounded like they came from the same band. For several years forward, the group would continue to record albums that would sell and make money. But they never established a distinct, signature sound.
Chowning would strum a score on the Dobro that would open into a 4-minute instrumental. The group’s producer at A&M records knew he was hearing a masterpiece. Given non-controversial lyrics, the song would become “Jackie Blue,” a song that would define the group large-scale. A&M wanted more songs like Jackie Blue. The group did not have it in them. Their claim to fame was more of a patchwork of songs that barely sounded like they came from the same band. For several years forward, the group would continue to record albums that would sell and make money. But they never established a distinct, signature sound.
Expanding one-hit-wonders is one thing but I'm really trying to think of more obscure music acts with such a sound or production as to potentially change the fundamentals of popular music. Loreena McKennit was a good example but her sound may have been/may be a little too "worldly" to ever really move beyond niche listening. The one that really comes to mind for the potential to shake things up is VAST.
To make VAST really have an impact I think we need to undo the second album "Music for People." Have the producers step back and let Cosby do his thing in his own way without interference but still apply the full marketing power of a major label behind it. If they can get a good lead single and a follow on single from the album to break top-10 (or better yet, top the charts) then I can see the unique sounds of VAST and their (not-unique, but well applied) over-dubbing production with layers of sound recalling folk, industrial, and grunge homogenized being copied by follow-on groups in the early 2000s. This would likely change the direction of much of the nu-metal bands of that era like Evanescence by expanding their catalog of instrumentation and expanding their cross-over into world sounds.
To make VAST really have an impact I think we need to undo the second album "Music for People." Have the producers step back and let Cosby do his thing in his own way without interference but still apply the full marketing power of a major label behind it. If they can get a good lead single and a follow on single from the album to break top-10 (or better yet, top the charts) then I can see the unique sounds of VAST and their (not-unique, but well applied) over-dubbing production with layers of sound recalling folk, industrial, and grunge homogenized being copied by follow-on groups in the early 2000s. This would likely change the direction of much of the nu-metal bands of that era like Evanescence by expanding their catalog of instrumentation and expanding their cross-over into world sounds.
As I remember it, Loreena McKennit lost her fiance in a boating accident just about when she was starting to have success with songs like Mummer's Dance. She was so devastated that she mostly withdrew from music for 6-7 years. She didn't release any recordings from 1998-2005 and didn't perform much. If you wanted to make her a bigger star, just having her boyfriend live might do it.
Well, Madonna's had four decades of hits, while Cyndi is more or less a one-album wonder...
Well, Madonna wasn't at The Wall: Live in Berlin. That was a MASSIVE concert
Maybe the Germs, a Punk band from LA, Late 70es-1980. Kurt Cobain named them in his journals as one of his influences, one of their member later joined Nirvana as touring member. Germs Frontman Darby Crash died because of an overdose. On the same day as John Lennon.
marktaha
Banned
Perhaps the session musicians could have come out in the open and toured?
Otherwise-say Jeannie C. Riley had had more Harper Valley PTA-like hits, Zager and Evans stayed together, Bobbie Gentry kept performing?
Tim Rice joins the Zombies, giving them the necessary songwriting talent to keep putting out hits.