SamSpade
Well-Known Member
--- are often the best stuff they ever do. This seems especially true of bands and performers I've listened to in the last twenty years - somewhere in the first one or two albums, they write the song or songs they will always be best known for, and when you look them up you'll find they're still working - they just haven't made anything all that good in years.
Which makes me wonder - a few groups break that mold. Almost certainly - the Beatles. To me, Abbey Road, the White Album and Sgt. Pepper are not only the best stuff they ever did, they blow away the first half dozen efforts they turned out. Rolling Stones? Everything from Beggar's Banquet to Exile on Main Street. Then they mostly sucked for forty years.
Even Michael Jackson never exceeded Thriller. I think he sold more of that album than all of his others combined, but I am just guessing. Technically Off the Wall was his first real solo, but the point is - artists do their best work at the first.
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Normally, my answer is, it's simple - the first album has to be good or it never sees airtime. It consists of the best ideas that have been formulating in the artist's mind their entire life. Everything after that consists of whatever they didn't use the first time, or they've come up with in the couple years since the last one.
See, normally - that works. But many artists just don't write their songs. They pick 'em. Most of Thriller, MJ didn't write, although he wrote the best songs.
I've been thinking about this, because every time I think "whatever happened to" some band or artist, I find that they NEVER STOPPED MAKING ALBUMS. They just don't play anymore. I fully expect to see something like, they broke up due to creative differences or the death of the lead singer (Gin Blossoms, Blind Melon, Nirvana). But they are still recording, and I wonder - how come no one hears them anymore?
I just can't think of that many artists who got better and better over time.
Which makes me wonder - a few groups break that mold. Almost certainly - the Beatles. To me, Abbey Road, the White Album and Sgt. Pepper are not only the best stuff they ever did, they blow away the first half dozen efforts they turned out. Rolling Stones? Everything from Beggar's Banquet to Exile on Main Street. Then they mostly sucked for forty years.
Even Michael Jackson never exceeded Thriller. I think he sold more of that album than all of his others combined, but I am just guessing. Technically Off the Wall was his first real solo, but the point is - artists do their best work at the first.
-------
Normally, my answer is, it's simple - the first album has to be good or it never sees airtime. It consists of the best ideas that have been formulating in the artist's mind their entire life. Everything after that consists of whatever they didn't use the first time, or they've come up with in the couple years since the last one.
See, normally - that works. But many artists just don't write their songs. They pick 'em. Most of Thriller, MJ didn't write, although he wrote the best songs.
I've been thinking about this, because every time I think "whatever happened to" some band or artist, I find that they NEVER STOPPED MAKING ALBUMS. They just don't play anymore. I fully expect to see something like, they broke up due to creative differences or the death of the lead singer (Gin Blossoms, Blind Melon, Nirvana). But they are still recording, and I wonder - how come no one hears them anymore?
I just can't think of that many artists who got better and better over time.
