# Artistic breakthrough years **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 18, 2024, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artistic-breakthrough-years/1008955 "2024-10-18T17:37:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2024, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artistic-breakthrough-years/1008955/21 "2024-10-23T21:41:53Z")
Martin Scorsese’s breakthrough year was 1973 with the release of **Mean Streets** as was Robert De Niro’s. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2024, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artistic-breakthrough-years/1008955/22 "2024-10-23T21:56:47Z")
Snoop Dogg in 2024. That guy seems to be everywhere now. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2024, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artistic-breakthrough-years/1008955/23 "2024-10-23T21:58:56Z")
> [@Author\_Balk](#): > > Beegees and Andy Gibb in 1978. Yes, they are separate artists, but… > Five of the top eight songs were by the two artists. Andy Gibb (the younger brother of the three Bee Gees), sure. The Bee Gees had been extremely successful for years prior to _Saturday Night Fever_ (the soundtrack to which was where those 1977/78 hits of theirs appeared) – prior to that album, the Bee Gees had eight songs reach the top 10 in the U.S. (as well as numerous hits in their native Australia, the UK, etc.) If the Bee Gees had a “breakthrough year,” it was 1967, when they released **six** hit songs. The massive success of _Saturday Night Fever_ absolutely did help to reinvigorate their career, but it also painted them as the poster boys for disco, and when disco music rapidly declined in popularity in 1980, along with their appearance in the absolute bomb movie _Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band_ (1878), it took years for their popularity to rebound. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2024, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artistic-breakthrough-years/1008955/24 "2024-10-23T23:33:46Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > the absolute bomb movie _Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band_ (1878) Truly a film ahead of its time. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2024, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artistic-breakthrough-years/1008955/25 "2024-10-24T00:37:40Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > Truly a film ahead of its time Lordy, nice typo, kenobi! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2024, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artistic-breakthrough-years/1008955/26 "2024-10-24T12:29:16Z")
> [@snowthx](#): > > Snoop Dogg in 2024. That guy seems to be everywhere now. Sorry, the topic of this thread is artistic _breakthrough_ years, not artistic _sellout_ years 😆 ---
**Author:** ![veryfrank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/87869e/32.png) [@veryfrank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/veryfrank)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2024, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artistic-breakthrough-years/1008955/27 "2024-10-24T12:47:45Z")
Some actors with longevity had massive years. Edward Norton’s first three movies came out in 1996: _Primal Fear_, _The People vs. Larry Flynt_ and _Everyone Says I Love You_. All three were critical successes, and he got an Oscar nomination from one of them. It was a pretty notable introductory splash for Hollywood. Jessica Chastain had a few acting credits already, but in 2011 she was in six released movies, including _Coriolanus_, _Take Shelter_, Terence Malick’s _The Tree of Life_ and the big hit and Oscar-winner _The Help_. That one year put her on the map in a big way. ---
**Author:** ![GailForce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/dfb087/32.png) [@GailForce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GailForce)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2024, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artistic-breakthrough-years/1008955/28 "2024-10-24T20:16:12Z")
Dylan 1963 is a good example. He got a rave review from the NY Times in 1961, but that was his break but not any kind of breakthrough, and then he put out his first album but he wrote only two songs on it. In 1963, his Freewheelin’ album was released with many now-classics on it, and he was the talk of the–well, everywhere. I’d like to nominate Somerset Maugham for 1908. He’d written some novels, and some plays before that, but he was basically your standard starving artist, In 1908, he got four plays running simultaneously in London, and became rich and famous. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2024, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artistic-breakthrough-years/1008955/29 "2024-10-24T20:34:13Z")
> [@GailForce](#): > > Dylan 1963 is a good example. He got a rave review from the NY Times in 1961, but that was his break but not any kind of breakthrough, and then he put out his first album but he wrote only two songs on it. In 1963, his Freewheelin’ album was released with many now-classics on it, and he was the talk of the–well, everywhere. All of that, and even before releasing “Freewheelin’”, that year he had had his breakthrough as a songwriter with Peter, Paul and Mary’s hit version of “Blowin’ In The Wind”. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2024, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artistic-breakthrough-years/1008955/30 "2024-10-25T19:56:13Z")
The other Elvis - Costello. He had been around for years, trying and failing, achieving nothing. There’s an industry story that the first item of mail that Stiff records ever received was a Declan McManus demo. Stiff renamed him Elvis, envisioned him as the house songwriter, but he made an album anyway. 1977 was his year. j ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2024, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artistic-breakthrough-years/1008955/31 "2024-10-25T21:09:58Z")
The Elvis Costello post reminded me about Ric Ocasek and Benjamin Orr of The Cars. They first met in the mid-60s, then formed a band in 1968. For the next ten years, they performed as a duo and as part of a few different groups. Finally, after forming The Cars in 1976, they broke through with _The Cars_ in 1978. Ocasek was 34 at the time, which was pretty old to be making such a big debut album. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2024, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artistic-breakthrough-years/1008955/32 "2024-10-25T21:17:35Z")
David Bowie had been knocking around for a while, recorded a bunch pf albums, and even released a hit single (“Space Oddity”) in 1969 - which he completely failed to translate to gigs or album sales. It was only three years later in 1972, when he made _Ziggy Stardust_, that he suddenly catapulted into superstardom. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2024, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artistic-breakthrough-years/1008955/33 "2024-10-25T21:29:56Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > David Bowie had been knocking around for a while, recorded a bunch pf albums, and even released a hit single (“Space Oddity”) in 1969 - which he completely failed to translate to gigs or album sales. In hindsight (I was only three in 1971), it’s a mystery to me that “Hunky Dory” wasn’t his breakthrough, it’s my favorite Bowie album and had a strong single with “Changes”, and several other now classics like “Life On Mars?” and “Oh! You Pretty Things”, but it tanked. I like it better than “Ziggy”. ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2024, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artistic-breakthrough-years/1008955/34 "2024-10-25T22:35:54Z")
Not an artist, but Albert Einstein published four physics papers that vaulted him from obscure Swiss patent clerk to famous scientist, all in 1905, sometimes referred to as his _annus mirabilis_. ---
**Author:** ![GailForce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/dfb087/32.png) [@GailForce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GailForce)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2024, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artistic-breakthrough-years/1008955/35 "2024-10-26T17:22:21Z")
> [@zimaane](#): > > Swiss patent clerk to famous scientist, all in 1905 Well, let’s not get carried away. If we open this discussion up to non-artists, we’ll get flooded fast. I can think of a dozen Presidents, for example, who were close to unknown before beginning their campaign and were the most famous person in the world at the end of it. And virtually every Supreme Court Justice. An artistic breakthrough of that sort is surprisingly rare, I’m finding. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2024, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artistic-breakthrough-years/1008955/36 "2024-10-26T18:34:08Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > In hindsight (I was only three in 1971), it’s a mystery to me that “Hunky Dory” wasn’t his breakthrough, it’s my favorite Bowie album and had a strong single with “Changes”, and several other now classics like “Life On Mars?” and “Oh! You Pretty Things”, but it tanked. I like it better than “Ziggy”. Agree with every word. The only thing I would add is that at the time of its release, Hunky Dory got quite a few very positive reviews, so anyone reading the music press had been put on notice. (Not that I was old enough to be reading NME\* and Melody Maker) > **[Hunky Dory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunky_Dory#Critical_reception)** > > Hunky Dory is the fourth studio album by the English musician David Bowie, released in the United Kingdom on 17 December 1971 through RCA Records. Following a break from touring and recording, Bowie settled down to write new songs, composing on piano rather than guitar as in earlier works. Bowie assembled the guitarist Mick Ronson, the bassist Trevor Bolder, and the drummer Mick Woodmansey, and began to record a new album in mid-1971 at Trident Studios in London. Rick Wakeman contributed pian... j \* - New Musical Express Oh, and PS - Oh! You Pretty Things was a pretty big hit at the time for (of all people) Herman’s Hermits ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2024, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artistic-breakthrough-years/1008955/37 "2024-10-26T18:43:54Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > Oh, and PS - Oh! You Pretty Things was a pretty big hit at the time for (of all people) Herman’s Hermits Really? I had no idea. I’ve always considered Herman’s Hermits the most lightweight and vanilla band of the so-called British invasion, and they had a hit with “Oh! You Pretty Things” of all songs? I didn’t even know they still existed and had hits in 1971. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2024, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artistic-breakthrough-years/1008955/38 "2024-10-26T18:47:29Z")
Oops - my bad. It was former HH frontman Peter Noone. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/xSxv8n5OpzQ/hqdefault.jpg "Peter Noone - Oh You Pretty Things") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSxv8n5OpzQ) j ---
**Author:** ![GailForce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/dfb087/32.png) [@GailForce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GailForce)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2024, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artistic-breakthrough-years/1008955/39 "2024-10-29T15:43:30Z")
OK—here’s what we have so far. Chime in if I’ve left anyone’s pick off the list so far, feel free to chime in to settle years for which we have multiple nominations (who was the more sensational hit, or who had the more successful career), and please nominate a few more years and artists, particularly of the non-musical type. When was Robin Williams’ breakthrough? Meryl Streep’s? John Irving’s? Washington Irving’s? Denzel Washington’s? Bogart’s? Tolstoy’s? Dustin Hoffman’s? Not all will have had sensational breakthroughs but I think many of these did. 1497 Michelangelo 1908 Maugham 1913 Stravinsky 1926 Hemingway 1947 Brando 1948 Mailer 1949 Arthur Miller 1953 Beckett 1956 Elvis 1963 Dylan 1964 The Beatles 1967 Hendrix or Bee Gees 1969 Vonnegut or Led Zeppelin? 1972 Bowie 1973 Scorsese or Pink Floyd? 1975 Spielberg or Springsteen? 1977 Elvis Costello 1978 Andy Gibb or The Cars? 1991 Nirvana 1996 Norton ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2024, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artistic-breakthrough-years/1008955/40 "2024-10-29T16:05:04Z")
> [@snowthx](#): > > Snoop Dogg in 2024. That guy seems to be everywhere now. Ha! My mom and I were just talking about this! She knew who he was before the Olympics but now she sees him everywhere as he is invading the places where old white ladies are, it seems. This actually should be a post in a new thread about resurgences. I do think he had his breakthrough many years before. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artistic-breakthrough-years/1008955.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artistic-breakthrough-years/1008955.md?page=3)