# Artists who derailed their careers with radically different followups. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 28, 2007, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-derailed-their-careers-with-radically-different-followups/409797 "2007-06-28T17:52:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**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:** [June 29, 2007, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-derailed-their-careers-with-radically-different-followups/409797/41 "2007-06-29T17:51:56Z")
[QUOTE=Swallowed My Cellphone] So… anyone got any opinions on the weirdness of the “Chris Gaines” album by Garth Brooks? I thought that was an interesting experiment at the time. He did a huge departure from his usual line of work, but did it as an alter-ego “the mysterious and brooding Australian pop-singer Chris Gaines” who walked around barefoot in his videos dressed like Mike Meyers as Dieter (“Touch my monkey.”) I was expecting it to totally derail his career. It certainly left his fans scratching their heads, but he seems to be relatively unscathed. [/QUOTE] Are you sure about that because what’s he done since then? For all his huge success during the 90’s, Brooks is virtually MIA during this decade. ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2007, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-derailed-their-careers-with-radically-different-followups/409797/42 "2007-06-29T18:21:18Z")
> [@](#): > > Didn’t their lead singer come down with some medical condition that made it impossible for him to sing? Not sure where that falls on their career timeline, but if it’s close enough to the release of their second album, it makes it questionable wether that album was the cause of their disappearance from the pop culture stage. No, that was later, and it really only kept him down for a couple of years. There was also a lot of drama between him and the band’s guitarist, who quit right after that second album. They just weren’t the same band without him, and their next few discs just didn’t excite anybody. Their albums after _Pocket Full of Kryptonite_ weren’t big stylistic departures; they just weren’t that good. In their heyday, they were a far better band than their one-album wonder status would imply, especially live. I know the original lineup has toured quite a bit in the last several years; I don’t know if they still have it. > [@](#): > > The Flaming Lips had a huge commercial hit w/ the song “She Don’t Use Jelly” and were even featured at The Peach Pit on 90210. They followed that up w/ another well recieved album, but as a bit of a backlash to their sudden mainstream success (and some other issues plaguing the band), they put out Zaireeka, which was a 4 CD album which was intended to have all 4 discs played at the same time from different stereos. I think that effectively closed the door on that achieved success. If anything, _Zaireeka_ was exactly the sort of thing the Lips were known for, and “She Don’t Use Jelly” was the outlier. It was a few years before they’d finally bring weirdness and pop together into the twin gems of _The Soft Bulletin_ and _Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots_. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2007, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-derailed-their-careers-with-radically-different-followups/409797/43 "2007-06-29T18:30:55Z")
[QUOTE=Cerowyn] _The Dreaming_ reached #3 on the British charts, and peaked at #153 in the U.S. (Billboard says #153, Wikipedia quotes #157 from its cite). [/QUOTE] True, but you have to understand the context. It went to #3 in England because it was a KATE BUSH record. She was one of the most famous people in the UK. The album before that had gone to #1. Everyone interested immediately went out and bought it, then they got it home and realized that it was going to take several listens before it would even begin to make sense. Most people weren’t up to that, the reviews were horrific, word spread and it dropped out of the charts very quickly. In America, she’d been mostly ignored (as I said, albums #2 & #3 weren’t even released here) but that album got attention from the ecstatic reviews in the indie/underground press, so people who kept their eyes/ears on such things went out and bought it, which put it in the charts. That _ **The Dreaming** _ actually charted in the US is one of the most amazing stories in recording history. ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2007, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-derailed-their-careers-with-radically-different-followups/409797/44 "2007-06-29T18:34:14Z")
Just as an aside, In the US, a record could peak at #3 in a given week and only have 10-20,000 units sold. It’s very possible for a record to peak that high and not even come close to going gold. Whereas you can sell a million and never make top 20. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2007, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-derailed-their-careers-with-radically-different-followups/409797/45 "2007-06-29T18:52:17Z")
[QUOTE=NDP] Are you sure about that because what’s he done since then? For all his huge success during the 90’s, Brooks is virtually MIA during this decade. [/QUOTE] I may be totally mistaken because I’m not a country fan, but I thought the reason he isn’t doing much these days is because when he and his wife announced they were starting divorce proceedings in 2000 he also took the opportunity to announce his retirement from recording and performing. His final album which was post-Gaines reached #1 on both pop and country charts and selling over 5 _million_ copies, even though he was never as monumentally HUGE as he was in th 90s, 5 _million_ couldn’t be considered a career derailment. Huh, interesting. I just went to [GarthBrooks.com](http://GarthBrooks.com) and they don’t list that creepy Gaines album in his discography. ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2007, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-derailed-their-careers-with-radically-different-followups/409797/46 "2007-06-29T19:09:16Z")
Per Wikipedia, although semi-retired due to the family thing, he has an exclusive deal with Wal-Mart and periodically releases material through them that does pretty solid sales. Who knew? ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2007, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-derailed-their-careers-with-radically-different-followups/409797/47 "2007-06-29T19:12:00Z")
If I had his great gobs of money, I’d retire too. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2007, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-derailed-their-careers-with-radically-different-followups/409797/48 "2007-06-29T20:40:10Z")
Two guys that come to mind are \*\*Beck \*\* and **The The** , they seem to keep selling records, so maybe they didn’t derail at all. ---
**Author:** ![Renob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8c91f0/32.png) [@Renob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renob)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2007, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-derailed-their-careers-with-radically-different-followups/409797/49 "2007-06-29T20:55:56Z")
[QUOTE=Swallowed My Cellphone] It was when she moved to Capitol Recrods and teamed up with The Matrix post-2000 that the true vaccuum of utter suckage began. [/QUOTE] Have to disagree. I like every album Liz Phair has put out. _Somebody’s Miracle_ certainly sounds much different than _Exile_, but that doesn’t mean it’s “utter suckage.” Phair has always been an artist who takes her art seriously (too seriously, I think, based on some of her comments I’ve heard) and writes personal songs. As she changes, her songs change. I chalk up the backlash to Liz Phair’s latest work on her original fans who want her to sound exactly like she did in the mid-90s and are disappointed that she’s evolving as a songwriter. Her current stuff is certainly different music than she used to write, and maybe it doesn’t appeal to the people who bought _Exile_ (myself excluded), but it’s still good music (much better than most of the crap being sold nowadays). ---
**Author:** ![interface2x](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2007, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-derailed-their-careers-with-radically-different-followups/409797/50 "2007-06-29T22:47:16Z")
[QUOTE=OneCentStamp] Thanks for setting me straight. I missed _Twitch_ the first time around, and I still forget about it. In my case, I went from hearing the “Cold Life/Everyday is Halloween” single (was that 1983 or so?) to hearing _The Land of Rape and Honey_ a few years later, and was obviously shocked - all of the sudden they sounded like Foetus or Cabaret Voltaire, but with a slick, metal edge. I _loved_ that album. [/QUOTE] Yeah, “Land” is still their best album by a mile. ---
**Author:** ![TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/51bf81/32.png) [@TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2007, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-derailed-their-careers-with-radically-different-followups/409797/51 "2007-06-29T23:09:07Z")
[QUOTE=TonyF] I’d say Smashing Pumpkins, following Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness with Adore. It didn’t derail their career, but the shift to synth (especially on drums-replacing Jimmy Chamberlain with a drum machine?) was off-putting. It signaled a change in direction that, coupled with the ensuing lack of success, probably killed the band. (I’m curious to see how the “reunion” will work…) [/QUOTE] If anything, _Adore_ was a return to the band’s roots; they started out as a very New Wavey, Cure-influenced three-piece playing along to a drum machine. The only real failure of the record was that the band’s casual fans - those who liked the singles enough to buy the records but weren’t really in the inner circle - were terrified of anything that wasn’t guitar/bass/drums and jumped ship, allowing the record to only go platinum instead of triple platinum. ---
**Author:** ![TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/51bf81/32.png) [@TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2007, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-derailed-their-careers-with-radically-different-followups/409797/52 "2007-06-29T23:12:45Z")
Also, just to nitpick even further, there are only two songs on _Adore_ that are based around drum machine beats; the rest is live drumming or looped live drumming by session drummers. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2007, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-derailed-their-careers-with-radically-different-followups/409797/53 "2007-06-30T05:22:55Z")
[QUOTE=Biffy the Elephant Shrew] Though Lou Reed never actually derailed his career, it wasn’t for lack of trying. He followed up his two most commercially successful LPs, _Transformer_ and _Sally Can’t Dance_, with the starkly depressing _Berlin_ and the unlistenable\* _Metal Machine Music_, respectively. \*Well, I love it, but I’m weird. [/QUOTE] Well, _Metal Machine Music_ was Reed’s “fuck you” to his record label. He wanted out of his contract, but the only way he could do it was by releasing either two more albums or one double album. Rather than giving the label something decent to work with, he took some power tools and went into the studio. 🆒 Iggy Pop’s _Blah, Blah, Blah_ was a departure from his previous work and was really a bit of a one album diversion. However, it _did_ raise his profile to a significant degree. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-derailed-their-careers-with-radically-different-followups/409797.md?page=2)