He/She/They: Changed musical styles or became too political or changed lead singers, or…
For me, I liked Bryan Adams until he started doing light pop (Some examples “Everything I do”, “Please forgive me” and “Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman”). I don’t know if he just did it to have some hits, or what, but after that, his popularity faded, at least here in the USA, so I guess I’m not the only one who didn’t like the new musical direction he was heading into.
I liked The Bee Gees until Barry discovered his falsetto voice and they went from doing pop ballads to slick, white-person disco.
I liked AC/DC until they lost Bon Scott, and Van Halen until they lost Dave.
I liked Paul McCartney until he lost “the gift” and continued to make records anyway (I place this in around 1990).
I liked Kate Bush until “The Red Shoes”, which I couldn’t get into at all. As the story apparently goes, she turned into such a perfectionist that she couldn’t finish any recordings anymore, constantly retooling them until it cost her her recording contract. Now, she hasn’t made a record in so long that the hugely anticipated next one couldn’t possibly live up to expectations.
I liked Phish until I saw them live in concert, in the fall of 1996. I was a huge fan of their studio albums, even though I knew their real reputation came from being a strong live band. When I finally saw them, they trudged out, played a long but sloppy set, and NEVER ADDRESSED THE CROWD. No “Hello, Gainesville!” (because the show was in Gainesville), no “Thank you!”, no introduction of songs or band members, no witty inter-song banter. Now I’m not sure if Phish ever does that, but I found it off-putting, and it took away from my enjoyment of them ever since. I’m a musician, and every show I’ve ever played in every band, the least we could do is thank the people for giving enough of a shit about us to be there.
And yes, I know that being into drugs is a big part of the Phish “scene,” so maybe they were just stoned, but I just think it’s a dick move to not even recognize the audience. I personally don’t do drugs or like them, and I am big on personal hygiene, so I didn’t care for Phish’s stereotypical hippie fans either. But that’s a different rant.
I liked Wilco until the second time I saw them live. They played for a little over an hour and left the stage as if the show was over. Of course the audience stuck around hoping for an encore. They were off stage for at least half an hour. Then one of the roadies/technicians came out and encouraged the audience to beg harder and after another 15 minutes they finally came back out…and played for another hour. So it wasn’t an encore we were forced to beg for but the second half of the show. I lost all respect.
I liked Metallica until they started putting out shitty albums, and afterwards the the Napster stink they made.
Guns & Roses until they self-destructed on Axl Roses assholery
KI$$, for obvious reasons
The Genesis of the seventies were amongst the best bands ever - but started to decline from “And then there were three” onward. Their eighties and nineties albums are crap (IMHO of course) with only an occasional glimpse of mastery (the single Land of Confusion).
I can’t think of too many cases where I suddenly change my mind about a group, but one thing I’ve noticed is as time goes by, most performers have longer gaps between albums. I might like a group or singer to some degree, but if they take several years to follow up an album I’ve either lost interest or changed my taste.
Don Henley fits that category. In the 1980’s I was a big fan, but I didn’t have any interest at all in his latest album because I pretty long ago figured he had given up his solo career in favor living off Eagles nostalgia, and lost all interest.
I liked Sting when he was with The Police, and then for a short time after, but then he went downhill fast and never came back up.
I liked Paul Weller a lot when he was with The Jam, then when he quit them and formed the ::shudder:: Style Council, I just wanted to shoot him. On hindsight, though, I realize that if he’d kept the Jam together, their next album might have been that Style Council fluff, tainting their excellent string of albums.
[spinal tap] Hello…Gainesville. When we played in…Tampa, we thought they knew how to rock, but here in…Gainsville, you really know how to rock![/spinal tap]
My Swedish SIL followed the early careers of Agnetha Faltskog, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lynstad religiously. She had all their individual LPS.
When they became ABBA, she declared them “junk.”
I thought Jewel was ok until her teen pop album.
I thought Kiss were okay… Until Paul Stanley, in an interview, admitted that the Alive album used overdubs. He claimed it was “Anything but dishonest”, because it was trying to capture the “Integrity of the performance.” What a load of crap. The album that made them famous is a fraud.
I liked Stone Temple Pilots until somewhere after their second album, when they dropped the heavy rock sound in return for poor, bland songwriting.
I liked Pearl Jam until after their first album, where nothing afterwards sounds different, just worse, than their first album.
I liked Nirvana when they weren’t Nirvana, which was their first album. To continue in that vein I had to switch to Foo Fighters.
I liked Metallica until Cliff died, proving he was the real talent behind the group.
I too liked Van Halen until Dave left.
Elvis Costello had my money in his pocket for a long time. I’d buy his new albums before I’d buy food. I even liked the one with the Brodsky Quartet.
But…I mean…aw, c’mon now! Burt Bacharach?
Same here, I quit listening to him after The Dream Of The Blue Turtles. I also second the Van Halen - Dave leaving post. I really liked Pearl Jam until Vitalogy, and can’t think of anything negative, I just burned out on them. I also loved The Offspring’s Smash and have gone through two bouts of listening it into the ground, but haven’t liked much of their stuff since. I would go so far as say I loathed some of their stuff after that.
i lovvvvvved REM until they kind of… fizzled out, or went blah…oh, i don’t know, around the time of ‘monster’. i didn’t suddenly hate them or anything, still think they’re all right, but somehow that blazing, delicate, country-fried energy was gone somewhere in the early 90’s…
i used to buy every REM cassette (remember those??) multiple times because i would play them in my car stereo until the tape literally died from overuse.
my apologies, any REM members who may be Dopers. no offense intended.
hi, devilsknew!
I liked 10,000 Maniacs until Natalie Merchant decided she wanted to Save The World. I once read a review of the album that marked their decline (name escapes me) which called it “the perfect soundtrack for PC living on college campuses” or something like that … says it all really.
Their earlier recordings were so good. Damn shame.
King Crimson until Bill Bruford and Tony Levin left and the “double trio” became the “double duo” line-up, around the *ConstruKction Of Light" album. Every song became a pre-fab, heard it all before, version of one of three types of song:
Another one of Fripp’s Soundscapes time fillers.
A quiet moment of Adrian Belew sounding sensitive as he plucks notes.
One more “Larks Tongue In Aspic” style jam with the multiple tempo changes, dramatic pauses followed by predictable full frontal assault “pushes”.
Peter Gabriel until the long wait for Up. I know he was busy with guest work, side projects in multimedia, the 2000 London millenium planning, trying to change his look into some kind of New Age guru, etc. But the album was pushed back so long that it sounded dated when it finally came out (kind of like Donald Fagan’s Kamakiriad album). It sounded stuck in 1994 and like it was meant to be Us Part II.
The White Stripes until I bought Elephant. They had been a fun radio band for me until then, afterward the rocking songs are still fun but the album got old quick. And those last four or five songs are so embarassing they remind me why some folks have lots of unreleased tracks in the vault, especially the self-aware “cute” songs with Meg “singing” - total mood destroyers.
Miles Davis until his 1980s comeback. Smooth jazz versions of “Human Nature”? Kind of the warning shot of why jazz musicians,IMO, should avoid covering contemporary pop songs from the rock and rap eras, too much musicianship for too straighforward of songs that are rhythm and lyrics driven now. That Doo-Bop album showed some potential, but we’ll never know.
ggurl, I totally agree. REM was my favorite band for many years. I liked every single song they put out… until “Everybody Hurts”. What a piece of smarmy tripe that was. And then they came out with “Monster”… yuck. Everything since then has been awful. I dislike their new stuff so much that it’s soured me on the old albums that I used to love. I never thought that Bill Berry (the drummer) had that much of an influence over the music… but it seems that the time he started losing interest is when they began to falter, and since he left, they’ve been awful. Apparently the vast majority of what I liked about REM came from Berry. Whoda thunk?