If anyone really wonders what happened to Baha Men…
Or a number of other one-hit wonders, for that matter.
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I find your perplexity perplexing. There are many bands with plenty of fans that never make it to the charts. For such a band, hitting the charts once doesn’t necessarily change much of the fanbase, once the hype is over: it keeps on rolling as it used to.
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The Kaiser Chiefs are a prime example: Yours Truly, Angry Mob, their follow-up to the record that made them famous, Unemployment, saw a 55 percent decline in sales. Their third sold 75 percent less than their second. The fourth… who cares? Not enough to matter, that’s for sure.
Of course, their fifth album went to number 1 (in the UK). And even the “who cares” album was 10 in the UK, so probably kept the lads in pin money.
This Hollywood Walk of Shame includes the likes of…Psy (Gangnam Style,)
Psy has made the US Billboard chart 3 times since Gangnam Style (Gentelman was #5), so this article is at the very least really sloppy reporting.
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And Philip Jackson played the villain.
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They were also only one hit wonders in the US. They had 3 songs get into the UK top 40, and another 4 in the top 100.
But they would never have had the chance to throw a bucket of ice over John Prescott’s head (deputy prime minister at the time) if it hadn’t done well.
New Labour sold out the dockers
Just like they’ll sell out the rest of us
Chumbawamba - Brit Awards 1998
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What, didn’t you even see this?
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The dude from Ah-Ha just had his Google search alert go off, checked it, and said “Awwwwww man?”
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that’s so awesome
Yes, the binary between chart/non-chart is such a pox on music. Many bands have a great following, and write music that they, and their loyal fans love. That hit they had? That’s also the song all the die hard fans hate, because it brings in noob fans, but also because it usually is a different sound from the rest of the catalogue.
There was a good episode of Planet Money a while back that explored the question of internet musicians, specifically Jonathan Colton. They kept returning to the most idiotic question though “but can this new model create the next Justin Bieber?” The answer should be a respunding “No. For good reason.”
We shouldn’t mourn the lowest-common-denominator, factory-pressed, hits-bought-from-pro-songwriters-for-million$, production-teams-bigger-than-dreamworks style musicians. Especially if a new system can give us a lot of great middle class musicians who play exactly what they and their fans want.
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Literal Videos, FTW.
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If you turn your nose up at this then I am really curious to hear what you have done with your life that’s so great.
Well, I’ve managed not to appear on Dancing with the Stars, that’s gotta count for something.
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We are just going to pay you a small amount for this first one, but don’t worry! You’ll more than make up for it on the next few!
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PSY is another example of the “America is not the world” problem with this concept. The guy was a hit maker in Korea for well over a decade before Gangnam Style.
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Plus everybody should know that they invented the “A-ha” moment, which is when you transcend, just like in the video.
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That is a wonderful song. Thanks for the reminder. As I recall, it was a commentary on the disappointment following all the promises about the space age.
Being a one hit wonder isn’t a bad thing. Most of us will never do even one thing really great.
And many one hit wonders still had decent musical careers.
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I remember a Graun article about the Kaiser Chiefs and sales drop-offs…
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The story behind Tubthumping is one of the best episodes on Surprisingly Awesome.
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They took an incredible amount of heat from their base for “selling out” when in reality it was a calculated move. They wanted to bring their brand of activism to the masses and much of their profits (including commercial royalties) went right back into funding anti-corporate and anarchist causes.
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Did you know they are still together and touring? How crazy is that?
This is obviously an American-centric list as some of the featured artists remained hit makers in other countries - like a-ha.
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