Audiences Betrayed

What are those epochal moments when evolving artists departed, leaving the purists behind feeling betrayed?

Most notably; Bob Dylan plugs in. Or anecdotally, when Green Day signed to Reprise, leaving the Gilman Street Community feeling disgraced. Or say, when Keith Haring opened the Pop Shop, forsaking the ideals of the street art movement.

By "evolving" I mean to imply artists whose best work is not necessarily behind them. Thanks!

David Bowie?

Neil Young's entire '80s output (until Freedom).

Metallica, and justice for all

Royal Academy exhibition of Charles Saatchi's YBA collection in 1997 suddenly leads to them winning Turner Prizes and ultimately becoming elected members of the RA.

Kazuo Ishiguro - The Unconsoled

What the hell, forks?

That doesn't even make sense as a joke answer.

boo, forks has betrayed his audience

*throws chair at the screen*

always thought it was the Black Album that was considered the big betrayal.

What about Celtic Frost's 'Cold Lake'?

Matisyahu shaving his beard

Betrayal of early Metallica fans that dug bass playing (i.e. most of them)

http://www.spirit-of-metal.com/les%20goupes/A/Anal%20Cunt/Picnic%20of%20Love/Picnic%20of%20Love.jpg

what cracks me up about POL is reading comments from AC fans who took it as a serious statement and were up in arms about how their favourite band had gone 'gay'.

bob dylan does a superbowl ad for chrysler

i can see this is going to be a hard sell but for those of us who were alive when And Justice for All Came Out, it was the moment that the band was deemed to have gone "mainstream": the sound was proggier and more antiseptic, they started doing arena tours and they had a single on MTV. plus, of course, burton was gone.

I agree, I remember the Metallica sell-out claims at that point (see also huge stage show with props). Which made what happened with the Black Album even funnier.

Nicki Minaj with Starships. i.e.: that whole rosenberg/hot 97 scandal

Taylor Swift going "full pop" on 1989.

Jon Bon Jovi making proper country songs in like 2005

Wrestlemania like every other year? Royal Rumble this year, which was such an immediate audience betrayal you could see the panicked confusion on the face on the Rock who was paid a lordly sum just to come back and give a defensive shine to the show?

Bob Mould's Modulate album

that's crazy, AJFA still sounds like the least mainstream Metallica album. like they had to prove once and for all that they could out-write and out-play everybody else on a technical level, and after that the only thing left was to simplify.

not to be a dick, but were you alive when that album was released?

paul westerberg "my heart could use some glasses" era

liz phair - everything after whip smart?

haha, i'm not saying you're wrong, it's just weird to think about. i was 6 (and five or six years away from hearing Metallica).

Great call on Liz Phair, although I'd wager most fans stuck with her through whitechocolatespaceegg (which, while lesser than her previous efforts, is not a bad album).

Weezer should've stayed dead.

taylor swift caught about 1/11th of the heat that liz phair caught for going pop
i read some old threads one day and it almost gave me a panic attack

you're right about whitechocolatespaceegg though
i forgot about that one

Taylor Swift going "full pop" on 1989.

Did the two previous albums appeal to purists?
2xpost

heh, no shots fired jordan. and yes, in retrospect and considering what they've done since, AJfA sounds much less anti-metallica than it did at the time

REM signs with Warner Brothers.

The Who carrying on without Keith Moon (arguable)

Whatever the fuck the Flaming Lips are doing now.

That, and the Schlitz beer sponsorship of their 1982 tour (despite proudly proclaiming their sellout status in 1967). The irony was painful: Keith Moon essentially died from alcoholism, and Townshend was a recovering alcoholic.

xp

Kazuo Ishiguro - The Unconsoled

― 2-chords, a farfisa organ and peons to the lord (contenderizer), Tuesday, 24 March 2015 08:56 (8 hours ago) Permalink

this is his only good book though

AJFA still sounds like the least mainstream Metallica album. like they had to prove once and for all that they could out-write and out-play everybody else on a technical level, and after that the only thing left was to simplify.

The bass player certainly didn't out-play anyone on this album.

sure he did, you just can't hear him.

killing ask chaki

why dis on ILE

We've Got A Fuzzbox and We're Gonna Use It becoming Fuzzbox, signing to WEA and releasing 'Big Bang!'.

lol when "And Justice For All" Came out I don't remember any huge fan backlash, just some grumbling that it wasn't as good as earlier stuff

And they were doing stadiums before AJFA, just as an opening act

Albert Ayler's New Grass