Reading reviews of 21st Century Breakdown, I realized that I was still pretty amazed that Green Day managed to shift 15 million copies of Dookie and it got me to thinking how they seemed to be very much a case of a band in the right place at the right time. I mean, while the hooks got sharper and the production certainly didn't hurt things, the band really didn't drastically retool their approach for a mainstream audience. They just seemed to luck into riding the wave of pop-punk love at the time. What other bands do you think benefited from riding some sort of zeitgeist or changing of the guard without radically altering their sound in order to do so? Given the example, I'm leaning towards bands that kicked around for a bit before taking off without a radical shift in direction. To provide a counterpoint, I'd say the Black Eyed Peas are pretty much the antithesis of what I'm talking about.
(I'm guessing something similar to this has been discussed somewhere in the hallowed annals of ILM history, but a few quick searches wasn't turning this up exactly.)
― homage is parody gone sour (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Wednesday, 20 May 2009 13:23 (sixteen years ago)
A bunch of old blues dudes circa the revival of interest in early folk/blues music in the 1960s, like Mississippi John Hurt.
― congratulations (n/a), Wednesday, 20 May 2009 13:29 (sixteen years ago)
and the Hives and the White Stripes and a lot of the grunge bands (Melvins, Soundgarden, etc)
― congratulations (n/a), Wednesday, 20 May 2009 13:37 (sixteen years ago)
Green Day had been plugging this seam for years, and were lucky only in the sense that they were still young enough to be taken for fresh.
Didn't Billie Joe Armstrong make his first single when he was eight, or something?
― Mark G, Wednesday, 20 May 2009 13:38 (sixteen years ago)
Ocean Colour Scene around 1996 or thereabouts, arguably. Probably a few other plod-rock bands as well who managed to get carried along in Oasis's slipstream, but they seem the most obvious.
― Enormous Epic (Matt DC), Wednesday, 20 May 2009 13:44 (sixteen years ago)
― congratulations (n/a), Wednesday, May 20, 2009 1:29 PM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark
hmm, dunno about "in the right place"... if tom hoskins hadn't tracked hurt down at his home he'd never have been heard of again...
― like i read your blog (braveclub), Wednesday, 20 May 2009 13:49 (sixteen years ago)
I was interpreting "place" in a less literal sense.
― congratulations (n/a), Wednesday, 20 May 2009 13:51 (sixteen years ago)
i would say ani difranco (who had been around for several years and then got a huge following in the alternative/lilith boom) but she definitely did change up her sound.
― elliot easton ellis (get bent), Wednesday, 20 May 2009 13:53 (sixteen years ago)
(xxxpost) as an immediate prequel to that period, foppish bands following in the wake of Suede.
― snoball, Wednesday, 20 May 2009 13:54 (sixteen years ago)
Then he was in the right place at the right time! (ie. in his house when Hoskins came calling)
xxxpost
― I wish he hadn't adapted my critique of his "ilxor" moniker (Myonga Vön Bontee), Wednesday, 20 May 2009 13:56 (sixteen years ago)
Animal Collective and Black Dice seem to have lucked into the noise-rock zeitgeist somewhat.
― anagram, Wednesday, 20 May 2009 13:57 (sixteen years ago)
http://www.dog.com/Breeds/images/AllBreeds/174.jpg
― no love deb weep (nakhchivan), Saturday, 14 February 2015 01:33 (ten years ago)
WHAT A SUBLIME REVIVE!!!
― Mistah FAAB (sarahell), Saturday, 14 February 2015 01:40 (ten years ago)
Nirvana (gulf war, stagnant pop culture, shit rock radio, mtv)
Beatles for obvious reasons
― Pentenema Karten, Saturday, 14 February 2015 07:31 (ten years ago)