i find myself wishing stars like Christina would just say "fuck it" and ditch the whole circus and go make a terrific record on the cheap somewhere. what are some examples - if any exist - of a star that big doing something like that?
or is it basically impossible because many at that level *need* the "getting producers, getting songs" part of the process to actually create something, and that part of the process costs lots of money?
like, i have no idea if you all are gonna say "nobody's done that" OR "here are 20 good examples"
― alpine static, Tuesday, 9 May 2017 19:46 (six years ago) link
definitely depends how many instruments they can play / if they can be their own producer. like i imagine Lady Gaga could make a solo piano record in a week if she wanted or needed to. amy winehouse could've. britney spears definitely couldn't
― flappy bird, Tuesday, 9 May 2017 19:51 (six years ago) link
I would assume most major artists' contracts preclude them from ditching the whole circus and making a terrific record on the cheap somewhere
― sick, fucking funny, and well tasty (katherine), Tuesday, 9 May 2017 20:21 (six years ago) link
idk that Miley record with the Flaming Lips?
― duped and used by my worst Miss U (President Keyes), Tuesday, 9 May 2017 20:23 (six years ago) link
charli xcx's number 1 angel, maybe
― sick, fucking funny, and well tasty (katherine), Tuesday, 9 May 2017 20:26 (six years ago) link
(if you buy that it was recorded behind the label's back, which I kinda don't)
going back there's Nebraska
Nashville seems to let its stars do low-key vanity albums every once in awhile-- your bluegrass, gospel, Americana-like, instrumental guitar records etc
― duped and used by my worst Miss U (President Keyes), Tuesday, 9 May 2017 20:27 (six years ago) link
Pink kinda did that on her third album - she got together with Tim Armstrong from Rancid and wrote 10 songs in a week, then padded the album out with a couple of Linda Perry leftovers and a song with Peaches. Everyone hates it, but it's my favorite of her albums.
― Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr, and Violent J (誤訳侮辱), Tuesday, 9 May 2017 20:30 (six years ago) link
― sick, fucking funny, and well tasty (katherine), Tuesday, May 9, 2017 4:21 PM (nine minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
well yeah, but what are those contracts like? 3-4 record deal? by the time an artist reaches this theoretical point, they would've presumably already run out their contract.
― flappy bird, Tuesday, 9 May 2017 20:32 (six years ago) link
360 deals, surely
― sick, fucking funny, and well tasty (katherine), Tuesday, 9 May 2017 20:35 (six years ago) link
xxxp alpine static it may not have been done on the cheap but ANTI is the all-time 'Fuck it' album by a pop star ever.
― piscesx, Tuesday, 9 May 2017 20:38 (six years ago) link
in what universe does an album that hones in on the most successful part of its all-over-the-place predecessor ("Pour It Up"), has well-curated features including fucking Drake, and generally hews to sonic trends qualify as a "fuck it" album
― sick, fucking funny, and well tasty (katherine), Tuesday, 9 May 2017 20:40 (six years ago) link
like I know that's the marketing but come on
when did 360 deals become the norm?
― flappy bird, Tuesday, 9 May 2017 20:52 (six years ago) link
that's a great point, i didn't think about that - those deals are insane. touring? merch????
― flappy bird, Tuesday, 9 May 2017 20:53 (six years ago) link
are they 10 year contracts or something
^^ When Ticketmaster became LiveNation.
― to pimp a barfly (Eazy), Tuesday, 9 May 2017 21:07 (six years ago) link
I would assume most major artists' contracts preclude them from ditching the whole circus and making a terrific record on the cheap somewhere― sick, fucking funny, and well tasty (katherine), Tuesday, May 9, 2017 1:21 PM (two hours ago)
― sick, fucking funny, and well tasty (katherine), Tuesday, May 9, 2017 1:21 PM (two hours ago)
indeed, i would assume this, too; as flappy bird said, i meant "when they end a contract / have an opportunity legally" but didn't say it!
fun responses ... i probably should've started a thread
― alpine static, Tuesday, 9 May 2017 22:56 (six years ago) link
I was going to also say that she seemed to be actually aping Gaga, specifically the "Alejandro" video, but I looked it up and the "Not Myself Tonight" clip actually dropped a couple months earlier! Huh.
It was pretty obvious (and intentional I'm sure) that she was aping the "Express Yourself", "Human Nature", "Like A Prayer", and "Freedom 90" videos, but with a 10th of the budget.
Gaga was aping "Express Yourself" and "Vogue" for "Alejandro", hence the similarities.
― LeRooLeRoo, Wednesday, 10 May 2017 00:15 (six years ago) link
360 deals became the norm when album sales fell off a cliff. paramore was one of the first bands to be famous for signing one; u2 and madonna were trumpeted to have signed them with live nation although they didn't fully close because LN was lacking in label infrastructure.
i love this song from LOTUS. it's very similar in feel to charli xcx's semi contemporaneous "superlove"
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TeHR0IrTDcI
there's a dearth of female pop personalities on the radio right now and the struggles gaga and KP have been having are a symptom of that. rihanna is the exception that proves the rule
― maura, Wednesday, 10 May 2017 01:53 (six years ago) link
but this week the only woman in the top 10 is selena gomez, who's on a kygo song. the other women on radio right now all have bland names (mostly mononymic) and sound like they're on the verge of sneezing fits - daya, etc. even halsey was sanded down into the chainsmokers dink's mirror image for her big chart topper. the better to fit into a chainsmokers or louis the child track i guess but it sure makes everything sound boring.
― maura, Wednesday, 10 May 2017 01:56 (six years ago) link
the other women on radio right now all have bland names (mostly mononymic) and sound like they're on the verge of sneezing fits
lolol love U
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 10 May 2017 02:01 (six years ago) link
― attention vampire (MatthewK), Wednesday, 10 May 2017 02:35 (six years ago) link
What is Radiohead's "What a Girl Wants"
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 10 May 2017 02:37 (six years ago) link
yea this only applies to popstars mired in bad contracts and label politics
― flappy bird, Wednesday, 10 May 2017 02:52 (six years ago) link
oh man i hope this thread can become the seedbed for ANOTHER topic where people endlessly propose acts and situations that don't even remotely fit the premise
― ✓ (Doctor Casino), Wednesday, 10 May 2017 03:21 (six years ago) link
(<3 you all but really)
― ✓ (Doctor Casino), Wednesday, 10 May 2017 03:23 (six years ago) link
nelly furtado sort of put out a record like that this year
― ToddBonzalez (BradNelson), Wednesday, 10 May 2017 03:42 (six years ago) link
how important is the cheap part? feel like Frank Ocean did something like this but Blonde cost a couple million iirc
― niels, Wednesday, 10 May 2017 06:13 (six years ago) link
yes, how dare people stray from the laser-focused premise of "super popular and even more popular than the albums that preceded it but there's some sense that the gig is up"
― sick, fucking funny, and well tasty (katherine), Wednesday, 10 May 2017 06:52 (six years ago) link
ok lol but tbf there was a lot of hashing out of nuance from there, and the thread does describe something specific enough that it got really silly when people started trying to submit things like the eighth Boredoms album or whatever. like there's probably a thread where it would be very fun to talk about niche acts and their respective arcs, but submitting them here was like saying "i haven't read anything in the thread and only half the words in the title but how about this one folks?"
― ✓ (Doctor Casino), Wednesday, 10 May 2017 11:27 (six years ago) link
Feel like with all the clowning on Drake nowadays it's increasingly clear Views was a New Jersey
― I got da Midas touch as you fucking were LG x (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 10 May 2017 13:27 (six years ago) link
Somehow skipped this thread for four years... just spent like 3 hours reading the whole thing.
Laughed at this
all rap new jerseys are actually called new jeruz
Some rap New Jeruz that haven't been mentioned I don't think:
Master P - MA da Last Donactually his highest selling album (4 mill) but clearly the end of the line for him. and no memorable songs.
Wyclef - The Ecleftic: 2 Sides II a Booksold quite a bit based off the success of the carnival, had that one song w the rock. 911 still a jam tho.
LL Cool J - 14 Shots to the Dome & GOAT think he had two .
Luda - Release Therapy
DMX - The Great Depression
Ice Cube - War n Peace
― Spottie, Saturday, 13 May 2017 08:26 (six years ago) link
Witness.
― piscesx, Saturday, 10 June 2017 13:51 (six years ago) link
Nelly - Sweat/Suit
― flappy bird, Saturday, 10 June 2017 16:19 (six years ago) link
people keep forgetting this part: where it's still super popular and even more popular than the albums that preceded it but there's some sense that the gig is up.
i.e. witness would not be a New Jersey, but Prism might
― sick, fucking funny, and well tasty (katherine), Saturday, 10 June 2017 21:13 (six years ago) link
Yeah I thought we had already decided that Prism was a NJ
― President Keyes, Sunday, 11 June 2017 00:34 (six years ago) link
surely Bee Gees 'Spirits Having Flown' is one of these? it featured 3 US number 1s, shifted 16 million copies. the follow up Living Eyes sold 750,000.
― piscesx, Sunday, 2 July 2017 19:32 (six years ago) link
Got discussed way back in the early days of the thread iirc! I agree with you.
― ﴿→ ☺ (Doctor Casino), Sunday, 2 July 2017 20:02 (six years ago) link
is boyz ii men's (inappropriately-titled) evolution one of these? opened at number one, spawned a number-one lead single and follow-up top ten hit, but also marked the beginning of their shockingly precipitous decline
― dyl, Wednesday, 9 August 2017 19:41 (six years ago) link
I'd say so.
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 9 August 2017 19:50 (six years ago) link
thought for sure this bump was gonna be about Arcade Fire
― frogbs, Wednesday, 9 August 2017 20:05 (six years ago) link
^^
― niels, Wednesday, 9 August 2017 20:09 (six years ago) link
I think the last one was
― Universal LULU Nation (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 9 August 2017 20:12 (six years ago) link
yup
― niels, Wednesday, 9 August 2017 20:13 (six years ago) link
was this really a "huge event" album that spawned hits? I don't remember hearing a single song from it.
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 9 August 2017 20:14 (six years ago) link
Yeah he'd been gone for awhile at that point and there wasn't a lot of excitement about his comeback. I'd say Lethal Injection was the start of the decline.
― President Keyes, Wednesday, 9 August 2017 20:20 (six years ago) link
Not familiar with "Pushin' Weight", but I am familiar with "You Can Do It" from War & Peace Vol 2.
― MarkoP, Wednesday, 9 August 2017 20:22 (six years ago) link
you can do it was pretty big but yeah maybe yall are right
― Spottie, Wednesday, 9 August 2017 20:26 (six years ago) link
I'm also discovering that You Can Do It became a hit in the UK in 2004, of all times, which seems a little weird.
― MarkoP, Wednesday, 9 August 2017 20:29 (six years ago) link