Artists that were successful in one decade but couldnt' find their musical place in the next?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by JohnnyQuest, Oct 29, 2014.

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  1. BradOlson

    BradOlson Country/Christian Music Maven

    Billy Joe Royal did have a brief comeback on the country charts in the late 1980s. It's Hard To Be Humble, Hooked On Music and Texas In My Rear View Mirror were huge country hits in the 1980s for Mac Davis.
     
  2. Mylene

    Mylene Senior Member

    Burt Bacharach. Owned the 60s but after Lost Horizon completely lost his mojo.
     
  3. JohnnyQuest

    JohnnyQuest Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Paradise
    I'm not a fan of anything Post Duke. :tsk: Have you listened to their albums from the Gabriel era?
     
  4. Slokes

    Slokes Cruel But Fair

    Location:
    Greenwich, CT USA
    The Bee Gees actually had this happen to them twice. Barry Gibb talked about it on a VH1 interview I saw around 1998, where he mentioned how big-hit artists of one decade tend to be almost shelved away with the dawn of a new decade. As I remember, though, he was talking about the end of the 1960s, not the 1970s, though it happened at the end of both decades.

    To be fair, the Bee Gees started the 1980s still together, unlike the way they started the 1970s. But it took a long time for them to get hits in the early 1970s and in the early 1980s, and actually a bit longer in the 1970s, where they were out of favor in more markets for a longer time.
     
  5. ShockControl

    ShockControl Bon Vivant and Raconteur!

    Location:
    Lotus Land
    Well, they had a massive comeback in the 70s and released what I consider their best album in that decade. Their records sold and their concerts were well attended. I would say they couldn't find their place in the 1980s. Then again, I would say that most artists could not find their place in the 1980s.
     
  6. heatherly

    heatherly Well-Known Member

    Location:
    USA
    Bryan Adams
     
  7. zen

    zen Senior Member

    Likewise, almost every rock 'n' roller of the 50's.
     
  8. Bobby Morrow

    Bobby Morrow Senior Member

    No. Abacab is as early as I go, and I didn't like that!
     
  9. bob60

    bob60 Forum Resident

    Location:
    London UK
    The 60's girl singers had a very difficult time trying to maintain their pop star status into the 70's.
    Dusty Springfield, Cilla Black, Lulu, Sandie Shaw, almost as soon as the 70's started they were left behind. Glam Rock in the UK was like a clean sweep in pop music, everything else suddenly seemed old and dated to the new young pop fans. Cilla released a few minor hits before the inevitable attempt at going Disco, then concentrated on TV, Lulu scored a big hit thanks to Bowie, but it was a one off, Freemans catalogue beckoned. Dusty released her classic Dusty in Memphis album to poor sales then disappeared in America releasing further flops. Sandie Shaw seemed to disappear as soon as the 70's started.
     
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  10. Bobby Morrow

    Bobby Morrow Senior Member

    Very good examples.
     
  11. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    The Rolling Stones in the 80s.
     
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  12. Bobby Morrow

    Bobby Morrow Senior Member

    Can't argue with that.
     
  13. bob60

    bob60 Forum Resident

    Location:
    London UK
    Abba's decline came about so quickly, they were absolutely massive and then...
    but as Bjorn said, they only ran out of steam right at the very end. I am glad that they never made another album, at least they went out on a high, well except for the last two singles.
     
  14. Mr Sam

    Mr Sam "...don't look so good no more"

    Location:
    France
    by the 60's nobody would be caring about the Velvet Underground anymore - when you think about how brilliant and influential they'd been until then (70's, 80's, 90's, 00's ....)
     
  15. Tristero

    Tristero In possession of the future tense

    Location:
    MI
    It's a very tricky question with the Beach Boys. They went into a commercial decline with Smiley Smile, though they did occasionally score hits in the late 60s. But many fans, myself included, really love their late 60s and early 70s output on a creative level. Just as they were starting to gain traction again with albums like Surf's Up and Holland (including the "Sail on Sailor" single) and as a touring unit, they released the Endless Summer comp, which was obviously huge. Unfortunately, this signaled the beginning of their more nostalgic phase and to a large extent, they stopped growing artistically, IMO.
     
  16. Tristero

    Tristero In possession of the future tense

    Location:
    MI
    Agreed. Popular music is a notoriously trendy business. Sometimes the artists that are most heavily identified with a particular cultural zeitgeist then have trouble reinventing themselves for a different era with a different sensibility. It's much more rare to find major artists who are able to continually adapt with the times.
     
  17. radiophonic

    radiophonic Forum Resident

    Location:
    Nottingham, UK
    Both Bowie and Genesis copped a lot of flack from their core fan bases during the 80s, but boy did they sell a shed load of albums to everyone else! Genesis (and especially Phil Collins) were just ubiquitous for about 15 years, from the early 80s onwards. I can't stand anything post-Duke, but I'm clearly in a minority. It's nothing to do with fashion or the zeitgeist either. Genesis were never cool in the first place and I was way too young to have been into them before they became huge. Bowie OTOH deliberately hired Nile Rogers to given him hit singles. It worked.
     
  18. Helmut

    Helmut Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Germany
    I can't follow this 60s/70s/80s - decade way of seeing the world. I don't think that on the 1 January 1970 every musician said " Now we start from point zero again."

    Most sucessful bands have three "fat" years. It's only a very exclusive group of artists who have a longer run. And those creative highs have nothing to do with the decade, that's just numbers on the calender. Led Zeppelin had their "fat years" from 1968 till 1973. The Who having started a lot earlier had their best run in the same time. Same can be said about the Rolling Stones. Does that mean, they managed two decades while for example the Beach Boys had their five fat years placed in the 60s?
     
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  19. ShockControl

    ShockControl Bon Vivant and Raconteur!

    Location:
    Lotus Land
    These are largely valid points. But the way the topic is phrased - artists who "couldn't find their musical place in the next (decade)" - to me indicates that the Beach did have a musical place in the 1970s, if for no other reason than the fact that Endless Summer was huge and they were a major touring act. (Prior to this, they released four of five solid albums in the 1970s.) So they had a place in the 70s, even if it was not what their longtime fans may have wished. And in the post-Endless Summer period, they released The Beach Boys Love You, which many consider to be one of their greatest albums ever (myself included). So given this, I think the Beach Boys were commercially and artistically very relevant in the 1970s.

    It is ironic that in the 1980s, which was truly the first across-the-board throwback decade in the U.S., the Beach Boys were certainly struggling to find a place.
     
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  20. Pizza

    Pizza With extra pepperoni

    Location:
    USA
    And yet I would love them to do one more album. It would be really interesting what they would do now after all these years.
     
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  21. Wombat Reynolds

    Wombat Reynolds Jimmy Page stole all my best riffs.

    Location:
    Atlanta, GA, USA

    hopefully there will never be a reunion. I prefer to to remember them as they were, at their peak.
     
  22. Bobby Morrow

    Bobby Morrow Senior Member

    Me too. Though from her album last year we know Agnetha can still sing beautifully!
     
  23. Wombat Reynolds

    Wombat Reynolds Jimmy Page stole all my best riffs.

    Location:
    Atlanta, GA, USA
    I didnt like that one very much, altho she does still have a beautiful voice.
     
  24. Bobby Morrow

    Bobby Morrow Senior Member

    Oh, I really enjoyed that album. Her voice has barely changed from her hey day.
     
  25. Kill Uncle Meat

    Kill Uncle Meat Forum Resident

    Billy Corgan (The Smashing Pumpkins) was on top of the world during the 90s and then the 00s turned out to be not so kind with him. He sounds tired and uninspired nowadays, quite confused by these times.

    [​IMG]
     
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