Bands You Stopped Following

Springsteen (after Human Touch period); R.E.M. (post-Bill Berry departure); Hall & Oates

 

The Beatles. They haven't done anything worthwhile since Abbey Road.

 

Blackmore's Night (for the most part).

 

HA HA for me they peaked EARLY with WAR, although I bet I'm in the minority on that one. Sunday Bloody Sunday and New Years Day are about all I ever need to hear from U2. I was 15 at the time and both videos enjoyed frequent rotation on MTV. Aside from a few other songs like Pride (In the Name of Love) and I will Follow I never really got into U2, or Bruce Springsteen, or Tom Petty, and several other bands that it seems everyone knew inside and out.

 

Prince - avidly purchased almost everything he did in the 80's, but once he got to Graffiti Bridge, I got off the bus

Michael Jackson - he lost me with all that "We Are the World" pretentiousness, and started looking (and acting) decidedly weird around the end of '86 with his childish "Captain EO" nonsense followed by excessive crotch grabbing, but ultimately the music just became too mechanical, cloying, and hiccupy for me to stomach

Van Halen - once Diamond Dave left, I did too, but might not have had the music remained more rocking as it had been on the early albums (Black Sabbath, by contrast, became both a commercially renewed and artistically viable entity again with their change of lead singer, but that didn't last too long); unfortunately, it appears the band mostly chose to build on the generic pop success of 1984 rather than the more expansive heaviness of Fair Warning, though I can't say I blame them as they certainly did experience greater resulting sales volumes

Duran Duran - I've said in other threads that I think MTV killed this band after ridiculously building them up (Michael Jackson suffered similarly), and agree with Say It Right's comments regarding the strength of those first two albums, to which I would add Arcadia's So Red the Rose as a fine spin-off effort, plus a handful of singles after that

 

Flaming Lips. At War With The Mystics was where I jumped off, a few good songs on that one but a decline after The Soft Bulletin & Yoshimi. Every release since has been, well, experimental stuff. I like good songs.

 

Oh dear, you took my post seriously. If I really wanted to be cool, or edgy I very much doubt I'd be bothering with this thread, which let's face it, is just another excuse to feel negative about music we used to like. Can't a man be smug now and again?
I also reserve the right to interpret any post on this forum to serve my own narrow and blinkered agenda. Just like everybody else...

 

I hear you about the hippie culture, but listening to the Dead in your own domicile should take you away from that, no? I also get the concept that it isn't something that's always on your preferred list. Out of curiosity, what's your preference in terms of years/styles? The GOGD wasn't a single band, they were more like 6-7 different bands. Maybe focusing on certain years would help to channel your listening.

 

Yeah, for me, they really went off the cliff after Mystics, which was still decent but a disappointment. I found Embryonic to be largely unlistenable and not just because of the ear bleeding, compressed-at-to-hell mastering. I'm someone who is generally open to a more improvisational approach, but somehow with the Flaming Lips, it comes across as self indulgent weirdness for its own sake and many of their projects since then have reeked of gimmickry.

 

The Police - First two albums only.
Pearl Jam - First two albums only.
Oasis - First three albums.
Dire Straits - First three albums.
Roxy Music - First two albums.

These were the first ones to pop in my mind.

 

I agree with you on the Bruce Springsteen and U2 part. A best of of Tom Petty turned out to be quite accessible to my ears. It has become one of my favourite car-music-compilations. (Don't ask me anything other about Tom Petty, I don't know his work, just that compilation.)

 

I've never conscientiously stopped buying albums from any artist/band. It just kinda happened as there was other stuff out there that I preferred. I've gone back years later to fill in some holes, but never to the point of completing their entire discography (with a few exceptions).

 

Radiohead, up to In Rainbows.
Bob Dylan, up to Modern Times.
Patti Smith, up to Twelve.
Leonard Cohen, up to Old Ideas.
R.E.M., up to Accelerate.

 

I think that would be pretty much everyone. There's not many artists I'm interested in from beginning to end. Even the Stones kind of lost me with A Bigger Bang, but I still follow them. Other than that most bands are only good for a few albums. I like The Black Keys a lot, but the last album wasn't my thing at all. I thought Kings of Leon were great through 2 1/2 albums, and I saw them in a small room when they were supporting U2. Everything that has come since sounds influenced by U2, and I just can't stand them. I think that's normal, though. I liked The James Gang and Joe Walsh but after awhile Joe seemed more of a novelty act to me.

I think that's natural. What initially attracts me to something is often what the band moves away from. Fortunately The Dexateens, Lucero and Lydia Loveless haven't got to that point for me yet, so I have some things that I can REALLY look forward to yet.

 

U2
The Police
Yes
The Who
Fleetwood Mac
Rolling Stones
The Cure
R.E.M.

 

These all reflect real-time disappointments. They all were artists I followed and bought catalogs of until they lost me, not retroactive reassessments.

U2 lost me forever with Zooropa. I had been a believer before that, but now I wonder how I ever fell for them.
Blondie thoroughly disgusted me with its dilettante-ish pandering on Autoamerican, which I should have seen coming, but I was a naive teenager then.
I kinda stopped seeing the point of the Replacements when Bob Stinson left after Tim. They didn't start sucking like the first two, but they felt like solo albums.
I am embarrassed to admit that I didn't give up on Jefferson Starship until Nuclear Furniture, but again, I was a stupid teenager at the time.
The Rolling Stones lost me at the Bridges to Babylon, but truth be told, Dirty Work was the last one I bought.
My fleeting admiration for Beck ended with Sea Change.
Pipes of Peace cured me of not just McCartney but a whole Beatles fixation, and thank God. I'd hate to go through life with something like that.
I was po'd when Blue Oyster Cult followed up Fire of Unknown Origin with a live double, and irate when The Revolution By Night was the next studio album.
Sorry, but I just can't separate Black Sabbath from Ozzy. The Dio ones are okay but a different experience, Gillan's is a curiously likable monstrosity, and adios.
Never a Journey fan, I nonetheless welcomed their radio hits until Frontiers crystallized what made the band awful.
I tried hard to stick by REM, in whom I was emotionally invested, but Monster was the last straw.
Spiritualized and I parted ways with Let It Come Down.
The Dandy Warhols made me barf with "We Used to Be Friends" and Welcome to the Monkey House. Anton was right all along about them.
Someone gave me You're Under Arrest by Miles Davis for Xmas the year it came out. I've used that as my cut-off ever since.
As soon as Kelli Ali was out of Sneaker Pimps, I was gone.
10,000 Maniacs embarrassed me in front of my friends with the unlistenable Blind Man's Zoo, which also happened to be their commercial breakthrough.
When I heard A Momentary Lapse of Reason, my mind boggled at how Floydey it sounded (in a mild mannered way), and how hollow at the center it was. Bonechilling.
Ride went off the rails with Carnival of Light, right after Going Blank Again had trained me to love Nowhere.
Portishead - Third tl;dw (too long; didn't wait)
The Verve - Forth (ditto)

 

Back twenty years? Pretty much everything I was into, in my teen years.

Today? None. At least the sampling part....too easy to sample a new album these days if I so desire.

 

I really really like By A Thread...but I'm probably good with the Woody era live albums, BAT, AND a smattering of live shows...

But yeah, Warren seems to really favor one tempo, slow...ZZZZZZZzzzzzzz

 

I was the same way with thrash metal from the 80s, and the reason I stopped listening is because I started discovering different stuff. Although I broke out my cassette of Among the Living recently and had a giant urge to mosh it up.

 

I can kind of understand that, but you're missing out on the Wilko Johnson/Roger Daltrey album, then. It's about as Dad Rock as you can get, but it's just so good. There's something to be said for real professionalism mixed with the idea of having a real good time.

 

Not because I didn't think they were good anymore.
I just heard them too much.

 

Hey buddy, you are clearly a giant Metallica fan, but you are the uninformed person if you don't understand that most of the responders here can relate to loving a band, and then just not caring anymore.

Nothing to do with coolness, I'm just telling my experience. Deal with it.

 

I stopped buying Bruce Springsteen albums after The River. T

Banga is a really good album. I might be biased, but I don't like Twelve either.

 

Bruce Springsteen after The River.

 

Yep, that's the one I was going to give. Was a die hard Sonic Youth fan from about the ages of 14-17 (years 1992-96), buying all their new stuff and reissues. I think the last album I bought was Washing Machine. I don't know exactly what happened, but I moved on to other music. I still remember most of the songs, and when I hear even the opening notes of something in the background, I know which song is playing. For example, I was in a Harvey's restaurant the other day and Sonic Youth's cover of Superstar by the Carpenters was playing (I would never have expected this). But all I heard was a bit of the noise guitar and I knew which song. It's been 20 years, and I'm feeling the pull to purchase their albums again, and also explore everything they recorded after I stopped buying/listening. That will take time, because I have a whole lot of other music I want to buy too.

I consider Sonic Youth my "formative" band, meaning I listened to them so much during my formative years that their music is ingrained in my psyche. Nirvana was the first band I liked, but I quickly moved on to Sonic Youth.