Did "Name" Artists Release Surprise Albums pre-Internet?

Eyeroll away, but "McCartney" was kept under wraps and released very shortly after recording was completed.

 

Liz Phair's Funstyle, which showed up out of nowhere on her website on July 3, 2010.

 

Well, obviously, but I was more like in terms of zero promotion pre-release.

 

MBV's album was announced the morning of the day the download was released. I swear, I nearly had a heart attack.

 

Pay Attention. PRE-Internet.

 

No one expected a new album from U2 less than 2 years after "Achtung" and while the band was on tour. Apparently their label sure didn't expect it. From Wiki:

"U2's delivery of Zooropa in late May caught PolyGram somewhat off-guard,[55] because they were not expecting a new album by the group for several years."

I remember being surprised by the album's release, as it did just kinda show up without a lot of fanfare. Yeah, they promoted it and did videos, but there wasn't all the "new U2 album this year!!!" hype that accompanied "Achtung".

So fans knew it would come out when it did - it's not like it popped up on shelves and we weren't aware it was coming - but there wasn't a lot of time between announcement and release...

 

I remember what a nightmare it was trying to order the bundled download and vinyl once it went live. They clearly weren't prepared for the amount of traffic the announcement generated and the website kept crashing. I've never frantically hit F5 so many times in my life!

 

Beck's "Mutations" was released with little fanfare. Only an SNL appearance, no videos, or singles.

 

That's tougher to define. I don't remember there being a lot of promotion for "Around the World in a Day" - Prince didn't even release a single/video until after the album had been out for a few weeks - but fans knew it was coming.

This is 30+ years ago, so I can't recall how much advance notice we had of the release - a month? a couple of weeks? - but I knew it was on the way and I bought it on its first day of release.

It was rushed to market/unpromoted about as much as one could've imagined for an artist as hot as Prince was at the time. I'm guessing he just dropped it on Warners and didn't give them much time to prepare...

 

Sorry, that was in response to the speculation about whether Bowie or Beyonce were first among Internet-era artists (and later mentions of Radiohead and MBV). I should have quoted what I was responding to.

 

We can discuss Pre and Post Internet releases as well, since we've veered in that direction anyway.

 

Yes, "Raspberry Beret" was chosen as a single a month after the album was released.

 

Prince - Black Album
Bruce - Tunnel Of Love (this was a surprise when it was announced back in 1987)

 

I agree, it was different due to the technology available and distribution. An artist could have released an album with little fanfare, but to be a complete surprise where one day the record stores didn't have it and the next morning it was in the music periodicals, radio stations and on the store shelves simply was not feasible. Especially for a major artist as news would have inevitably leaked out.

 

I remember first hearing about the then-untitled release around April '93 as first a *possible* 3-4 song EP for Summer '93 and then reading in ICE Magazine barely about a month before it was due to street that it was going to be a full album. Polygram was taken completely by surprise, even moreso when they had a listening party to prep for promotional strategies and realized that U2 was going even further away from their 80's sound with this album.

I kept up on a lot of industry talk about upcoming albums thanks in large part to the usual rock mags of the time (Creem, Kerrang, etc) and especially the LA Times Sunday Calendar music section, so it was rare even back in the late 70's onwards that I wasn't aware of a favorite band's album was soon to be released.

 

The artist's label could have threatened to pull all their other artists product, if they didn't keep news under wraps.

 

Little to no promotion I'm sure there were many (as stated by others). But if you were a fan, you usually managed to at least hear about it.

These days an album drops out of nowhere and you can get completely blindsided. Not that this is a bad thing - sometimes it's pretty awesome.

That wouldn't stop radio stations from announcing or magazines publishing news, if they had heard about it. Plus why would a label due that? They'd want the opposite where promotion = sales. But teep the ideas coming, maybe there was an album where they could have pulled this off.

 

Yep, they were planning on releasing an E.P to coincide with the next leg of the tour. The creative juices kept flowing, and a full album was made.

 

I don't know if this really qualifies, but the Iggy Pop & James Williamson album Kill City came suddenly and was a surprise. However, I am saying this from what I have read, as I was only 8 when it was released.

 

Record labels played dirty in the 80s. Columbia Records threatened to do exactly what I described when Michael Jackson's "Bad" came out. If the retailers didn't fudge the sales of the record to Billboard(to get it to #1), all other artists records would be pulled.

 

I remember when Metallica was about to release "St. Anger" all of the release dates were different depending on where you looked. It actually was shipped to stores without notice nearly two weeks before the supposed release date and all stores were instructed to put the album on shelves immediately. No doubt to combat Napster fallout. I bought it about a week and a half early for $7.99 at Tower …..it's too bad the album was dreadful.

 

When I worked in a record store in the 80s we had a giant erase board above and behind the counter that listed upcoming new releases and the date they would be available. Usually listed records 1-2 months in advance.