mkarns
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Post by mkarns on Mar 9, 2018 4:57:07 GMT -5
I'd say "Thong Song" by Sisqo killed his chance at any longevity as a solo artist. It was a huge hit obviously, but it really pegged him as a novelty artist that nobody could take seriously. He'll always be that guy that sang "Thong Song" (also maybe that guy from Dru Hill to a lot of people). And ironically he did score a Hot 100 #1 with the followup (“Incomplete”), but who remembers it?
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YourFaveIsAFlop
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Post by YourFaveIsAFlop on Mar 9, 2018 5:31:36 GMT -5
Lots of reasons why a career stalls or appears to stall after a big hit: The artist stops making albums The artist goes in a different direction or most importantly Whether you are Madonna, Mariah of Katy Perry or Elvis, every artist has a limited amount of time at #1, times of course vary for all. Does one hit do that? Maybe, maybe not. Perhaps, it is simply because their time is up? Or there is a personal event totally unrelated to the artists music that kills their career. Robin Thicke's career wasnt killed by Blurred Lines, it was killed by his very public divorce and his shitshow reaction. That just happened immediately post Blurred Lines. Up until a few months ago, I would have said Kesha's carrer was over after Die Young, but her career has obviously had a resurgence so thats no longer relevant
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Ling-Ling
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Post by Ling-Ling on Mar 9, 2018 5:40:31 GMT -5
I'd say "Thong Song" by Sisqo killed his chance at any longevity as a solo artist. It was a huge hit obviously, but it really pegged him as a novelty artist that nobody could take seriously. He'll always be that guy that sang "Thong Song" (also maybe that guy from Dru Hill to a lot of people). And ironically he did score a Hot 100 #1 with the followup (“Incomplete”), but who remembers it? But one of the big reasons he hit number one with that was because "Thong Song" was the B-side on the single.
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Post by thirddegree50123 on Mar 9, 2018 11:22:05 GMT -5
Now that I think about it, I'm surprised people are mentioning "4 Minutes" as the song that killed Madonna's career. I feel like "American Life" did that if anything. But I think her time had finally come then anyways
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Soundcl🕤ck
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Post by Soundcl🕤ck on Mar 9, 2018 12:35:21 GMT -5
Last Madonna's huge hit was "4 Minutes" in 2008 and she was 50. This sentence tells everything. I'm not a fan of Madonna and that kind of music, but it's absurd mentioning her name in this thread.
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Gary
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Post by Gary on Mar 9, 2018 13:46:47 GMT -5
There you go
Generally, one song or another does not kill careers....time does.
Otherwise, Madonna, Mariah, Cher and alot of other older acts would still be cranking out the hits.
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tanooki
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Post by tanooki on Mar 9, 2018 14:46:24 GMT -5
Not a song, but the Black Eyed Peas Superbowl performance killed them
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Glove Slap
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Post by Glove Slap on Mar 9, 2018 15:07:42 GMT -5
Not a song, but the Black Eyed Peas Superbowl performance killed them The single released after it was a top 5 hit in most countries and the 10th biggest hit of that year in the US.
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tanooki
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Post by tanooki on Mar 9, 2018 15:20:16 GMT -5
Not a song, but the Black Eyed Peas Superbowl performance killed them The single released after it was a top 5 hit in most countries and the 10th biggest hit of that year in the US. Gotta be honest, I don't remember what the single was and I don't know many people that do. If you ask someone to name Black Eyed Peas songs, they're gonna say stuff like I Gotta Feeling, Where is the Love, Let's Get it Started, My Humps, Boom Boom Pow, etc. Aka their 2000s stuff
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Post by Fat Ass Kelly Price on Mar 9, 2018 15:26:18 GMT -5
The single released after it was a top 5 hit in most countries and the 10th biggest hit of that year in the US. Gotta be honest, I don't remember what the single was and I don't know many people that do. If you ask someone to name Black Eyed Peas songs, they're gonna say stuff like I Gotta Feeling, Where is the Love, Let's Get it Started, My Humps, Boom Boom Pow, etc. Aka their 2000s stuff Not every hit song is going to be remembered. That doesn’t make it any less of a hit. I’m failing to see your point.
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mkarns
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Post by mkarns on Mar 9, 2018 16:26:43 GMT -5
The single released after it was a top 5 hit in most countries and the 10th biggest hit of that year in the US. Gotta be honest, I don't remember what the single was and I don't know many people that do. If you ask someone to name Black Eyed Peas songs, they're gonna say stuff like I Gotta Feeling, Where is the Love, Let's Get it Started, My Humps, Boom Boom Pow, etc. Aka their 2000s stuff “Just Can’t Get Enough”. It’s their last big hit to date, though that isn’t necessarily due to their, well, weird Super Bowl performance. Of course, they haven’t put out an actual group album in the seven years since.
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tanooki
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Post by tanooki on Mar 9, 2018 16:52:45 GMT -5
Gotta be honest, I don't remember what the single was and I don't know many people that do. If you ask someone to name Black Eyed Peas songs, they're gonna say stuff like I Gotta Feeling, Where is the Love, Let's Get it Started, My Humps, Boom Boom Pow, etc. Aka their 2000s stuff Not every hit song is going to be remembered. That doesn’t make it any less of a hit. I’m failing to see your point. Hit at the time, but aged very poorly.
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Gekkouga
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Post by Gekkouga on Mar 9, 2018 17:18:56 GMT -5
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Post by Choco on Mar 9, 2018 20:37:46 GMT -5
Ciara was already on the decline well before LSM though. That was both a desperate attempt to remain relevant and not really that much of a hit (decent peaks, zero longevity).
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mkarns
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Post by mkarns on Mar 9, 2018 21:06:35 GMT -5
Not every hit song is going to be remembered. That doesn’t make it any less of a hit. I’m failing to see your point. Hit at the time, but aged very poorly. “Just Can’t Get Enough” might not be all that well remembered for a big and relatively recent hit, but at least it’s not a punchline like “My Humps” became for many. Had “Boom Boom Pow” and “I Gotta Feeling” not been so huge, then “My Humps” might be viewed as a career killer.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 10, 2018 17:37:45 GMT -5
That's what a career killing hit is isn't? A short lived victory lol. Yeah but usually the victory didn't last nearly as long as Usher's did. Not only were OMG and DJGUFIL huge hits, he always had More and Scream a couple years later. As I understand it, his first few singles from OMG's parent album bombed, so it sounded like OMG was basically a career saver, at least in the short term. No, that isn't true actually, what happened is that OMG was the only single from Raymond v. Raymond that he serviced to CHR. But on r&b/hip-hop, Papers peaked at #1; Hey Daddy peaked at #2; Lil Freak wasn't even officially sent to any format, but peaked at #8 on urban anyway just off the buzz; OMG peaked at #3, although some stations cut out Will.i.am's part lol; and the final single from the standard album, There Goes My Baby, capped off the era with a #1. Raymond v. Raymond was nothing short of a smash on urban and in the long run that is mostly what carried that album to platinum, not OMG's pop success. With that said I'm going to disagree with Insatiable as well. If I have to say one hit killed him, Scream is it - his other pop hits could be forgiven as one-offs, but with Scream released alongside Climax, his urban audience became convinced that Looking 4 Myself was going to be a 'pop' album and didn't go buy it (despite Climax being a behemoth 11-week #1 on urban and Lemme See being a followup top 5 there). The pop audience meanwhile didn't buy it b/c Scream wasn't that great of a song compared to OMG, DJ, Without You, etc, and likewise didn't have the chart peak or longevity to match. It was album filler that his label mistook as an album seller and neither pop nor urban was having it. He's still able to rack up urban radio hits, but he can't sell an album. In theory this should all fall in the Madonna/Mariah category of "well his time as a seller was finally coming to an end regardless," but the fact that his career basically gets brushed of as just another footnote in music history despite his stats literally outdoing all of his male peers and most of our fave divas is still kind of nuts to me, so I guess that puts Scream in 'killer' territory. Perception is 75% of the battle and Scream murked people's perception of Usher.
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jimijoop
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Post by jimijoop on Dec 28, 2022 23:25:55 GMT -5
Justin Timberlake - Can't stop the feeling
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rainie
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Post by rainie on Dec 29, 2022 16:11:59 GMT -5
this is. certainly an interesting thread to look back on lmao (especially my blatantly incorrect examples listed in the op anyways in retrospect, while career killing hits exist, if an artist is truly big enough it'll usually take two hits to take them down, with the first one showing chinks in their armor but often still doing decently (or even quite) well on the charts. a good example of this is Justin Timberlake - Can't stop the feeling + filthy, both of which show jt being the lamest white guy possible but from completely different angles meanwhile, i'd say the female equivalent of this is katy perry with chained to the rhythm + bon appetit. ironically, not only did all of these songs get released within the same year, both first singles were upbeat pop anthems trying to bring people together (though in radically different ways) and both second singles were about sex and employed foot metaphors if this was 4-5 months ago i'd also name no + me too as an example of this but uh. cant exactly call m train's career dead anymore :/
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#brayden
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Post by #brayden on Dec 30, 2022 18:03:40 GMT -5
I don't think "Can't Stop The Feeling" did much damage to JT's career. I personally think it's a bit annoying but it clearly connected with people, and I think it set him up well for success with his next single assuming it would be good.
"Filthy" wasn't good though. It's honestly pretty terrible. I think that's definitely his "career-killing" hit if there were one.
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rnb
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Post by rnb on Dec 30, 2022 18:09:06 GMT -5
bon appetit for katy
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Ernesto
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Post by Ernesto on Dec 30, 2022 19:25:41 GMT -5
Sadly, "Well, Well, Well" killed Duffy's career.
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Post by Private Dancer on Dec 30, 2022 19:25:59 GMT -5
I'd say "Thong Song" by Sisqo killed his chance at any longevity as a solo artist. It was a huge hit obviously, but it really pegged him as a novelty artist that nobody could take seriously. He'll always be that guy that sang "Thong Song" (also maybe that guy from Dru Hill to a lot of people). Sisqo will always be Sisqo. If people know Dru Hill, then surely they will recognize Sisqp speaking he was the lead on all the songs I thought of another - potentially solid example? "My Love Is For Real" by Paula Abdul. Stylistically turned some people off, and it was technically a hit based on its Hot 100 performance. However it failed to enter the top 20 and the entire project tanked in the states. The follow-up single was very short-lived and peaked outside the top 50. .....and that was all she wrote. Well, until Dance Like There's No Tomorrow. *ohpaula* Paula's career had been dead at that point and MLIFR was NOT a hit I'd say "Thong Song" by Sisqo killed his chance at any longevity as a solo artist. It was a huge hit obviously, but it really pegged him as a novelty artist that nobody could take seriously. He'll always be that guy that sang "Thong Song" (also maybe that guy from Dru Hill to a lot of people). And ironically he did score a Hot 100 #1 with the followup (“Incomplete”), but who remembers it? It depends on pop VS R&B listeners. Many urban /R&B listeners still remembers this song and it is considered an R&B classic and it was super huge then and gets mega recurrent airplay now.
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Joe1240
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Post by Joe1240 on Dec 30, 2022 21:32:56 GMT -5
Kelly Clarkson’s song “Stronger” didn’t kill her career. She still had hits after with “Catch My Breath”,”Underneath The Tree” and “Piece By Piece”,she just changed her musical direction with her next album “Meaning Of Life”. She also recovered from “My December” with the next album “All I Ever Wanted”.
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Nasarati
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Post by Nasarati on Dec 31, 2022 0:18:59 GMT -5
I'm not sure this song qualifies as a hit. I mean, yes, it charted -- but it sank like a brick all but instantly. Though I do agree her career never recovered after this song dropped, and I definitely wouldn't call "Chained to the Rhythm" an obvious career-ender by any stretch, since that song is legitimately good and had strong airplay.
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rnb
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Post by rnb on Dec 31, 2022 0:21:47 GMT -5
I'm not sure this song qualifies as a hit. I mean, yes, it charted -- but it sank like a brick all but instantly. Though I do agree her career never recovered after this song dropped, and I definitely wouldn't call "Chained to the Rhythm" an obvious career-ender by any stretch, since that song is legitimately good and had strong airplay. i mean the song has over 1.5 billion views on yt and i thought it did better globally, if you’re looking for a better example of a hit then ig chained to the rhythm but i agree about what you said about that song too so..
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bjordan
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Post by bjordan on Jan 9, 2023 15:42:13 GMT -5
We've got a one two punch from Usher. Huge back to back hits that alienated his core fanbase. His career hasn't been the same since 😭 . I have to agree with you about Usher. He started to fall off in the 2010’s after “Looking For Myself” was released. In 2014, he was just releasing stand alone singles but no album. His albums from the 2010’s will never be the level of “My Way”, “8701” and “Confessions”.
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Caviar
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Post by Caviar on Jan 9, 2023 20:22:32 GMT -5
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theflying
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Post by theflying on Jan 10, 2023 14:19:13 GMT -5
This is a very cool thread idea, I just think there aren’t that many answers.
As mentioned upthread, Jewel’s “Intuition” and Liz Phair’s “Why Can’t I?” feel like perfect answers. They were relatively big hits for the artist, but they ruined the artist’s brand and credibility and they never had another noteworthy GP song after that.
I don’t follow the indie rock world but Hoobastank’s The Reason is probably a great example, too.
Meghan Trainor is not a good example because NO and Me Too were big hits and her album went Platinum. Even No Excuses went Platinum — Meghan wouldn’t have flopped if Treat Myself’s songs/rollout/timing were better. “No” was just a risk in changing musical direction that we’ll never be sure if it truly paid off or not, but that’s not a career killer at all. People like that song and it has very high streams and went viral again recently.
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mkarns
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Post by mkarns on Jan 10, 2023 14:25:35 GMT -5
Interesting to see the talk, both old and new, about songs that "killed" Meghan Trainor's career when she's now on an upswing with her biggest hit since her 2014-16 heyday.
But she offers of a case of getting a career-reviving hit by returning to the formula of her career-making one. Both musically and lyrically, "Made You Look" is basically "All About That Bass, Part II" to me, down to the body-positivity theme of the lyrics (echoed in another current, harder-edged hit, "Victoria's Secret".)
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Post by Steel Sponge on Jan 12, 2023 17:04:55 GMT -5
Earth - Lil Dicky
EDIT: I mean, if we're simply talking about "career-killing songs."
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