Musical Artists 'Jumping The Shark'

[oscillations.]

Probably one of the greatest catchphrases ever invented.

For reference:
Jumping the shark is a metaphor used by television critics since the 1990s. The phrase, popularized by Jon Hein on his web site www.jumptheshark.com, is used to describe the moment when a television show or similar episodic medium is in retrospect judged to have passed its "peak" and shows a noticeable decline in quality. Hein also uses the "jumping the shark" concept to describe other areas of pop culture, such as music and celebrities, for whom a drastic change was the beginning of the end.


So, this will probably prove to be a controversial thread, but that will make it interesting. Point out examples of your favorite (or not so favorite) artists "jumping the shark". Try to point out exactly when you think this occurred & what went wrong.
(TV example: Buffy jumped the shark in Season 4, because the transition to college proved to be detrimental to the overall character development and creative progress of the series. Specifically, Episode 12, when Buffy and Xander engage in illicit sex in front of Angel.")
^ completely made up; I forget almost every detail of that series. But you get the drift.

I'll name a few:

Primal Scream, with their current album. They should have learned from Give Out, But Don't Give Up never to approach Americana again. But they've redeemed themselves before; they might be able to again.

Moby, with Hotel. Arguably, 18 was a decline from Play, but Hotel is a crime against ambient pop. And yes, I have the deluxe edition.

Garbage, with beautifulgarbage. They went from being "excellent" & "progressive" to merely "a solid pop act". But their first two albums are immortal, so their reputation should remain intact.

Smashing Pumpkins, with Adore. I actually like this album a lot, but commercially it bit the big one, and one could argue that Corgan lost the ability to compose properly at this point. Machina was worse; Machina II was an improvement. Don't get me started on Zwan or solo Billy. I am dreading the new album, btw.

Weezer, with Maladroit. The only thing worse? Make Believe.

I'll post more later.

[joker]

Oasis - "Be Here Now".
Even though I like some songs on this album and on later releases, even the Gallaghers must have realized that their magic was beginning to fade after their sophomore album.... just look at the songs included on their greatest hits collection.

Two of the more (in)famous examples of "jumping the shark" involve Metallica and Aerosmith.

With Metallica, they have several JTS possibilities:
- The "One" video
- The Black Album
- "Load"
- "S&M"
- Napster controversy

With Aerosmith, it's a little tougher. Some fans like only their "classic" material (Dream On, Walk This Way, Sweet Emotion, Last Child, Back in the Saddle, etc), but that only applies to old-timers, for the most part. Other fans, including some who like their classic stuff too, would say their favorite Aerosmith material came in the comeback-era (the Pump album through Get a Grip). So, the best JTS moments are probably:
- "Walk This Way" with Run DMC
- Alicia Silverstone trilogy
- "I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing"

[oscillations.]

I agree fully about Oasis...except I thought Don't Believe The Truth was excellent (no joke).
There's something very stirring about the arrangements on that album. For my money, "Part Of The Queue" is one of the finest songwriting moments of their career.

[Lovelyhead]

Garbage - Bleed Like Me - BG was spotty but it had quite a few good songs, i like nothing from this album. it was so uninspired.

Tori Amos - Scarlet's Walk - i'll get flamed by Tori fans. she started to release MOR crap at this time.

Bjork - Medulla - every album before this is a dream. this is too weird, she tried way too hard with this one.

Janet Jackson - All For You - she tried to compete with Britney and the new teen pop craze. she never recovered. i believe Renee had more to do with her music than he's given credit for. the moment he left her music went to shit.

i agree with Smashing Pumpkins. i'm looking forward to a tour, more than the album.

[tico]

Def Leppard jumped the shark when they released "Two Steps Behind". Everything I've heard from that point has been soft or pop-sounding. A lot of people felt that Bon Jovi jumped the shark when they released the Keep the Faith album, which had a much softer sound than previous albums.

[Pipa]

When Phil Collins left Genesis.

When Rod Stewart and Elton John sold themselves to Disney movies.

[derek]

Jessica Simpson!

[juhn]

Nelly Furtado. Urgh. I was a big fan of her before the "Loose" album. "Promiscuous" was OK - it was strangely hypnotic and all, but I despite "Say It Right" and "Maneater". The only tolerable song on "Loose" besides "Promiscuous" was "Te Busque".

[JamaicaFunk²]

tico said:

Def Leppard jumped the shark when they released "Two Steps Behind". Everything I've heard from that point has been soft or pop-sounding. A lot of people felt that Bon Jovi jumped the shark when they released the Keep the Faith album, which had a much softer sound than previous albums.

Def Leppard is my favorite band of all time.
i can sort of see where you are coming from. but i dont think they ever had this rock band image/sound that was popular at that time. they had more of the bon jovi sound. the squeeky clean rock that people of all ages could enjoy.
i wouldn't necessarily say they jumped the shark, but it was the trend that music was going at that time... and they did veer more in that direction than they ever did before.

[banet2001]

Jewel after she released the horrid teen pop album 0304. She had several platium albums before this one and since then she has not come all that close to gold status with Goodbye Alice In Wonderland.

Liz Phair with the Matrix led teen pop album. She seemed quite content with the notion of "selling out" from her previous terrific indie reputation. Her self titled album is such a huge step down from her terrific albums like "Exile in Guyville" and "Whip Smart" and it seems like she is quite content on retiring as an AC type artist nowadays. :(

[oscillations.]

Pixies with Bossanova!
Bowie with Let's Dance
Iggy Pop with Soldier
Lou Reed, many times (but redeemed himself)
Paul McCartney, many times (but last album was actually terrific)

[jaxxalude]

Pearl Jam pretty much jumped the shark when No Code came along. After that, they've just been going through the motions, happily content on reprising their Classic Rock canon to an ever dedicated large fanbase. It also goes to show to all those that complain about a certain act changing his/her/their style too much for commercial reasons that there's also the flipside: constantly pandering to your fanbase, not risking anything new at all, in the certainty that an X amount of people will buy the records regardless.

[banet2001]

David Johansen jumped in the 1980's with his Buster Poindexter character.

[tico]

derek said:

Jessica Simpson!

How did she jump the shark?

[Rose "Payola" Nylund]

tico said:

derek said:

Jessica Simpson!

How did she jump the shark?

True. Backed on the definition, you had to have had quality at some point in order for their to be a decline.

[discoscience]

Siouxsie & The Banshees - The Rapture

After jumping the shark a couple of times and bouncing back, this was the one that put an end to the Banshees. Particularly disappointing considering John Cale was on board, and "Superstition" before it went platinum.

The Prodigy - Always Outnumbered, Never outgunned
After waiting 7 years, my expectations were a bit too high.

New Order - Republic
The NO album people barely ever talk about.

[oscillations.]

"Regret" is NO's highest charting single in the US. HAHA

[jaxxalude]

discoscience said:

New Order - Republic
The NO album people barely ever talk about.

It's a definite jump-the-shark moment, no doubt. Especially because they would never recover artistically from then on, IMO.

[johnm1120]

Jennifer Lopez's last 2 albums were jokes.

[Chato]

Modest Mouse after Moon And Antarctica.
De La Soul never managed to recapture the spirit of their 1st album , but I don't know if that can really be considered 'jumping the shark'.
Bone-Thugs-N-Harmony never released another truly great album after E1999 Eternal.
RHCP completely jumped the shark after BSSM , although most people probably prefer their post-1991 work.
Many metal bands , prime examples include Slayer, Iced Earth and Metallica.

[halo19]

I wouldn't say that Garbage had a decline in quality in the latter two albums, but Beautifulgarbage lacked the commerical appeal and mmph that connected to older fans and Bleed was good but didn't do anything to get many new people into them.

Nine Inch Nails --> With Teeth. You'd think that an album produced from Reznor and Alan Moulder would sound amazing. But stuff such as the unnecessary panning effect on "Beside You" and the awful chorus of the title track bring it down.

Smashing Pumpkins --> IMO, it was ALL the Machina era. People didn't want to hear some weird concept album by this point, and worse yet, it was supposed to be a double album. Singles were awesome, though.

Orgy --> The first two albums didn't even suck. They at least sounded like they were trying. This is just unmemorable garbage that was a lot worse than I expected. 2 decent songs and they were the first two singles.

David Bowie and Mick Jagger --> "Dancing in the Streets." Need I say more?

Not so much in quality as in commerical success, but Ultra was where Depeche Mode stopped being as much of a household band, and the single choice of "Barrel of a Gun" wasn't a particularly smart move, if you ask me.

This one's arguable:
Staind --> Not an acclaimed artist or anything, but I feel that they totally went past their peak by the time of 14 Shades of Grey.

Oh, and I like Make Believe more than Maladroit. There, I said it! I mean, that one had actual great songs and I thought many of the album cuts were great.

[I love David and Theo]

Janet Jackson - her failed attempt to revive her career at the SuperBowl in 2004 ended up killing her career. Wardrope malfunction, my ass.

[Adonis the DemiGod!]

hotmess said:

Janet Jackson - her failed attempt to revive her career at the SuperBowl in 2004 ended up killing her career. Wardrope malfunction, my ass.

There was nothing to revive before the Super Bowl. Janet was coming off of a #1 album that gave her the strongest first week sales of her career and a massive #1 single. Otherwise I agree that Janet Jackson should be on this list.

[jimijoop]

Katy Perry with Witness

[irice22]

Jan 13, 2023 16:58:45 GMT -5 jimijoop said:

Katy Perry with Witness

True. It could have just been a flop if she didn't keep referring to it as "purposeful pop."

[dkampy]

Def Leppard with their Slang album in the 90’s… I love this album… but a lot of their fans didn’t it came out in the 90’s and went for an Alternative rock sound compared to their previous hair band sound… as they were trying to stay relevant when 80’s hair bands were a joke in the new alternative rock world