Rock groups that hit their commercial peak when their best work was behind them
Take a look at the peak US Billboard Album chart position for all of their albums from Kill 'em All to Reload.
Kill ‘em All (1983) - #66
Ride The Lightning (1984) - #48
Master of Puppets (1986) - #29
And Justice for All (1989) - #6
Black Album (1991) #1
Load (1996) #1
Reload (1997) #1
We also agreed that Metallica's best work was in the rear view mirror, but the time of the breakthrough into the rock main stream- i.e., the Black Album in 1991.
The closest analog I could think of was AC/DC. They were considerably less commercially successful than Metallica at first - arguably due to their being an a foreign act - but their journey from unknown to mega band / superstars only took roughly 4 years in the US (i.e., 1976- 1980). But like Metallica, AC DC's artistic peak had already come and gone by the time of their first #1 record.
High Voltage (1976) – #146
Let there Be Rock (1977) - #154
Powerage (1978) - #133
Highway to Hell (1979) - #17
Back In Black (1980) - #4
For Those About to Rock (1981) - #1
Another comp, I wanted to pull was Van Halen. By comparison, the were already one of the biggest acts in rock by the second album, but didn't actually top the charts until the shitty, Van Hagar era.
Van Halen I (1978) - #19
Van Halen II (1979) - #6
Women and Children First (1980) - #6
Fair Warning (1981) - #5
Diver Down (1982) – #3
1984 (1984) - #2
5150 (1986) - #1
OU812 (1988) #1
Comments
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Good call on AC DC
I think Yes has a place on this
From prog rock to dance music stars. Their later hits boosted sales on their earlier better work
The Yes Album, Fragile, and Close to the Edge were their peak
Those ended up with pretty good US sales but barely cracked top 40 when released
FM radio baby -
Fragile was a #4 Album and Closer was #3. So I'd argue this was actually their commercial and artistic peak happening concurrently.RaceBannon said:Good call on AC DC
I think Yes has a place on this
From prog rock to dance music stars. Their later hits boosted sales on their earlier better work
The Yes Album, Fragile, and Close to the Edge were their peak
Those ended up with pretty good US sales but barely cracked top 40 when released
FM radio baby
90125 was #5.
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Yeah the biggest interesting point to me with Metallica is not only the duration of them toiling in "relative obscurity" (they were not at all obscure to hardcore metal heads but the broader world had no idea at all who they were until One went on MTV in 89), but the point that the best music they ever made was during the 8 year period they weren't super popular. The Black album was the inflection point - probably the worst (or second worst) album of the first five, but the one that launched them to be the biggest global touring draw of the entire 90's and a bonafide icon status.
Just a weird career arc. Yella and I podded back and forth quite a bit on this. ACDC was the most analogous we could come up with.
edit: You look at the other MEGA bands of the last 60 years - Beatles, Stones, Who, Zeppelin, CCR, GnR, etc. - and they were all big right out of the gate. -
The Who are a little bit of an outlier. I took them a few years to get to make it over to the US to play live in 1967 (their first album was 1965). And they didn't really become a mega band until Tommy (1969) and Woodstock.Swaye said:Yeah the biggest interesting point to me with Metallica is not only the duration of them toiling in "relative obscurity" (they were not at all obscure to hardcore metal heads but the broader world had no idea at all who they were until One went on MTV in 89), but the point that the best music they ever made was during the 8 year period they weren't super popular. The Black album was the inflection point - probably the worst (or second worst) album of the first five, but the one that launched them to be the biggest global touring draw of the entire 90's and a bonafide icon status.
Just a weird career arc. Yella and I podded back and forth quite a bit on this. ACDC was the most analogous we could come up with.
edit: You look at the other MEGA bands of the last 60 years - Beatles, Stones, Who, Zeppelin, CCR, GnR, etc. - and they were all big right out of the gate. -
Hard to argue with any of that.
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Those pre Highway to Hell albums are loaded with all time classics for AC DC but they just didn't sell worth a shit initially until Mutt came into make their sound more accessible.dflea said:Hard to argue with any of that.
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I think a case could be made for ZZ Top...
ZZ Top's First Album (1971) - #201
Rio Grande Mud (1972) - #104
Tres Hombres (1973) - #86
Fandango (1975) - #91
Tejas (1976) - #124
Deguello (1979) - #58
El Loco (1981) - #141
Eliminator (1983 - #5...I want my mTv
No #1's, but still...
It is certainly subjective, but at their commercial peak, I stopped listening to the new stuff -
I think a lot of this has to do with the popularity of the music video in the 80s and early 90s. Just think how many bands would have never been big without a music video, and others died due to not making one or making a bad one.
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This is a pretty good pull. Clearly, early to mid 70's ZZ Top was better than 80's MTV ZZ Top and it's not close.Fishpo31 said:I think a case could be made for ZZ Top...
ZZ Top's First Album (1971) - #201
Rio Grande Mud (1972) - #104
Tres Hombres (1973) - #86
Fandango (1975) - #91
Tejas (1976) - #124
Deguello (1979) - #58
El Loco (1981) - #141
Eliminator (1983 - #5...I want my mTv
No #1's, but still...
It is certainly subjective, but at their commercial peak, I stopped listening to the new stuff
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MTV was the Ed Sullivan of the 80's.alumni94 said:I think a lot of this has to do with the popularity of the music video in the 80s and early 90s. Just think how many bands would have never been big without a music video, and others died due to not making one or making a bad one.
