How many bad releases does it take for you to give up on an artist / band?!
Question: Example: 80s metal act Dokken has released 5 albums snce their reformation back in '97ish. Two of them were pretty good. The last two sucked horribly. I won't be buying anything else without hearing the entire album first.
As a rule, two bad albums in a row will kick a band off my radar. What's your limit?
Answers: Example: 80s metal act Dokken has released 5 albums snce their reformation back in '97ish. Two of them were pretty good. The last two sucked horribly. I won't be buying anything else without hearing the entire album first.
As a rule, two bad albums in a row will kick a band off my radar. What's your limit?
Bad releases usually have to equal the total of good releases. It just seems fair to me. I know people who have given up after a questionable release or two, and didn't realize the band bounced back later on.
No more than three.
id say 1 album would definately put me off but if they released another i may listen to a song off it before deciding wether they are good enough
Two. After that then I'm only sticking to the old albums or demos that they made that were good.
Buying records before hearing them?
That is a throwback!
Nowadays, people listen to everything online before they buy.
And a band can sound crummy in your opinion for a long time before they sound good in your opinion.
It's all a matter of opinion.
Some people prefer the old Fleetwood Mac with Bob Welch, for example, to "the new Fleetwood Mac" with Stevie Nicks...it's all a matter of opinion.
Hmmm...don't know really. If you have a favorite band, I know you would hate to not have one of their album...good or bad. I would probably keep getting their albums anyway,...just to have the collection.
I don't have a hard and fast limit as to when to give up on a band. I tend to be generous for past accomplishments. In the case of NIN, I can make the case that Trent has put out two bad albums in a row. I have yet to kick off the radar but there's no denying his stock has dropped in my eyes. In a situation like that, he's earned enough goodwill from me as the fan that I'm sure I'll be sucked in for life no matter what.
Mike - Even I can't send Trent to the gallows.
2 shouts is enough, example: metallica, no matter how many times I try to listen <after black album>I still can't understand
GNR lost me after 1 bad album...I'd moved on in musical tastes, and they didn't do enough to bring me back...so I ditched 'em...lol. Evil Mizz SJG, I know.
I think it depends on the band. If it's someone I casually listen to then it wouldn't take much. And since I don't have much invested, I would get over it pretty quickly.
Some of my favorites...that's a different story. Like you, I would probably stop buying after a few, but I would always want to listen to the new stuff to see if they ever start taking a new direction. I couldn't put an across the board number on it....more than one, less than ten probably?
I'm with Sookie - it depends on the band, and it depends on how much I liked them before the bad release(s) in question.
I am, at my core, an optimist. So when the new CD comes out, I've always got hope that *THIS* will be the release that restores them to their former glory.
I really don't have a limit - simply because the majority of bands have usually 1-3 good songs on any album, and the rest is all filler.
I still like the bands and have what songs from them I like, but I couldn't write them off..
But then again, it's not like the old days for us considering we HAD to buy the album/tape before we could hear everything as opposed to hoping to hear them or requestng songs on the radio...
I'd say two mostly, but sometimes more.
For example, as a Fleetwood Mac fan, I found both 'Behind the Mask' and 'Time' to be a disappointment. But, based on an excellent catelogue prior to that, I bought 'Say You Will' having only heard part of one song.
I trusted them to have got things back on track with the re-addition of Lindsey and Stevie, though it was sad to see Christine leave.
Another one is Jethro Tull, who, throughout their almost 40 year discography, have put out 3 albums where I couldn't stand any of the songs, and two where I only liked one song from each. But, despite that, I bought and quite enjoyed their last album 'JTull.Com'. Not anywhere near as good as the earlier stuff, but it had a few good songs.
If an artist puts out a REALLY GOOD album, and I mean one that's good from start to finish, then I'll usually give them two more albums but if both of the follow-ups suck, then I forget they exist until they do something great again. For example, I feel that the debut Third Eye Blind album was one of the best start-to-finish albums of the nineties. I gave their second album a chance... and the third one killed it for me.
as a rule, for me, when the bands line-up changes so many times over the years thats when i give up..as in dokkens case. also as many know i love ratt..when i seen them without stephen pearcy it was a waste of money..i only went due to cinderella was playing with quiot riot..so when it becomes more of a money thing to the band with 1 or 2 original members its time for me to dig out their classics..
Hi Mike.
It depends on a lot of things, how many good ones they had before the string of bad releases started, how much brand loyalty there is, but mostly the circumstances of the bad releases.
On one hand I stopped paying attention to Frank Black after one release that was decent because it affirmed a stylistic change that didn't really interest me. As a friend of mine put it he basically went from college rock to college professor rock and at the rate he releases records (he was going at a 2 albums/year clip for a little bit there) I just lost interest. To the same token, I stopped buying Guided By Voices and Robert Pollard records simply because I was frustrated with their track record of not releasing a solid record. Always a few really good songs, but a bunch of average to not so good ones.
On the other hand, somehow I keep buying albums that Lou Barlow is attached to when it's pretty clear that he doesn't have that thing that made him great. I think I'm done now after he went about 3/4s (mostly because Jason Loewenstein's songs on "the Sebadoh" were great) out of his last 4 or 5. I think the logic behind it is that there are like 2 tracks on each of these records that make me believe the thing that makes him great is in there somewhere.
Just in general, I think I would probably say 2 or 3 if it just comes down to diminshing quality, but word of mouth factors in (I could be burned extra times if people I trust tell me they're turning it around), I would give someone like Steve Malkmus or the Shins more lattitude, but like I said it also depends on why I didn't like the record just as much as anything else.
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Hi Master C, that is a really good point. It should be noted that I will almost never write off a band I like completely. If I were to hear that a band that I had stopped buying just put out an amazing or even really good record from a couple people I would still be inclined to buy it. I just give up on the instinct of "oh, so and so has a new one out, gonna have to get that."
Usually it's 2, but it depends on how what was wrong with the two albums: Did they change their sound (as Metallica did with the "Black" album) or did the songs just stink? A great example for a band I gave up on is King's X. Their first two albums were brilliant but "Faith, Hope, Love" sounded like a watered down version of the first two. Whatever came after that sounded like grunge/alternative and I gave up on them.
Megadeth had two bad albums (Cryptic Writings and Risk) that contained a few good songs but were a clear shift in a different (commercial) direction. They came back with The World Needs A Hero that was more like them but still wasn't that great but I wasn't ready to give up on them. "The System Has Failed" brought me back completely.
NP - Nevermore "All The Cowards Hide"
Usually 2 or 3, but it depends on how bad the album is. NIN's last 2 albums have been disappointing, but they're decent enough that I'll continue buying future releases. But there have been a few bands that put out an album so bad that I knew I wouldn't buy any more after it.
That's an impossible question for the eternal optimist to answer. I say keep trying! Best wishes
Two in a row for me too. If they just release one bad one we can write it off as a fluke.
I was a huge Tori Amos fan of her first 3 albums and then her 4th she started using a backup band and these electronic sounds....it just was not the same as her with only her piano. It was like it didn't seem so sacred and personal anymore. I wanted to like her 4 and 5th album, but I just could not and have not bought one since.
I generally take the attitude that having earned it once, they deserve my patience. Which some artists admittedly do their best to stretch to breaking point (record holders - Bowie, nothing but crap since 1980; Dylan, ditto since 1975). So I just retreat to my kennel, fire up the old stuff, and have a good ol' fashioned grumble about how things were better in The Good Old Days. (Bitching is so therapeutic; a paradox, but there you go.)
However, if they have released two really sucky albums in a row, then I am pretty cautious before continuing to illegally download any further material from them via my favoured P2P or BitTorrent servic -
*dog is arrested on the spot by RIAA agents who have been patrolling R&P for weeks, hoping for precisely such a break. Bits of fur, skin, toupee, and cheap polyester suit fly everywhere in the melee, which is accompanied by much vicious growling and cries of "ow, ow, not there - ow, sonofabitch!" Dog is subdued and placed in police van. Hums "I Fought The Law" sadly as van disappears into the distance en route to anti-rabies monitoring pen*
Two or three (used to be one!)....
Embarrassed to say that I quit listening to Led Zeppelin after their fourth album - but what an act to follow!! Took me several years - decades, even - and tons of personal recommendations to give their later albums a chance and find what I had been missing (better late than never!).
So now it's more like two... Just one could be a fluke (U2 Zooropa, anyone?) so I'm more likely to give a band I really like another chance or two, even if they've released a real stinker.
i am still happy bands like dokken are trying to put out music, some of the new bands put out crap. but look at kiss over the years they have put out one or two bad ones also, but i would never give up on them, also load and re-load were bad but metallica is still a band. dokken is working on a new project and i think you will be happy when it comes out in a few months.
For me, this is determined on an individual case-by-case base. One example is Metallica. I bought the "black" album and it sucked, but it took the next bad release to dismiss them. Radio airplay also tends to be a factor.
BTW, Dokken always sucked!
The band that comes to mind is Staind. ( are they still around? ) Dysfunction was such a good album! I worked in a record store at the time and pushed that CD like it was crack!!!!
I bought the second , eager and excitedly... bleh!!!!! After that, I was done. I can only take so much whining!!! What a waste.
The same with Godsmack! I loved the first... the second barely okay. You couldn't give me another one of their Cd's.
So the answer is 2 consecutive!!!!! of course this rule goes out the window with the last 2 NIN records... I just can't give up on Trent like that!!!
if it is a band i really like, i will try not to give up on them....good bands can differ but still have a definite sound....so if a band i really like sounds different on another cd, i will still give it a listen.....as an example.....godsmack is on hiatus right now, but there are rumors of sully erna releasing a solo album, although i wish it were new stuff from godsmack, i will still give his cd a good listen...even though the rumors say it is going to sound completely different from godsmack...also, there album IV was not as strong as their previous albums, but i gave it a listen and still love it, i appreciate their and his talents and that is enough to get me to continue listening..... :)
For me it takes maybe one or two. I used to be really impressed with Avenged Sevenfold because they were living proof that the guitar solo was alive and well but with the new album I was sorely disappointed. So much so that I bought the album 2 days before their show that I had asked off to go see, and volunteered to work instead. I will most likely not buy another one until they get themselves straightened out.
About four, as in the last four Gawdawful Rolling Stones albums...
Mick, Keith..I love You Guys but please...Retire
I don't have a limit, but then again I also don't buy without finding a way to hear half of an album first unless it is something I want on cd that I have in vinyl or 8-Track.
i like rap and hip hop so it doesnt