Biggest Decline In a Career?

[SMiLE Brian]

My bloody valentine- nothing since loveless.

[Newguy562]

To his wonderful records with his brothers through early adulthood on to the funkiest of his solo music, Michael Jackson seemed to have it all. The music was still intermitedly interesting, but he became a joke after 1984. Don't get me wrong Bad was decent, but after that his sound gets  noisey and harsh with an occasional glimmer of soul or beauty peaking through. I know he was set to make something of a comeback, and he has since his death, I still feel the second half of his life was just such a sad decent.  

I can't agree with this.  While his life was kind of tragic, you can't really say he had a 'professional' decline.  Any issues he had with money or sales or chart position or whatever were self inflicted, and then, after death he was more popular than ever.  Also his 'Dangerous" album was HUGE and made him a mint, it was nearly as successful as Thriller.  He also did big business with the "History" double album in 95 or so, even had a #1 hit off of it. 

So since it's 'biggest decline in a career' I don't think you can possibly say Michael's career declined much at all.  Anything looks like a decline compared to 100 million album sales. 

I think we need to define what exactly is meant by decline here because people are talking about two different things.  There is a decline in sales and an artistic decline.  The music industry is littered with artists who continue to rack up sales based on past glories but haven't put out a decent record in decades.  So two different things here.

i'm speaking of both combined

[Newguy562]

Yep...The Lady in My Life is my favorite cut on the album, and one of my favorite Michael Jackson recordings.

I personally like Dark Side the best, but really all of their albums pre-Wall were great pieces of work, possibly aside from Atom Heart Mother.

atom heart mother has fat old sun and summer 68 which are beautiful tracks
i say the weakest from pink has to be ..Soundtrack from the Film More...Ummagumma...The Final Cut..

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

I agree with you on More. I like Ummagumma, although I have to be in the mood to listen to it I actually love The Final Cut.

[Lonely Summer]

I will defend latter day Kinks to my dying day, but if someone wants to pick apart the solo careers of the Davies brothers, go right ahead. It's mostly been Ray and Dave offering different ways of remaking the old stuff. Storyteller, Kinks Khoral Kollection, See My Friends duets from Ray,  and endless live discs from Dave. It's like they couldn't stand to be together, but being together is what brought out their creativity.

[MBE]

I think Michael Jackson and the Jacksons peaked with Destiny, Off The Wall, and Triumph. It still seemed to be about the music then. Being a Beach Boys fan I love hearing brothers harmonize so the two group albums I mention (they were good songwriters too) have more for me.  I like Thiller and Bad, Dangerous never sat well with me though some of the new stuff on HiStory was decent. I don't know though, I like the Michael who seemed shy, a bit eccentric, but not yet "King Of Pop".  I remember the days before Thriller because my friends across the street were Jacksons fans, and nobody considered him as being strange. Again I can't stress how much more productive Michael was as an artist before he began trying to make himself seem like some sort of dietity. His big mistake musically was to ignore the R&B he was so good at as heard on all the Jackson 5./Jacksons/ and seventies solo LP's. He should have stopped trying to be "MICHAEL JACKSON" and just focused on music. Not his clothes, not his hair, not his nose, music. I am a huge fan but this is how he musically hits me. Perhaps I simply like groups and seventies music better than muisic from the eighties on and solo artists? I'm looking at this as a creative and personal decline over his last twenty to twenty five years, not popularity. That has nothing to do with how good something is so those huge later numbers don't impress me in the slightest. I hate arena or stadium shows in general

In the same vein I love late sixties rock music more than anything since so it's Syd Barrett who I really get into. I like the Floyd after him through Obscured By Clouds, but I wouldn't have listened anything after it had they had not done the early music. That said I don't think they were bad at all until Rick was fired.   

[Jay]

Jerry Lee Lewis, anybody? Although, technically his career end happened over a scandal that wasn't music related.

[Newguy562]

How about prince it seems he fell off after 1987 :/ (he's definitely one of my favorites.)

[cablegeddon]

Collective Soul released two great albums in the 90s, Self-titled and Dosage. For some reason their songwriting went down the shitter. They've horrible for at least 10 years now.

[MBE]

Jerry Lee Lewis, anybody? Although, technically his career end happened over a scandal that wasn't music related.

I didn't think of him because he maintained high artistic standards and had never lost the respect of the discerning music fan.  Sure it was a professinal fall.

[Jay]

Jerry Lee Lewis, anybody? Although, technically his career end happened over a scandal that wasn't music related.

I didn't think of him because he maintained high artistic standards and had never lost the respect of the discerning music fan.  Sure it was a professinal fall.

I wouldn't neccarily say that he never lost the respect pf the discerning music fan. Don't forget, it was switching to country and western that basically saved his career. When I think of country music, I usually picture people who are middle aged to elderly. I think by switching to country and western, Jerry Lee convinced some of the older generation(the parents of the typical record buying tennager) that he had toned down his "wild" bad boy image.

[Newguy562]

what about bob dylan after the 60's? lol

[hypehat]

I would say Dylan after 76..... Although he's out there doing the good work still so he's bounced back.

Definitely Prince after Batman,  or if you're being the charitable the first Symbol album - he's just settled into this weird mediocrity. There's probably a great couple of albums in there, but there's a DELUGE of stuff.


Did The Ramones ever decline, or did they just keep writing the same song again and again and again?

[Moon Dawg]

  Elvis Presley, post "Burning Love"/ALOHA FROM HAWAII? Granted, he always had a large fan base at every stage of his career, but there was an unmistakable professional and personal decline after the worldwide success of the ALOHA project. His career seemed to consist of the rut of endless touring/Vegas and records that sold moderately well without any true smash singles after "Burning Love."

[pixletwin]

To his wonderful records with his brothers through early adulthood on to the funkiest of his solo music, Michael Jackson seemed to have it all. The music was still intermitedly interesting, but he became a joke after 1984. Don't get me wrong Bad was decent, but after that his sound gets  noisey and harsh with an occasional glimmer of soul or beauty peaking through. I know he was set to make something of a comeback, and he has since his death, I still feel the second half of his life was just such a sad decent.  

Yeah which something I always bring up when someone mentions Michael Jackson's "greatness".  His albums got progressively worse not better.  Compare that to say The Beatles whose albums got progressively better as their career went along.

also pink floyd they kept getting better & better.

Um until after Roger Waters left... but I believe thats water we have already tread here. 

[pixletwin]

what about bob dylan after the 60's? lol

Dylan's last 4 albums have been every bit as good as anything he ever did in the 60's.

Per MJ, pretty much everything he did after the Pepsi incident was FAIL, imo.

[Newguy562]

I would say Dylan after 76..... Although he's out there doing the good work still so he's bounced back.

Definitely Prince after Batman,  or if you're being the charitable the first Symbol album - he's just settled into this weird mediocrity. There's probably a great couple of albums in there, but there's a DELUGE of stuff.


Did The Ramones ever decline, or did they just keep writing the same song again and again and again?

after 76? i thought some of his worst material were in the 70's i might have to recheck it.
yes in the 90's prince started releasing some his strangest and almost intolerable music ever..."Come"..."The Gold Experience".."Graffite Bridge"
end of the century and pleasant dreams sound so different from the rest of their catalog

[Newguy562]

  Elvis Presley, post "Burning Love"/ALOHA FROM HAWAII? Granted, he always had a large fan base at every stage of his career, but there was an unmistakable professional and personal decline after the worldwide success of the ALOHA project. His career seemed to consist of the rut of endless touring/Vegas and records that sold moderately well without any true smash singles after "Burning Love."

poor elvis :/ when did that fat elvis era began?

[nickdunning]

I will defend latter day Kinks to my dying day, but if someone wants to pick apart the solo careers of the Davies brothers, go right ahead. It's mostly been Ray and Dave offering different ways of remaking the old stuff. Storyteller, Kinks Khoral Kollection, See My Friends duets from Ray,  and endless live discs from Dave. It's like they couldn't stand to be together, but being together is what brought out their creativity.

The Kinks started to go downhill after 'Muswell Hillbillies'....A long, hard, decline IMHO.

[nickdunning]

Yep...The Lady in My Life is my favorite cut on the album, and one of my favorite Michael Jackson recordings.

I personally like Dark Side the best, but really all of their albums pre-Wall were great pieces of work, possibly aside from Atom Heart Mother.

atom heart mother has fat old sun and summer 68 which are beautiful tracks
i say the weakest from pink has to be ..Soundtrack from the Film More...Ummagumma...The Final Cut..

'More' has some great songs on it - 'Ummagumma' is the nadir, although the live stuff is superb.

'The Final Cut' is a masterpiece IMHO.

[I. Spaceman]

Rod Stewart and Eric Clapton, easily.

More is one of my three favorite Pink Floyd albums.

[OGoldin]

The Kinks started to go downhill after 'Muswell Hillbillies'....A long, hard, decline IMHO.

There was a remarkable resurgence with "Give the People What They Want."   I didn't care for the general negativity of the album (though  "Better Days" is great) but the punks loved them -- they were one of the few 60s bands that were still au courrant.  Then came "Come Dancing" -- the Kink's Kokomo, and -- again like anything after Love You by our favorite band, after that it is cherrypicking time at best.

[Lonely Summer]

what about bob dylan after the 60's? lol

Dylan's last 4 albums have been every bit as good as anything he ever did in the 60's.

Nashville Skyline, Desire, Blood on the Tracks, Slow Train Coming, Oh Mercy, Time Out of Mind, Love and Theft (to name a few) all came after the fabled 1966 motorcycle accident. If those were the only albums he'd ever done, it would be one hell of a career.

[MBE]

Jerry Lee Lewis, anybody? Although, technically his career end happened over a scandal that wasn't music related.

I didn't think of him because he maintained high artistic standards and had never lost the respect of the discerning music fan.  Sure it was a professional fall.

I wouldn't neccarily say that he never lost the respect pf the discerning music fan. Don't forget, it was switching to country and western that basically saved his career. When I think of country music, I usually picture people who are middle aged to elderly. I think by switching to country and western, Jerry Lee convinced some of the older generation(the parents of the typical record buying tennager) that he had toned down his "wild" bad boy image.

Well country was always a part of his music and his late sixties songs were polished but critically acclaimed. By the early seventies he was doing a lot of rock again and his shows weren't toned down at all. Catch the 1969 Toronto footage, he's as wild as ever.

[MBE]

I would say Dylan after 76..... Although he's out there doing the good work still so he's bounced back.

Definitely Prince after Batman,  or if you're being the charitable the first Symbol album - he's just settled into this weird mediocrity. There's probably a great couple of albums in there, but there's a DELUGE of stuff.


Did The Ramones ever decline, or did they just keep writing the same song again and again and again?

Dylan never sang as well after 1976 but Street Legal, Slow Train, Oh Mercy, The Wilbury's LP's, Under The Red Sky (I know most hate that one but I like it) Modern Times, Love and Theft, Time Out Of Mind are very good if not to the level of the pre 1977 stuff.