"One trick pony" bands

I sense this thread will quickly just descend into disagreements about which bands are actually 'good'.

Radiohead - all wrist-slashing drab nonsense. "Ah yeah but Fitter Happier is dead different to Creep" etc etc.

Oasis songs are very similar. Same instruments, same tempo, anthemic, saying shine all the time.

Radiohead changed from a misery rock band to weird glitchy caterwauling. They're one of the most obvious examples of a band that pushed the envelope and evolved.

Oasis put out some really good singles though they ran out of steam after a couple of albums.

Radiohead are terrible. Really really bad. I'm not entirely convinced they aren't taking the ****.
 
I'm confused. What's the difference between a one hit wonder and a band that had one hit then went away?
Hardly any of the bands mentioned fit either description.
 
Oasis songs are very similar. Same instruments, same tempo, anthemic, saying shine all the time.

Radiohead changed from a misery rock band to weird glitchy caterwauling. They're one of the most obvious examples of a band that pushed the envelope and evolved.

Oasis put out some really good singles though they ran out of steam after a couple of albums.

Radiohead are terrible. Really really bad. I'm not entirely convinced they aren't taking the ****.

I actually didn’t mind the first three Radiohead albums. They built this fiercely loyal following after that and I’m actually entirely convinced that since then they’ve been completely taking the ****, firmly in the knowledge that their fans attach a weird sort of “intellectual kudos” to them that few others bands can garner. I think they’re at the point now that if they recorded 50 minutes of their collective bowel movements and put it out as an album, many of their fans would claim it was “breathtaking and unique art.”

Fair play to them though, its made them pretty rich and they still don’t even seem to have to live very high profile lives.

I’m a huge Oasis fan, but their last 3 albums were very hit and miss. The one before that was rubbish, and the one before that was just too long. The two before that though are the defining albums of my youth, as well as the lesser known b-sides.

Whilst I wouldn’t vehemently disagree about them being one trick ponies, if you really know their stuff, you’d be hard pushed to claim that Headshrinker sounds similar to Idler’s Dream.
 
Last edited:
I'm confused. What's the difference between a one hit wonder and a band that had one hit then went away?
Hardly any of the bands mentioned fit either description.
The title was "one trick pony" not "one hit wonder". I contend that the Moody Blues released however many identical albums......
 
I'm confused. What's the difference between a one hit wonder and a band that had one hit then went away?
Hardly any of the bands mentioned fit either description.

There's a perfect example in my first post. It's about bands that do the same thing over and over (something obviously like my example, sometimes less so like Foo Fighters) but they can have had many hits to feature in this post.
 
What bands have made their entire career on just the one song, which they rehash over and over ?

I'm listening to Tom Tom Club's - Genuis of Live LP (Record store day release) and with the title, the two versions of Genius of Love on the LP and the couple of riffs from the song that they also pepper throughout the rest of the album - it seems they really struggle to get away from probably their most famous song.

Anymore like that who aren't necessarily "one hit wonders" that had one song and then went away ?
Fleetwood mac
 
The Associates. Billy McKenzie's voice was a remarkable thing but they basically had 2 fantastic singles - Party Fears Two & Club Country - and apparently nothing left in the creative tank that went anywhere near them.
 
Back
Top