10 Albums That Killed Artists' Careers
Nothing would be the same again.
For many artists, all it takes is one album to put them on top of the world. Whether it's your first time up to the plate or the result of years of hard work, bands have fought tooth and nail to make their work better than the rest. Then again, it also takes just one album to see it come crashing down.
Arriving at the low point in these artists' discography, these are the albums that mark the beginning of the end for any more good music. It could come from a drastic change in sound or just a lackluster delivery, but these artists have not been able to recover from the performances that they turned in on these albums.
The kicker is that some of these albums aren't even really bad. In fact, some of them stand up as some of the best work of the band's career, but these records may have had a hand in the band's downfall by setting the bar a little too high.
A lot of these acts have done phenomenal work, but these are the records where you knew things weren't going to be the same. It was fun while it lasted, but here's where everything starts to run out of gas.
10. Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too - New Radicals
If you wanted any credibility as a pop star in the late '90s, most of your songs had to be laced with alternative tendencies. Even though the sound of grunge had long since fallen by the wayside, the angsty attitude and youthful lyrics still had a firm hold on the pop scene. Just before the age of boy bands, the New Radicals came out with one of the brightest pop gems of the decade.
Maybe You've Been Brainwashed is an absolute joy to listen to, with care-free songs like "You Get What You Give" being juxtaposed with more heady tracks like "I Hope I Didn't Just Give Away the Ending." So if a record is this good, how did it end up costing the band its life? Well, this was a case of a band calling it quits before they reached their full potential.
Given the sudden rush of fame, frontman Gregg Alexander began to loathe his new life as a superstar, often performing with his hat pulled down so as to not see the crowds he was performing to. Shortly after wrapping up a leg of the tour, Alexander cut ties with the rest of the band and began a successful life as a songwriter outside the spotlight. He might be in a better emotional place now, but it's a shame we'll never see how great this band could have been.