10 Biggest Album Flops In Rock History
2. Cyberpunk - Billy Idol
The golden age of MTV was dominated by Billy Idol. At a time when people were just starting to get acquainted with the idea of the music video, the former leader of Generation X struck out on his own with some of the most infectious pop-flavored punk the masses had ever heard. But like all '80s superstars, the turn of the decade ended up being too cruel to punk's commercial ringleader.
Trying to reinvent his career from the ground up, Cyberpunk was one of the biggest bombs to ever come from a mainstream artist, as Idol took on a concept of a virtual reality universe within the span of one album of music. This kind of idea actually seems do-able on paper, but the actual idea of a technological interface sounds much more suited to a prog rock production than a punk rock lens.
Kudos to Idol for trying the more DIY approach of DJs, but considering that the industrial boom hadn't really kicked into high gear yet, the age of Nirvana left this album out in the cold. After a decade of dominating the charts, this was the one album that Idol wouldn't recover from, as he escaped into the shadows before eventually coming out with nostalgic music and Christmas albums at the turn of the century. The Idol that we know and love is in here somewhere, but the running concept seems much more suited to an online RPG than an actual album.