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Mini: One Hit Wonders · Why We Do What We Do

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to Why we do what we do? Welcome
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  Speaker 1: to Why we do what we do Mini. I'm your
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  Speaker 1: host Abraham and I'm your host Shane. We are a
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  Speaker 1: the end of this discussion. But you find yourselves here
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  Speaker 1: we should jump into it. Is there anything I'm missing
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  Speaker 1: or you'd like to add before we begin today? Note
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  Speaker 1: not today beautiful, So we begin. We are talking today
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  Speaker 1: about music, specifically a type of music one called a
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  Speaker 1: one hit wonder. This refers to an artist who has, Conceptually,
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  Speaker 1: here we're talking about a single, huge mainstream success hit
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  Speaker 1: in the form usually of a song. After this hit,
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  Speaker 1: they fail to achieve similar success and often will kind
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  Speaker 1: of disappear. So they some song of theirs gets very
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  Speaker 1: very popular. It flares up very bright. They're very well
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  Speaker 1: known for that song. That's the last anyone really hears
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  Speaker 1: about them in the popular spaces they once occupied because
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  Speaker 1: of that song.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, they quickly become someone you used to know. A snaps,
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  Speaker 2: well done, STAPs snaps.
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  Speaker 3: There you go. So, how does this happen?
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  Speaker 2: Well, I was trying to research this, and it's a
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  Speaker 2: huge complex system of taste makers and capitalism and all
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  Speaker 2: those things, and artists integrity and all that, but it's
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  Speaker 2: mostly general trends in what could be described as an
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  Speaker 2: extremely competitive market. There are lots of metrics, including the
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  Speaker 2: Billboard Hot one hundred. We did a whole episode on Billboard,
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  Speaker 2: which I think is really valuable and important. But we
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  Speaker 2: do need a little bit more history here to understand
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  Speaker 2: the current music industry in order to understand how one
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  Speaker 2: hit wonders actually develop.
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  Speaker 1: Love history perfect. So, pre World War Two, just even
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  Speaker 1: recording and putting out music was a lot more challenging
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  Speaker 1: than it is today. By Miles and Miles, musicians would
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  Speaker 1: often act as singles artists. Now why would they do this, Well,
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  Speaker 1: it's a lot cheaper to record a single where you
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  Speaker 1: only have one track or maybe two tracks because one
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  Speaker 1: to two and release it that way than to record
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  Speaker 1: an entire album. It takes less time in the studio,
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  Speaker 1: it takes less space and a record. But in the
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  Speaker 1: nineteen fifties, with the emergent of record charts such as
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  Speaker 1: the Billboard, society began to quantify what a one hit
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  Speaker 1: wonder actually was, began to create a context by which
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  Speaker 1: it's like, well, there's something important in here about the
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  Speaker 1: fact that we attached the value of something to the
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  Speaker 1: artists who created it, and then therefore what they create,
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  Speaker 1: that thing that's created is known as being important and
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  Speaker 1: relevant to that artist, And so if they make more things,
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  Speaker 1: then we can attribute those again to that artist, and
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  Speaker 1: if they don't make things that achieve that level of
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  Speaker 1: acclaim and fame, then we sort of write them off
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  Speaker 1: as they got the one thing in the sauce and
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  Speaker 1: then that was kind of their one trick.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, So the general consensus is that when somebody has
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  Speaker 2: only one Billboard Top forty hit, and that's kind that's
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  Speaker 2: the main criteria that I've seen a bunch of times.
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  Speaker 2: Is it a Billboard Top forty hit god When they've
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  Speaker 2: had only one and failed to have another, Even if
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  Speaker 2: they have popular songs and it doesn't reach that level,
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  Speaker 2: they get this status of one hit wonder. It's arbitrary,
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  Speaker 2: and I think it's really important to stay it up front.
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  Speaker 2: It's completely arbitrary. But that being said, the timeline for
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  Speaker 2: when their next hit is not agreed upon. So technically
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  Speaker 2: someone could have a hit on the charts forty years
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  Speaker 2: later and negate that definition. They could have a huge
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  Speaker 2: hit in you know, let's say the eighties, and then
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  Speaker 2: they come all the way back into the twenty twenties
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  Speaker 2: and they have a hit then, and technically they're not
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  Speaker 2: a one hit wonder. But you know, at this point
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  Speaker 2: in time, it's an arbitrary title.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, they would have spent so long as a one
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  Speaker 1: hit wonder, they'd kind of been known that way, even
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  Speaker 1: if they were no longer a one hit wonder.
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  Speaker 3: I think exactly exactly, Okay.
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  Speaker 1: The main culprit for trying to understand, like how this happens,
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  Speaker 1: what's going on here, because presumably you want to invest
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  Speaker 1: in someone who's going to turn out hit after hit
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  Speaker 1: after hit, and therefore you can have like a reliable
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  Speaker 1: money making machine in the form of someone who just
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  Speaker 1: records these these hits that go out into the world
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  Speaker 1: and people buy up that thing. But the main culprit
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  Speaker 1: for making one hit wonders is simply that the recording
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  Speaker 1: industry is highly competitive between current trends, artist personalities, record
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  Speaker 1: label support, public behavior. An artists may become rapidly popular
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  Speaker 1: and then just fizzle out soon afterward. And I do think,
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  Speaker 1: as you mentioned the beginning, like there is a huge,
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  Speaker 1: huge amount I think people don't recognize of Like if
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  Speaker 1: you like music that plays on the radio, you like
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  Speaker 1: stuff that's popular, there's like a really really good chance
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  Speaker 1: that some producer was like I chose this, that people
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  Speaker 1: are going to like this because I chose it. I
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  Speaker 1: control this market. I control what you get to hear.
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  Speaker 1: I control what you like. You like it because I
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  Speaker 1: told you you like it, deal with it, and then
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  Speaker 1: you give me money, and I keep doing this to you.
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  Speaker 1: And so some of them they give up on that
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  Speaker 1: artist and they are just no longer willing to push
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  Speaker 1: them anymore, or sometimes they for whatever reason. You know
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  Speaker 1: that artists just can't connect with another's version of the hit.
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  Speaker 1: But that's essentially the I think. A thing to remember
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  Speaker 1: and consider when we're talking about these is like, how
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  Speaker 1: much of the time, if you're like popular music, someone's
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  Speaker 1: pulling the strings for you to like that popular music.
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  Speaker 1: They're controlling that for you. You're making no choices in
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  Speaker 1: this arena.
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  Speaker 2: Right, And it's it's even worse with like algorithms and
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  Speaker 2: stuff too, Like now that's now that's turning into a
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  Speaker 2: whole different thing. That's like making it so that certain
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  Speaker 2: songs reach certain levels and other ones get suppressed and
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  Speaker 2: all that stuff. But you know you're a real one hit.
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  Speaker 2: Wonder if your song is used like thirty forty fifty
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  Speaker 2: years later in a commercial or an ad.
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  Speaker 3: All Right, So we're talking about the.
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  Speaker 2: Incredibly complex contingencies by which somebody becomes a one hit wonder.
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  Speaker 2: It requires the artist to make a song, It requires
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  Speaker 2: a record label to usually get on with the song.
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  Speaker 2: It requires a pr team, It requires radio, it requires advertising,
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  Speaker 2: It requires all these things. But there are other situations
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  Speaker 2: where this does happen. So in some instances, a hit
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  Speaker 2: may emerge following the death of an artist, like big boppers,
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  Speaker 2: Chantilly Lace or Shantilly Lace, and other instances, the breakup
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  Speaker 2: of a band quickly following some slight success can boost
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  Speaker 2: a song into the stratosphere. And that's like if you've
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  Speaker 2: ever heard You Get What You Give by New Radicals,
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  Speaker 2: that is an example. They broke up before that song
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  Speaker 2: became super popular and that is like their hit.
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  Speaker 3: So there's lots of other things that can boost up songs. Yeah. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: One reason we saw on our research is that an
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  Speaker 1: artist with a big hit may not have been the
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  Speaker 1: original writer. And this is actually again fairly common that
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  Speaker 1: artists will essentially buy music and then they perform it
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  Speaker 1: and they get to claim it as their own because
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  Speaker 1: they bought it, but it wasn't actually something that they wrote.
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  Speaker 1: And who cares, because the point is that they get
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  Speaker 1: to make money, And that's what this is. This is
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  Speaker 1: the industry. It's about that the Hitcharden may have been
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  Speaker 1: a cover song and may have been written credited to
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  Speaker 1: another artist or a writer or a producer. They'll have
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  Speaker 1: people kind of ghostwrite some of these. Sometimes they'll buy
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  Speaker 1: them off writers, and subsequent songs written by the actual
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  Speaker 1: artists might not have the same catchiness or novelty or
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  Speaker 1: the things that made that first hit a success. They're
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  Speaker 1: not bringing to the table because they got it from elsewhere.
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  Speaker 3: Right exactly.
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  Speaker 2: So they leverage something that is like the talent of
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  Speaker 2: somebody else, and then they can't just they just can't
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  Speaker 2: do the same thing. They can't replicate it. Artists have
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  Speaker 2: also come to hate the original hit song that they've recorded,
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  Speaker 2: like that's been their popular hit, like I don't know Canson,
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  Speaker 2: and so they do everything they can to rewrite their
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  Speaker 2: band and their preferred image.
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  Speaker 3: So Chumbawamba is a really great example of this.
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  Speaker 2: You might know the song tub Thumping because it was
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  Speaker 2: all over the place in ninety nine seven. Do you
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  Speaker 2: remember that, Like you just couldn't go anywhere without hearing that,
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  Speaker 2: and like spice Girls, Oh my god. But what you
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  Speaker 2: might not know is that the band wrote the song
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  Speaker 2: as a joke. It was not meant to be a hit.
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  Speaker 2: It was not meant to be anything other than a joke.
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  Speaker 2: Because they were an anarcho punk band that started in
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  Speaker 2: nineteen eighty two and were widely considered influential in the
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  Speaker 2: anarcho punk band scene, like in that space, and they
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  Speaker 2: were very loud animal rights activists. Just for a reference,
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  Speaker 2: so you all know. Their last release was an EP
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  Speaker 2: called Immemorium Margaret Thatcher that they'd recorded and set for
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  Speaker 2: pre orders in two thousand and five. They recorded in
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  Speaker 2: two thousand and five because they were like, when she dies,
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  Speaker 2: we're gonna release this, and they didn't release it until
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  Speaker 2: the day she died, and they quoted it as saying
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  Speaker 2: it was a part of a quote segment of celebrations.
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  Speaker 2: Wow Chumbawama, I get knocked down, but I get up again. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: is an anarcho punk band and tub Thumping was a
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  Speaker 2: weird one hit wonder song that they just didn't really
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  Speaker 2: they didn't really care about.
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  Speaker 3: They're like, we could I bet we could do this.
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  Speaker 1: Eh, that is wild that's in wildness mm hmm.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: A point of note here, artists generally do not like
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  Speaker 1: being called one hit Wonders, right. Why Well, because this
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  Speaker 1: would suggest that they were defined by a single piece
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  Speaker 1: of work, not their entire body of work. As you said,
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  Speaker 1: a lot of times, I actually have a lot of
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  Speaker 1: successful tracks, I get very popular, they just don't quite
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  Speaker 1: make it into that top forty slot. And so even
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  Speaker 1: if all of their tracks have really successful singles off
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  Speaker 1: of them, if they don't get quite to the same
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  Speaker 1: point they're like, dude, we're like, we've been a touring
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  Speaker 1: band for twenty years. We sell out shows, we sell merch,
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  Speaker 1: we sell albums, like we're doing great. Calling is the
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  Speaker 1: one that Wonders seems a little unfair, you know, uh huh, Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: that definitely happens to a few of them. Actually, it's
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  Speaker 1: been Doctors an EXAs this where they're pretty much known
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  Speaker 1: for their one track, but they actually had a bunch
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  Speaker 1: of songs that you actually probably recognized many of them, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: because they actually were they were a group for a
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  Speaker 1: long time doing their thing.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: I mean Third Eye Blind is an example too, Like,
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  Speaker 2: I mean, I wouldn't say they were one hit wonder
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  Speaker 2: because they've had a couple other hits, but like most
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  Speaker 2: of their hits come from their first album, and they've
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  Speaker 2: had multiple albums since then that are really good. Ever
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  Speaker 2: Clear is another one too that had like a couple
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  Speaker 2: really good hits, but they've got great albums beyond those records. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: so I think it's really important to I mean, maybe
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  Speaker 2: that's just like relevant to us.
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  Speaker 3: But so also this term.
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  Speaker 2: Is an exclusive to music. This happens with movies and
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  Speaker 2: books too, and there are some notable examples, like the
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: director of Donni Darko, Richard Kelly hasn't really had a
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  Speaker 2: successful movie since Donnie Darko. He has directed some things,
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  Speaker 2: but that was big, his big thing, and that was
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  Speaker 2: his debut movie.
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  Speaker 1: Duncan Jones, director of moon Man. That movie was good. Yeah, Wow,
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  Speaker 1: moon was so good.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Interesting. So apparently got that one out there and then
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  Speaker 1: hasn't been able to land anything quite a successful since.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Hanks the actor is considered a directorial one hit wonder
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  Speaker 2: because he really only directed that Thing You Do to success.
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  Speaker 2: Everything else that he's done has not really reached that level.
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  Speaker 2: And that Thing You Do is great.
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  Speaker 1: Actually never seen that.
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  Speaker 3: I need to Oh Space, it's so good, it's so good.
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  Speaker 3: Paul W.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: S Anderson not to be confused with Paul Thomas Anderson.
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  Speaker 1: Very different different, yes, very different act.
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  Speaker 3: Yes it is.
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  Speaker 1: He directed Event Horizon and the Resident Evil series, so yeah,
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  Speaker 1: also falls in that.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, his only good movie being Event Horizon is the
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  Speaker 2: point of that one, right, yeah? Yeah, Resident Evil fun
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  Speaker 2: not good. This happens with books too. So Margaret Mitchell,
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  Speaker 2: the author of Gone with the Wind really only put
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  Speaker 2: out one book. Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, really
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  Speaker 2: isn't known for any of her other works, if they exist.
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  Speaker 2: Emily Bronte is another one, for Wuthering Heights. She Again,
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  Speaker 2: these are folks that have a body of work, but
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  Speaker 2: they're pretty they're not as well known as like these
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  Speaker 2: particular works.
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  Speaker 1: Oscar Wilde, author author of Picture of Dorian Gray. Anthony Burgess,
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: author of a Clockwork Orange good book too. Yeah, them
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  Speaker 1: leaving out the final chapter of that book from the
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  Speaker 1: movie I think was not the best choice.
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  Speaker 3: Right.
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  Speaker 1: And then finally Ken Kesey Kessey Casey, author of One
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  Speaker 1: Flew Over a Cuckoo's Nest also sort of again only
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  Speaker 1: known for the one thing that they.
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  Speaker 2: Did right, kind of wild I mean, But so I
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  Speaker 2: think the point is is, like, there are lots of
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  Speaker 2: contingencies that lead to this, but at the end of
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  Speaker 2: the day, there's no true one like one true cause
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  Speaker 2: it's just kind of like lightning in a bottle type
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  Speaker 2: of situations. And it's unfortunate because these artists are doing
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  Speaker 2: good work and really putting out incredible things beyond that
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  Speaker 2: one particular piece, and many times they don't like it,
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  Speaker 2: So be nice to them.
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  Speaker 3: One Hit Wonders, it's that nice.
• 12:45
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  Speaker 1: Hit Wonders, you can email us directly info WWDWWD podcast
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  Speaker 1: So we do appreciate everyone over there. Thank you so
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  Speaker 1: much to my team of people. Thank you for recording
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  Speaker 1: with me today, Shane and your awesome job putting together
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: these notes.
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: Hey, thanks for having me and let me do it.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you all for listening. Is there anything you would
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  Speaker 1: like to add or that I forgot before we wrap up?
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  Speaker 3: Nothing for today? All right? Then, this is Abraham and
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  Speaker 3: this is Shane.
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  Speaker 1: Why We Do What We Do Mini is out.
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  Speaker 3: Bye.
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  Speaker 1: Mo