Fallen Creator/Music

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• Michael Jackson was big in the 1970s, successfully building a solo career from his initial success with the Jackson 5/Jacksons, and then became huge with 1982's Thriller, especially when the three music videos derived from it refined and defined many tropes of the format. He was the biggest celebrity in the world for the remainder of the 1980s, and his next two solo albums were big hits as were most of his side projects; even his Pepsi commercials were events. He had a reputation for eccentricity, plastic surgery, and ego, but also for delivering great entertainment. Then in 1993, he was accused of child molestation and settled out of court. Nothing was the same for him after this, in part because he had cultivated an image as a friend to children -- he became "freakish" rather than "eccentric" (not helped by his increasingly Uncanny Valley appearance). The resultant Creator Breakdown resulted in 1995's HIStory, which let many critics and listeners down in the wake of its massive hype. Jackson didn't release another album of all-original work (Invincible) until 2001, and he was so unhappy with its sales (which weren't bad, but not close to his old numbers) that he accused his label of racially-motivated sabotage in its promotion. It Got Worse with a second round of child molestation charges resulting in a trial over 2003-05; he was found not guilty. Nothing of artistic note followed until he announced a series of London farewell concerts over 2009-10. These might have returned him to glory, but he died of an overdose of medication in June 2009 before a single show was performed. The upshot was that suddenly there were "King of Pop" tributes everywhere, with nary a critical word spoken. From The Onion's point of view, death was the only normal thing to happen to a star whose abusive childhood paved the way for a deeply disturbed adulthood.
• As a teenage idol, Britney Spears used to be known for her sexy schoolgirl look and sexier music that led her to international superstardom. As an adult, her musical success has been eclipsed by the breakdown of her mental health and personal life (04-08). Most notable were her surprise late-night Vegas marriage to a childhood friend, the subsequent annulment 56 hours later, her equally sudden marriage to one of her stage dancers, her even more sudden decision to divorce said second husband, several failed trips through rehab, shaving her head and attacking nearby paparazzi with her umbrella, losing custody of her children over her behavior and her rumored drug abuse, an MTV Video Music Awards performance in which she appeared terrified, supposedly out of shape, and unable to perform, and eventually being legally declared a conservatee of the state and placed under the care of her father and her attorney. Yet despite all this, her albums can still sell well. She has since made a successful Career Resurrection. Top selling tours, number one singles, outrageous first day plays, critical acclaim. Just to name a few. (2008-2011+)
• MC Hammer was once the biggest rap star on earth ("Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em" went 11x platinum and was at the top of the charts for 21 weeks), but after going bankrupt he fell harder than Michael Jackson ever did.
  • Couldn't the same thing also been said for Vanilla Ice as well?
• Not many people like Axl Rose anymore after he split up Guns N' Roses, trying to replace them with hired musicians, and building up massive hype for Chinese Democracy - which proved to be unremarkable given the amount of time it spent in Development Hell.
• AFI is a case of this to some. They started out as nothing remarkable - an ultra-fast hardcore punk revivalist band with a funny sounding singer and a weird sense of humour. Over time, they incorporated more horror punk style with a big Gothic lyrical streak, but still playing fast and loud. This is commonly considered to be when they became something great and original. They then released "Sing The Sorrow", which was actually well-received by fans, but was also slower and more pop-oriented. It was also a commercial hit. After that, "Decemberunderground" was more new wave, with the exception of several songs that demonstrated that AFI was now incapable of writing a good loud fast song. Then they followed that up with a terminally boring "Crash Love".
• Roger Waters of Pink Floyd became this after The Wall, and especially during The Final Cut, when he wrote all of the songs for that album, and the recording sessions for the album were so fraught with tension that David Gilmour requested to have his name removed from the producer's credits. Waters would quit the band in 1985, calling it "a spent force", and tried to sue his former bandmates to prevent them from using the Pink Floyd name, but he lost, though he did retain exclusive rights to The Wall, save for three songs that were co-written with Gilmour. Despite this image damage and solo albums that made a fraction of the impact of the Gilmour-led Floyd, in the 21st century Waters found success again, with Pink Floyd's reunion concert, solo tours inspired by The Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall, and the debut of Ça Ira, an opera written by him (!).
• The Spice Girls were top of the pops after the success of their debut single "Wannabe" in 1996: critical success, shedloads of awards, two platinum-selling albums, a sell-out tour and a movie that was a hit at the box office, as well as advertising deals for everything from cameras to lollipops. Then in 1998 Geri Halliwell left the group citing "differences" with the other girls. This fuelled tabloid speculation and led to backlash against the surviving band members (encouraged by similar rumours the previous year when they had fired their manager.) Her departure threw a spanner in the works of their recording and tour plans, forcing them to take a hiatus. Two of the "girls" got pregnant and wanted time off, Victoria became better known for her relationship with David Beckham than as a performer and Melanie C, claimed by some of the more cynical to be the only talented member of the group, became desperate to work as a solo artist. Their next album was a flop and they faded into the distance, although an official split was never announced. In 2007-2008 they had a successful reunion tour, but their new music was again poorly received. Victoria and Mel B, in particular, have begun to get bad reactions for events in their personal lives.
• Metallica pioneered the sound of Heavy Metal in America, selling out concerts without radio airplay and generally known for their rebel personas (who had special sections in their concerts for bootleggers to come and record the shows). Then they released Metallica (what we all call "the Black Album"). Not a bad album, but it made some of their old fans disappointed. Produced by Bob (Motley Crue) Rock, it lacked their traditional complex song structures and depth, and sounded like Metallica-lite. Then they went and dropped Load (no pun intended) on their fans in 1996, which sounded like some of the heavy grunge bands that had been popular for a couple of years by that point, only a bad version of grunge. Of course the guys in Metallica claimed that they weren't listening to any of that type of music and the album reflected their personal tastes. To make matters worse, bands like Pantera were playing Metallica's original style better than Metallica was. Not long after that, during the days of Napster, the rebels revealed their Digital Piracy Is Evil crusade, finally alienating most of their original fans.
  • It Got Worse. They followed up Load with a little album called St. Anger in 2003, an album widely considered So Bad It's Horrible, and one that even the band doesn't care much for. But then came Death Magnetic, widely considered a return to form - despite the Unpleasable Fanbase not being fully satisfied, and a nasty case of the squish.
  • It Got Worse again: Death Magnetic was followed by Lulu, a joint project with Lou Reed consisting of off-the-wall 'avant guarde' rock and noise. If the idea sounds nutty to you, you're not alone. Critical opinion ranged from underwhelming to horrified, with Pitchfork Media giving a rare 1/10 rating, and the fans were far less kind. Lou Reed said in an interview he made the album for fun and not to appeal to anyone, while Lars Ulrich compared the change in style to the band's acoustic turns on the critically acclaimed Ride The Lightning, suggesting that listeners would grow to like it.
• A literal example: Matthew Good. After breaking out on Underdogs, his band (the Matthew Good Band) was selling out shows across Canada. Their website was one of the pioneers in bands interacting with fans directly, as well as marking Good as a wacky-as-fuck singer with his "manifestos." Their third album, Beautiful Midnight, raised them to superstar status in 1999. Then, things began to fall apart rapidly, at first with Beautiful Midnight's heavily-delayed release in the States (partly due to actual label demands, mostly due to Good's Jerkass antics) to 2001. Then came The Audio of Being, released the same year which broke apart the band (disbanding shortly after release). Good recovered slightly, getting married the following year. However, his first solo effort, Avalanche, released just before the Iraq War was to begin, was too political for its own good (though sounded incredibly great). He became more politically agitated online as well, losing fans due to his preaching against the American military-industrial complex. The follow-up album, White Light Rock and Roll Review in 2004, was a mediocre album at best, an inconsistent blather with odd dabblings of country at worst. Then, after a greatest-hits release in 2005, several things happened to him, all almost at once: his wife divorced him (after cheating on him), he developed an addiction to painkillers, and he gets diagnosed with bipolar disorder. He still manages to write an album while in the psych ward, at his absolute lowest. The result, Hospital Music, seemed like something only a woobie could write and record. He has recovered since though, in part due to the album's success and an unlikely successful American tour. This recovery was cemented with Vancouver (the album, not the city) in 2009 which, despite being angrier, was more interested in social justice than American politics, and sounded much more consistent, and a return to form from the MGB days.
• It's hard to believe now, but when The Knack debuted with Get The Knack in 1979, some people seriously called them "The New Beatles," partially because Capitol Records encouraged this idea with its Meet The Beatles-like packaging of the group. The hype was somewhat justified, as the album was pretty good power-pop. But they followed Get The Knack up with ...But The Little Girls Understand, perhaps the worst second album in rock history. After one more flop album, the band broke up and is now known to most people only as the band that did "My Sharona."
• Sepultura, who once made brilliant albums like Beneath The Remains have gone a long way from that and developed a Broken Base with their most recent material.
• Anthrax enjoyed massive success in their early years, becoming one of the "Big Four" 1980s thrash metal bands alongside Metallica, Megadeth, and Slayer. Their chunky, mosh-oriented riffs, quirky sense of humor, and two excellent vocalists in the form of Neil Turbin on their first album and the famous Joey Belladonna on their next three, have made their earlier material undisputed metal classics. But then grunge got big, Belladonna was fired in favor of the terminally bland John Bush, and Anthrax quit making thrash in favor of tepid '90s wannabe grunge. Fans deserted them in droves. In 2005 Joey Belladonna rejoined the band, Anthrax went on a dynamite world tour, and the fire seemed to be lit again, but relations fell apart in 2007 and Belladonna left. Anthrax went back to their forgettable '90s selves. Belladonna has recently come back to Anthrax and the band have announced a new album. Time will tell if they can make a comeback on the same level as the excellent new albums from Megadeth and Overkill.
• Christina Aguilera is headed in this direction after a bad 2010 -- Bionic undersold, Burlesque hasn't yet broke even and she's been plagued by divorce and cheating rumours. General disinterest from the public (due in part to the rise of Lady Gaga) and long delays in releasing her albums clearly took a toll, and flubbing the lyrics of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the 2011 Super Bowl just make matters worse.
  • However, she seems to be making somewhat of a comeback with The Voice.
• Lauryn Hill was already an established act with the hip-hop group the Fugees when she released her commercially and critically successful solo album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (which won five Grammys including Album of the Year). However, about a year or two later, Hill had pretty much disappeared from the public eye. This was due in part to her displeasure with fame and the music industry. Hill briefly resurfaced with an "unpluggged" live album and a short-lived reunion with the Fugees (which in itself, ended badly due in large part to Hill's chronic tardiness and diva behavior). Also, by this time, Hill was in the news more for her controversial criticism of the Vatican (in reference to the molestation of boys by Catholic priests) than her music.
• Limp Bizkit used to be one of the biggest bands in the entire world (really). The album Results May Vary, however, is regarded to have killed not just their career but the entire Nu Metal genre. Wes Borland, regarded as the band's most talented member, left after Chocolate Starfish and the Hotdog Flavored Water was released. He was replaced with former Snot guitarist Mike Smith, and the band spent the next three years trying to release a new album. When Results May Vary was finally released, not only was it critically panned, but it received the third-lowest composite score in Metacritic history.
  • Results May Vary seems to be a case of Critical Dissonance, it actually did mange to go platinum and fans seemed to like the album a lot more then critics did. And they're now experiencing a Career Resurrection, as Gold Cobra was by far their most critically acclaimed work.
• The four members of The Beatles arguably didn't fall as far as some of the others on this list, but common consensus is that they never really hit the same heights in their solo careers as that they did in a group. It's generally argued that John Lennon and Paul McCartney particularly benefited from the other's strengths offsetting their respective weaknesses. After several years of solo releases of mixed critical and commercial success Lennon eventually retreated from the limelight for five years while McCartney's work -- although often commercially successful -- was generally dismissed by the critics. Of the other two, George Harrison had the most successful post-Beatles solo album (All Things Must Pass) -- unfortunately, that was his first solo album, and he never really recovered the critical and commercial success in his later albums. And to be generous to Ringo Starr, great things were never really expected of him compared to the other three, so while he had his successes he was never really in the same league.
• Milli Vanilli's debut album went sextuple platinum in the US alone. Then it was discovered that the two guys fronting it never actually sang anything and were lip-synching at live performances. This blew up in their faces and things quickly went downhill from there.
• Many of the Chinese pop stars who made it big in the 1990s have fallen into obscurity or disgrace thanks to a combination of drug abuse, suicide, criminal activity, and failure to consistently produce hits.
• Billy Squier was one of the biggest Hard Rock stars of the early 1980s, selling himself on a "tough guy" persona. The video for "Rock Me Tonite," a So Bad It's Good video featuring Squier dancing in a pink tank top, completely destroyed this image and caused a major blow to his career. He would still have moderate success throughout the rest of the decade, but even he admits that the video killed any chances of being as big as, say, Queen.
• Nelly was once one of the most popular rap stars in the world, with his first three albums going platinum (the third one, a double album, sold six million units) and giving rise to the St. Louis rap movement. Then, his fourth album went through constant delays and had a chaotic production with several producers having different ideas on how to do it. After finally being released to weak reviews and sales, his star largely derailed with only his hometown fanbase sticking to him. A 2011 attempt at a comeback hasn't fared much better despite slightly better sales.
  • You can argue that the infamous "Tip Drill" video set things in motion for Nelly's supposed "Fallen Creator" status. It at the very least, alienated a good portion of Nelly's female fanbase.
• Coolio was one of the most successful rappers in the 1990s (especially in 1995), with hits like "Fantastic Voyage" and especially, "Gangsta's Paradise", which reach to number one on the mainstream charts and earned Coolio a Grammy. Coolio even popped up on Nickelodeon to provide the theme song to Kenan and Kel. Arguably, the start of Coolio's "fall" was his feud with "Weird Al" Yankovic over Al's spoof song of "Gangsta's Paradise" called "Amish Paradise". However, what really did Coolio in was when his album My Soul fell just short of the top 50 on the Billboard charts (which caused his record label to drop him). It didn't help that Coolio didn't release another album for about another five years.
• Though it can be stretch to completely call him "fallen", Elton John somewhat fits this trope, too. Elton recieved great critical acclaim for early works such as Tumbleweed Connection, Madman Across The Water and Honky Chateau. The next few years, despite some Critical Dissonance, gained him a Beatles-like popularity with albums such as Don't Shoot Me (I'm Only The Piano Player) and Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. His singles were all over the radio, he sold out countless concerts (where he demonstrated a flamboyant showmanship (and use of colorful costumes and glasses). He was even something of a Teen Idol. He hobnobbed with Ringo Starr, John Lennon and Billie Jean King, and in 1975 recieved a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame. His downfall came in 1976, when an exhausted Elton revealed his bisexuality in a Rolling Stone magazine interview, which cost him many fans in Middle America. After he announced his (short-lived) retirement from the road in 1977, and separated from his longtime lyricist Bernie Taupin a year later (Taupin would return full-time in 1983), sales dwindled, and apart from various comebacks in the next few decades, his career hasn't seen either the same critical acclaim or commercial success as he had in his peak until 2011, when the duets album The Union with Leon Russell gave Elton his best reviews and album sales in 35 years, and putting him in the direction of a full fledged Career Resurrection.
• Jermaine Dupri was one of the most notable record producers in the R&B world, helping launch the careers of Usher and Jay Z while also producing many notable albums in the late 1990's and early 2000's and helping Mariah Carey have a Career Resurrection. However since 2008 he's been relatively silent with his status having dropped severely since his golden days, with the likely culprit being the Troubled Production of fellow fallen creator Nelly's Brass Knuckles (in which all but one of his songs was thrown out before release). The one song also barely charted.
• Gary Glitter. It goes without saying that if you want to maintain your career as a game-changer in the field of rock n' roll, then don't commit a severe sexual offence. From The Seventies to the early '90s, Glitter had spent a combined three and a half years on the chart and was one of the most influential names in rock music. Then, a search of his computer by a PC World repairman turned up thousands of pictures of child pornography. Understandably, he was mauled by the media, saw his music used less commonly at sporting events and his appearances cut out of films, and was pretty much rejected by the British public. This is prominently reflected in the events surrounding On, his last album, less than three years after his conviction. It generated controversy simply by existing--the British Phonographic Industry had to release a statement claiming that it Glitter was allowed to make it. He had to sell it himself, as no distributors would issue it, or anything else of his. It sold 5,000 copies worldwide before going out of print.
• Rock & roll pioneer Chuck Berry enjoyed one last top 40 hit with 1972's "My Ding-a-Ling". However, Berry perhaps didn't help himself by shortly thereafter, stopping recording and strictly doing the oldies circuit (with a different backing band each night because he didn't want to hire anyone full time and figured everyone knew his songs). Ironically, Peter Tosh's cover of "Johnny B. Good" stormed the charts in 1983, two years prior to the smash success of Back to the Future. Unfortunately, since this time, Berry himself, received negative publicity for being caught filming women using the toilets in his St. Louis eatery.
• After dropping three consecutive Platinum albums from 1996-1998 and then two more that went Gold, Master P pretty much dropped off the radar. An attempt to rebrand his No Limit record company didn't do much to bring Master P back to relevance. Arguably, Master P's involvement with World Championship Wrestling and the rise of the more polished Cash Money label put a damper on his sales.

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