Rock groups and the ballads that ruined them

Boston - Amanda

Goo Goo Dolls - Name (great band but more pop now than they used to be and it started here)

Whitesnake - Here I Go Again (although I like that song, but I don't think that we heard much from Whitesnake after that).

I will also say Heading for a Heartbreak by Winger, which is another song that I like. You can argue that Winger wasn't much of a band but they definitely disappeared after HFAH.

Also, good call on the Styx song.

 

How about Motley Crue and the "without you" song ?

That was when I stopped listening to them.

 

I would argue that "More Than Words" made Extreme rather than breaking them.

otherwise, I agree with the overall point of your post.

did Guns-n-Roses do much after "November Rain"? I can't remember.

oh yeah, and add this one:

Limp Bizkit -- "Put On Your Red Panties and Slap Me Around Tonight"

 

Here's one for you:

Kansas - "Dust in the Wind"

giving away my age again

...no it's my great memory

Dallas Rocket

 

<b>I AM NOT WALKING DOWN THE AISLE TO A POWER BALLAD!!!</b>

guess where that quote is from, as if there was any doubt.

 

You can look at this from the other direction...bands that have avoided the ballad are still rockin'. A prime example would be ZZ Top.

Also, I disagree with Babe from Styx being the end of the band. Styx crashed because of the power struggle between Dennis DeYoung and Tommy Shaw. DeYoung wanted more ballads, Shaw wanted to rock. If Shaw had won the battle, they would have continued to crank out the stadium rock they were famous for, instead of DeYoung pseudo-rock operas (Kilroy was here, anyone?)

 

But did anyone know who Extreme was before that song made it big?

 

I have to disagree, I think that what most regard as their best singles, Iris and Slide, have come after Name.

 

Metallica - Nothing Else Matters - Metallica's music has utterly sucked since this ridiculously bland ballad

I agree with Behad on Styx. Dennis DeYoung was more interested in being the next Andrew Lloyd Webber than rocking.

 

But it's like OS said...."That's part of my point. I'm willing the bet the songs mentioned were probably each groups biggest seller. That's when they start gearing their music toward those kind of songs and forgetting what got them there. KISS may be the exception."

Granted Slide and Iris have become just as big or bigger hits than Name, but I would say it's close that Name sold more copies than the other two. The GGD have released 7 albums, if you include the greatest hits album, "What I Learned About Ego, Opinion, Art, and Commerce" and curiously, WILAEOAAC left off Name, Iris, Slide, Broadway, and Black Balloon. I don't think that is a coincidence. Previous albums before A Boy Named Goo are nothing like the stuff they do now. Superstar Car Wash and a lot of the songs on A Boy Named Goo such as Flattop, Naked, Burnin' Up, Eyes Wide Open, Slave Girl, Ain't That Unusual, etc. sound nothing like Name or Iris.

However, it was Name that made the Goo Goo Dolls known to the mainstream. It has helped their career take off, but it also help precipitate a change in their sound. That is why I listed it.

 

You mean Inject the Venom is not a love ballad?

 

I think you guys are missing out on an important fact here: all of the bands mentioned, Styx, Winger, Extreme, Goo Goo Dolls, Kansas, REO Speedwagon really, really suck. Objectively. I can prove they suck with a slide rule, abacus and a pair of ears. It is a scientific fact that these bands were sent from Satan to lower the standards and debase us all. I think the Smithsonian has a new exhibit in Washington, D.C. explaining just how much these bands suck. Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating...
Ballads are not the enemy here, lame-ass songwriting is the problem. Their "rockin'" songs were closer to Julio Iglesias than Iggy Pop. Guys named Kip and Kevin and Dennis and Tommy are probably going to make dorky music and these bands bare that idea out.

 

And Elvis Costello was a true rock and roller

Dude, taste in music is waaaay too subjective for a lame ass statement like yours.

 

Hole Hearted

Thought that was a good song too.

 

elvis' post made me laugh.

I think there is another point that these songs and bands illustrate that is slightly different than the one we've been discussing. I don't think it's the fact that the songs were "ballads" that led to the band's demise.

I think the problem is when any band makes it big off a song that is just not very much like the rest of their material. radiohead is an excellent example of a band who got "big" off of one song, "creep".

now, in my opinion "creep" is a great song. however, it's also clear to me that it is not very much like anything else they've done since then. and they had a reeeeally hard time getting their audience to come with them where they really wanted to go.

achieving longevity in a band is a difficult thing to do, at best. when your biggest hit is a song that differs dramatically from the average kind of song you put out, that only makes it exponentially harder.

plus, like elvis costello said, sir isaac newton's least known scientific discovery was that, if you name a record Pornograffiti, your career will end not too long after that. I think it's known as Newton's Law of Pornogravity.

 

No kidding, Behad. Of course taste in music is subjective. I forgot to include the emoticon to let you know that I was not entirely serious. However, I bet if I said, say, "The Backstreet Boys suck" you wouldn't have got your panties in such a twist. I am sure that a lot of people think that the Beatles and Bay City Rollers are just as good..same goes for Shakespeare and Danielle Steel and that there is no difference between Abraham Lincoln and Josef Stalin ....I am not such a relativist to believe that, though. Now go listen to "Lady" and your Winger bootlegs quick before you get the urge to play BBS drill sergeant!
And let me say this for the record: Elvis Costello is a thousand times better than anybody listed in this thread.

 

Like my husband says: you'll never catch AC/DC doing a power ballad. (and they were doing the hard rock stuff first, before all the imitators )

Actually, I like some ballads (e.g. "November Rain" and a lot of the stuff put out by the "hair bands" in the late 80's) just because they provide a nice contrast from the hard rock. As long as that's not all they do (or they're not really lame like most of the ones Old School mentioned in the original post). I think of Foreigner and the Goo Goo Dolls as "wuss rock" even though they might have done harder stuff before that... it's not like everyone is familiar with what else they did.

Remember, the women like the ballads. If you do a ballad, chicks will be throwing themselves at you. I can understand the temptation for the guys in the bands.