The Ongoing History of New Music Encore Presentation: Spectacular Acts of Self-Destruction
You probably know someone like this: A guy (or woman) who, though having loads of talent or tons of luck (or both!) have become tremendously successful. They have everything anyone could ever hope to have. Money. Fame. Stuff. Access to all kinds of pleasure, adventures and opportunity. Everyone wants to be this person.
And then they all screw it all up. I
It wasn’t bad luck, illness or any other misfortune. They just made some bad decisions or questionable moves that damage or destroy their careers–and even their lives.
Sometimes this downfall happens in slow motion over a period of weeks or months or even years. Then there are those crashes that come in seconds. In the end, there’s no one that can be blamed except the person tthemselves
This sort of self-destruction happens a lot in music. Ego, bad advice, hubris, arrogance, drugs, stubbornness, mental illness–all these things can lead to tarnished legacies at the very least and full-on catastrophes at worst. What can we learn from these stories of spectacular acts of self-sabotage?
MGMT, Congratulations
Chris Cornell, Long Gone
Smashing Pumpkins, Ava Adore
Nirvana, Heart-Shaped Box (Original 1993 Steve Albini mix)
Metallica, Until It Sleeps
Stone Temple Pilots, Between the Lines
Sinead O’Connor, War
U2, The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone)
Playlistist Eric Wilhite has created this for us.
Don’t forget that you can get the podcast version of this podcast through iTunes or wherever you get your on-demand audio.
The Ongoing History of New Music can be heard on the following stations:
- 102.1 The Edge/Toronto – Sunday night at 7
- Live 88-5/Ottawa
- 107.5 Dave-FM/Kitchener
- FM96/London – Sunday night at 7, Monday night at 11
- The Drive/Kingston
- Power 97/Winnipeg (Sunday nights at 11)
- 98.1 The Bridge/Lethbridge – Saturday night at 6, Sunday morning at 10am
- Rock 97.7/Grand Prairie – Sunday nights at 6.
- 92X/Calgary
- Sonic 102.9/Edmonton
- The Zone/Victoria
- The Fox/Vancouver
- Live 105/Halifax
- NEW! WAPS/WKTL The Summit/Arkon, Canton, Cleveland, Youngstown
We’re still looking for more affiliates in Calgary, Kamloops, Kelowna, Regina, Saskatoon, Brandon, Windsor, Montreal, Charlottetown, Moncton, Fredericton, and St John’s and anywhere else with a transmitter. If you’re in any of those markets and you want the show, lemme know and I’ll see what I can do.
The thing is though is that most of the artists on your list managed to salvage their careers afterwards.
I think it’s more fascinating when an artist actively sabotages themselves and permanently halts their career. Liz Phair’s ‘Funstyle’ is the best modern example I can recall. That album drills a hole in the hull of her career, sending it permanently to the bottom of the ocean.