As I was feeling burned by another suspect CD purchase, I was reminded of a theory I had regarding the timespan of relevance of musical artists.
I think it's time to promote the theory to a rule:
Musical artists have a ten year (or less) window of relevancy, beginning from the year of their debut album.
This first occurred to me many years ago when thinking about two exceptional, decade-defining, never-released-a-bad-album bands: the Beatles and Led Zeppelin. The Beatles lasted only 8 years (1963-1970). Led Zeppelin lasted only 10 years (1969-1979).
Jimi Hendrix - 3 (1967-1970). Nike Drake - 5 (1969-1974). Nirvana - 5 (1989-1994). More recently, Elliott Smith - 9 (1994-2003). None of them ever released a bad album. (Untimely death certainly does not hurt the rule.)
So let's try to find some exceptions from acts that went beyond ten years:
Beach Boys (1962-1970) allows for all of their essential albums, ending with Sunflower. The Who (1965-1975) includes all of their classics and nothing more, give or take The Who By Numbers. Black Sabbath (1970-1978) covers all of the Ozzy years.
Elvis Costello (1977-1986) includes all of his Columbia releases. Van Halen (1978-1984) covers all of the Roth years. Prince (1978-1987) ends nicely with Sign 'O' The Times. Michael Jackson (1979-1987) includes Off The Wall, Thriller, and Bad, and conveniently leaves out his maddeningly uneven albums thereafter. The Cure (1979-1989) ends nicely with Disintegration. Metallica (1981-1991) ends nicely with The Black Album.
The breakups of Guns N' Roses (1987-1993), Jane's Addiction (1988-1990), Soundgarden (1988-1996), Alice In Chains (1990-1996), Pantera (1990-2000), Smashing Pumpkins (1991-1998), and Weezer (1994-1996) appear to support the rule. (In the latter two I'm counting the departure of D'Arcy and Matt Sharp as "breakups", but if you look at the "before" and "after" results, maybe bassists really are important.) It could be argued that Pearl Jam's (1991-2000) quality began to decline after Binaural. It could be more strongly argued that OutKast's (1994-2003) quality suffered after Speakerboxxx/The Love Below.
Some close calls:
Bob Dylan (1962), who released Blood On The Tracks in 1975; Pink Floyd (1967), who released The Wall in 1979; David Bowie (1967), who released Scary Monsters in 1980; Bruce Springsteen (1973), who released Born In The U.S.A. in 1984; and U2 (1980), who released Achtung Baby in 1991, as well as All That You Can't Leave Behind and How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb in the 2000's.
All fine albums, but not their best. That's a pretty small list regardless.
The only rule-destroying exceptions - careers that had their defining works after year 10 - that I can find are Stevie Wonder, who had his glorious run from Where I'm Coming From to Songs In The Key Of Life from 9 to 15 years after his debut was released in 1962; and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who, save for Blood Sugar Sex Magik in 1991, had all of their essential recordings far after their debut in 1984 (beginning with Californication in 1999 and continuing through Stadium Arcadium in 2006).
I wish there were more - rules are made to be broken, after all.
If you can find any, link back to this post, and hopefully I'll revisit the rule.
