Agents of BOC's fortunes...

[Carl Edlund Anderson]

At 11.43 -0400 26.1.2001, Ted Jackson jr. wrote:
>Or, were they trying to shift gears?  But for what purpose?

Well, I've assumed that they thought they would do well by becoming a
guitar-pop band. I mean, it was the early 80s -- a time when a lot of
people were deluded in terms of musical taste :) -- and Buck was
always kinda of a pop-song person trapped in the body of a screaming
rock guitarist. And, let's face it, pop success will make you a _lot_
of money.

On the other hand, it rarely brings you staying power. Bands that
were less popular 30 years ago but hung on to a solid fan base and
retained some critical acclaim must surely sell more records now than
those who topped the charts for a few months and then sank without
trace.

My theory is that BOC wanted to expand their audience by going pop,
but instead failed to get a new audience and destroyed the old one
with some fairly poor records.

IMO, they're still sufficiently well-respected that some solid
recordings could regain them a measure of respect as elder statesmen
of heavy rock who are actually still going strong. There are plenty
of other people in that category who don't top the charts, but who
fill sizeable concert halls, who sell quite good albums to a
respectably sized and dedicated fan base, and can even get rock-fan
kids to say "Hey, this is a pretty cool album" not that infrequently.

Motorhead, obviously, come to mind ...  Alice Cooper, probably, and,
well, a whole bunch of others.

Cheers,
Carl

--
Carl Edlund Anderson
mailto:scylding at carlaz.com
http://www.mp3.com/Scylding/