Most avant garde chart hits?

L

Loki

Well-known member
Kraftwerk?

The Art of Noise (one of the definitively deliberate avante garde singles bands)?

The Banshees - Peepshow - was this a hit?, very slurred and backwards...

Paul Hardcastle - 19 (sounded out of nowhere at the time)

And I second MAARS - AR Kane at the top of the charts?!?
 
Chef Napalm

Chef Napalm

Lost in the Supermarket
Loki said:
Paul Hardcastle - 19 (sounded out of nowhere at the time)
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Nail on head. Lots of people are down on Hardcastle, but I always thought 19 was inspired.

"Fish Heads" by Barnes & Barnes is a weird one that was big here in the early 80s.
 
N

Ness Rowlah

Norwegian Wood
labrat said:
From the perspective of the classical avant garde I recon this is the definitive answer ,helped by the semiotics of being a number one (UK-the only one that counts pop pickers).
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Number two actually (I am quite sure, but will check when I get home).
I remember Peelie going on about Anderson never saying hello or even thanking him
for that break on one of his shows.

---

"Popcorn"/Hot Butter (1972) must have been the tune that opened up a hell of a lot of people on the continent to electronic music (ie those of us without Dr Who). The track that made way for "Oxygene"/JM Jarre a few years later and the grandfather of Royksopp. The horribly designed Kingsley site does also have this little gem: Bob Moog interviewing Kingsley in 1998 .

"They are coming to take me away ha ha"/Napoleon XIV must be one of the
weirdest one out there (1966).
 
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H

henry s

Street Fighting Man
As I recall, one of Barnes & Barnes was Billy Mumy, aka Will Robinson from wonderfully schlocky 60's sci-fi show "Lost In Space"...
 
D

droid

Guest
Anyone catch the john Peel's record box docu on Channel 4 the other night?

It was like a TV version of this thread....
 
N

Ness Rowlah

Norwegian Wood
C

Constance Labounty

Down since 1999
Herbie Hancock - Rockit

Most of the examples so far have been of non-popular musicians where one of their wierd songs happens to somehow become a hit. Sort of avante garde by design and chart hit only secondarily. Another perspective on "avante garde chart hits" is popular producers who are particularly creative and push the boundaries of popular music with their futuristic sound.

Of course the main person I am thinking of is Timbaland and his particularly minimal futuristic productions like 'Up Jumps Da Boogie' or Missy Elliott's 'I'm Really Hot'.

But the exemplary of chart topping avante garde IMO is classic style "anti-music" hip hop. Like original 80s old skool, Wu Tang, or the dark UKG that started a few years ago (like So Solid Crew; and continuing on thru chart topping grime)
 
M

martin

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At risk of laughter, I'd suggest "Kings of the Wild Frontier" and "Prince Charming" by the mighty Adam and the Ants. OK, "Antmusic"'s a bit conventionally poppy, but there's something gloriously skewed about those two
 
D

dHarry

Well-known member
Constance Labounty said:
Another perspective on "avante garde chart hits" is popular producers who are particularly creative and push the boundaries of popular music with their futuristic sound.
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Well, I did include the Beatles, Beach Boys, Pink Floyd, and Kate Bush in my little list

Constance Labounty said:
original 80s old skool,
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Actually I'm not convinced that things like Sugarhill Gang, while epochal in the history of rap/hip hop, were very avant-anything. There's not much to choose formally between Rapper's Delight and, say, that unbearable "Don't Worry Be Happy" single years later or even some old Burl Ives-type songs ("I know an old woman who swallowed a fly"!) - essentially genial nursery rhyming over reasonably conservative music - think of Will Smith rapping the Fresh Prince of Bel Air's theme song, a mainstream family comedy show, not very radical or threatening, eh?

Except that Rapper's Delight is so much better of course (well, not better than Ives maybe ;) ), but it's still in the same ball-park as those examples, and despite being at the start of something major, it just doesn't feel revolutionary - fairly cool, but only just. (covering head as angry Dissensian hip hop fans try to decapitate me with frisbeed Burl Ives 78s for such sacrilege :eek: )

Now Grandmaster Flash's Adventures on the Wheels Of Steel is another matter of course, real avant-hip hop. And I'd definitely second Timbaland/Missy & UKG/Grime, notably absent from my list :eek:

Adam & the Ants!
+
Lene Lovich - Lucky Numbers
+
The Specials - Ghost Town
+
Fun Boy Three - The Lunatics have Taken Over The Asylum
+
The Associates - Club Country
(ahh, Top Of The Pops in the 80's... )
 
P

PeteUM

It's all grist
Sigue Sigue Sputnik were Number 1 with Love Missile F1-11. It's not the last word in avant, but it wasn't your regular chart topper.
 
D

Diggedy Derek

Stray Dog
Martin- Adam Ant is a good shout I think, that had occured to me as well. Partly it's for the mental drums in his tunes, but particularly Prince Charming because it's so slow and it doesn't have a chorus so much as a chant. That's a bloody strange song, in fact it's got a strangely similar feel to Oh Superman by Laurie Andersen.

19 is another one that occured to me. Paul Harcastle is a difficult one to analyse in some ways- his textures and samples are pretty fat and funky, really chunky electro, and yet the structures of his songs are quite poppy. There's always a bridge, a chorus etc, packed in those 3 minutes, which makes them somewhat conventional. All of his songs seem more or less identical- Forest Fire, Rainforest and Nineteen are almost remixes of the same bassline-track.

But 19, yeah. How the hell did this track with soundbites about post-traumatic stress disorder get to the top of the charts, where did he get the idea etc?
 
L

labrat

hot on the heels of love
PeteUM said:
Sigue Sigue Sputnik were Number 1 with Love Missile F1-11. It's not the last word in avant, but it wasn't your regular chart topper.
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I went to one of the Disobey nights a couple of years ago Bruce Gilbert was doing his DJ Beekeeper thang
(musique concrete,drones,fuck off noise etc.)
the evening ended with a rumbling rhythmic sound (the only one that evening) people started to groove (well, a bit ) and suddely the speed of the record was righted to reveal......
 
F

Freakaholic

not just an addiction
How bout Napoleon XIV's "Theyre coming to take me away"?

That allmusic.com has them listed as a "comedy album" takes away from the avant-garde-ism a bit, but still, thats a crazy song. And the fact that there are no notes played whatsoever, and it still reached #3 on the charts, makes it avant garde even for comedy. I think that is what distinguishes it from other chart topping comedy/novelty songs such as "My Ding a ling".

Plus, its kinda freaky.
 
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