Most avant garde chart hits?

A

atomly

atomiq one
"Grindin'" is definitely up there, along with "Are You That Somebody," "Try Again," "Drop It Like It's Hot" and "When Doves Cry."

I mean, "When Doves Cry" doesn't even have a chrous or bass line.

Oh, and I can't believe all that System of a Down shit got so popular. Fucking weird.

And Tool.
 
M

mms

sometimes
atomly said:
"Grindin'" is definitely up there, along with "Are You That Somebody," "Try Again," "Drop It Like It's Hot" and "When Doves Cry."

I mean, "When Doves Cry" doesn't even have a chrous or bass line.

Oh, and I can't believe all that System of a Down shit got so popular. Fucking weird.

And Tool.
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when doves cry does have a chorus i'd say .
no bassline, just a weird drum noise but quite a few songs don't have basslines
get yr freak on etc
 
B

Buick6

too punk to drunk
You see, most of you lot are referring to music that was ONLY BIG IN THE UK, which discounts this arguement, becuase the English are always first to put 'weird' music into the charts. Maybe it should be WORLDWIDE hits, I'd place:

PINK FLOYD 'DSOM' album
ROLLING STONES - 'Satisfaction'
GARRY GLITTER - 'rock n roll', 'do you wanna touch me' - 2 drums sonically, and the rampant Paedophile himself - its so fucken weird and extreme, he makes Genesis P Orrige look, you know, 'straight'.
TRIO - 'Da Da Da' it became a novelty, but actually wasn't...
NORMAN GEENBAUM - someone beat me to it! 'Spirit in the sky' and the fucken mental cover from the 80s!
DEVO 'Whip it'
DEAD Or ALIVE - 'You spin me around' (really intense, slammin gay sound. mega commercial)
DAVID BOWIE - 'Ashes to Ashes' - this was a HUGE early 80s hit and was totally fucken freaky, freakier than anything he did with Ziggy Stardust.
TALKING HEADS 'Psycho Killer', 'Once in a lifetime' and 'Burning down the house' - though the last one was the biggest hit, even if it was only top 20.
FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD - 'Relax' and 'Two tribes' they were both total sonic orgiastic messes of tracks that were HUGE worldwide - two of the biggest selling singles of all time.
GRANDMASTER FLASH ' The Message'
INXS 'What you need'

and yeah

PRINCE ' When doves cry' and 'Rasberry Beret' - esp the latter, the termed is 'paisley psychadelia' but it sounded NOTHING like the Beatles or Jefferson Airplane or the Doors at the time!

Kinda innaresting coz all this contemporary and recent 'weird' 'alt' and dare I say it 'queer' shit that is defined by it's 'otherness' seems all so 'straight', 'safe' and 'dull' compared to these SUPER COMMERCIAL HITS of the 70s 80s. Kinda pathetic when you think about it. :cool:
 
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J

JimO'Brien

Active member
A couple of people have listed Pink Floyd in the list of Avant Garde hits. Some mistake surely? By the time of dark side of the moon and even more so by the time of the wall Pink Floyd were the epitome of conservatism rather than anything radical. I would refer you all to Mr Agreeable who clarifies the matter.
 
hmg

hmg

Victory lap
Almost anything by the Prodigy, but Charly in particular. Hearing the mentasm sound for the first time on that record (and Human Resource's 'Dominator' - another contender) blew my tiny mind.
 
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B

Blackdown

nexKeysound
do people think it could be argued that it's now harder to get something experimental in the charts than it used to be? on one hand the charts are so heavily marketed. on the other it takes so few copies to get into them.
 
3

3underscore

Well-known member
Blackdown said:
do people think it could be argued that it's now harder to get something experimental in the charts than it used to be? on one hand the charts are so heavily marketed. on the other it takes so few copies to get into them.
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I would say absolutely "yes" to this, and that is mainly through the stupid rules added to chart validity. The whole policy on format, track numbers, maximum length and everything are pretty much designed to stop anyone from releasing something adventurous that would get into the chart.

Did Autechre's "Anti EP" trouble the outer reaches of the charts? Long shot, I know.
 
L

labrat

hot on the heels of love
bun-u said:
Laurie Anderson's 'O Superman'
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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).
HOWEVER...
I can't listen to it anymore cos Laurie Anderson has since proved to be a fool. :)
and I discovered Dennis Neilsen used to play it when "entertaining guests" and I can't hear it without those visuals now..
 
D

dHarry

Well-known member
JimO'Brien said:
A couple of people have listed Pink Floyd in the list of Avant Garde hits. Some mistake surely? By the time of dark side of the moon and even more so by the time of the wall Pink Floyd were the epitome of conservatism rather than anything radical. I would refer you all to Mr Agreeable who clarifies the matter.
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They certainly had a mainstream audience at this point, but if you think a song that sounds like Wotsisname of the Stranglers growling menacingly over a clipped dry monotonous Can-funk backing and a choir of working-class kids children shouting "we don't need no education" in the mainstream charts isn't wierd... in a way it's like an inverse mirror image of PIL or something. Even the Claptonesque stadium/tedium guitar solo has a lysergic quality and seems to go on for a year or so.

I don't even like it all that much, but it's avant-pop and then some.

And (apologies to Stelfox for potential flashbacks) has anyone mentioned Phil Collins In The Air Tonight and Genesis's Mama yet? More avant-pop one doesn't necessarily like.

And on another tack Portishead's Glory Box with it's schizo-vocal style changes, Ron Asheton guitar and imploding breakbeat black hole for a middle eight, all nestling like shards of glass in the sweet syrup of the Isaac Hayes soul loop.
 
B

blissblogger

Well-known member
did anyone mention PiL's "Death Disco" and "Flowers of Romance"?

More Fire's "Oi!" is pretty amelodic

Fleetwood Mac's "Tusk" is pretty kooky, kinda reminds me of Faust at their most whimsical
 
R

Raw Patrick

Well-known member
Wow! I never knew Human Resource "Dominator" charted! Number 36 in September 1991 and Number 18 in December 91 (as the "Complete Dominator".)

Laurie Anderson "O Superman" only reached number two. It was kept from number one by The Police I think.
 
hmg

hmg

Victory lap
Raw Patrick said:
Wow! I never knew Human Resource "Dominator" charted! Number 36 in September 1991 and Number 18 in December 91 (as the "Complete Dominator".)
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I've cast my mind back and come back with.... Cubik Olympik. Charted at No. 10 and sounded like nothing else at the time.

Try Soulseeking "Human Resource vs 808 state". Good grief.
 
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B

Buick6

too punk to drunk
blissblogger said:
Fleetwood Mac's "Tusk" is pretty kooky, kinda reminds me of Faust at their most whimsical
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Sounds like something off Amon Duul's 'Psychadelic underground'!

But 'O Superman' was a Top20 hit here in Australia, that clip where Laurie has the light-bulb in her mouth, fucken weird!
 
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