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Post by Kapitan on Aug 4, 2020 20:48:00 GMT
If Taylor Swift told all of her fans how great Surfer Girl is, that song would be getting hundreds of thousands of streams per day. I could see Taylor Swift doing a pretty good Disney Girls. (Ducks to avoid the rocks KDS throws...)
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Aug 4, 2020 22:56:53 GMT
If Taylor Swift told all of her fans how great Surfer Girl is, that song would be getting hundreds of thousands of streams per day. And to some extent, that has happened in the past. Now, Full House and John Stamos weren't/aren't on the universal level of popularity that Taylor Swift is on, but the show and Stamos were pretty popular in the 80's and 90's. When Stamos featured "Forever" on Full House and in a music video, I would imagine that the interest in The Beach Boys spiked, and it was reflected in record sales. Younger fans were starting to appear at the concerts, too. Game changer? No, not really. Increased exposure to the band? Yes, absolutely. For "Forever"? A little if you could find it at the time. For Dennis Wilson? Not much for Dennis's music.
Didn't Taylor Swift record a Beach Boys' song? "God Only Knows" maybe? Taylor could easily bring awareness to The Beach Boys with the right kind of cover, but it wouldn't go much farther than that. I mean, which song could she do that would cause such a shift?
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Post by The Cincinnati Kid on Aug 4, 2020 23:36:43 GMT
If Taylor Swift told all of her fans how great Surfer Girl is, that song would be getting hundreds of thousands of streams per day. And to some extent, that has happened in the past. Now, Full House and John Stamos weren't/aren't on the universal level of popularity that Taylor Swift is on, but the show and Stamos were pretty popular in the 80's and 90's. When Stamos featured "Forever" on Full House and in a music video, I would imagine that the interest in The Beach Boys spiked, and it was reflected in record sales. Younger fans were starting to appear at the concerts, too. Game changer? No, not really. Increased exposure to the band? Yes, absolutely. For "Forever"? A little if you could find it at the time. For Dennis Wilson? Not much for Dennis's music.
Didn't Taylor Swift record a Beach Boys' song? "God Only Knows" maybe? Taylor could easily bring awareness to The Beach Boys with the right kind of cover, but it wouldn't go much farther than that. I mean, which song could she do that would cause such a shift?
I've tossed around in my head a few times if the Beach Boys resurgence in the 90s had more to do with all of their TV appearances rather than the cred they were getting in the indie music scene.
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 5, 2020 2:22:22 GMT
Definitely a legitimate question. Here is why I say it's the indie side: what was popular wasn't the classic, surf and cars kind of image they brought to those shows. It was the dramatic expansion of the Brianistas. It was people trying to piece together Smile. That kind of thing.
That said, those indies who fell in love with the Brian myth might have gotten to that introduction after having first encountered the band on Full House five years prior. It isn't hard to imagine an 18-year-old guy sneering at the same Mike Love who cracked him up when he was 13 and "didn't know any better."
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Aug 5, 2020 11:37:54 GMT
And to some extent, that has happened in the past. Now, Full House and John Stamos weren't/aren't on the universal level of popularity that Taylor Swift is on, but the show and Stamos were pretty popular in the 80's and 90's. When Stamos featured "Forever" on Full House and in a music video, I would imagine that the interest in The Beach Boys spiked, and it was reflected in record sales. Younger fans were starting to appear at the concerts, too. Game changer? No, not really. Increased exposure to the band? Yes, absolutely. For "Forever"? A little if you could find it at the time. For Dennis Wilson? Not much for Dennis's music.
Didn't Taylor Swift record a Beach Boys' song? "God Only Knows" maybe? Taylor could easily bring awareness to The Beach Boys with the right kind of cover, but it wouldn't go much farther than that. I mean, which song could she do that would cause such a shift?
I've tossed around in my head a few times if the Beach Boys resurgence in the 90s had more to do with all of their TV appearances rather than the cred they were getting in the indie music scene. I agree about the TV appearances. I think the 90's resurgence (actually I didn't think it was THAT big) had a lot to do with the exposure the group had in the late 1980's. They were always...there:
- "Getcha Back" was a semi-hit single along with an MTV video
- the 1985 appearances at Live Aid and Farm Aid - several appearances on Solid Gold and its offshoot shows - a nationally shown 25th Anniversary TV special
- the "California Dreamin'" video on MTV which got significant rotation - a hit single and video with The Fat Boys ("Wipe Out")
- Brian Wilson released a solo album - an extensive article on Brian in Rolling Stone magazine
- "Kokomo" - Induction into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame - receiving an American Music Award Lifetime Achievement award - a few John Stamos-related TV show appearances - released the Still Cruisin' album
- a nationally-syndicated TV show of their own in 1989
That was a pretty good springboard into the 90's, and the Thirty Years Of Good Vibrations boxed set soon followed. That's why it was particularly frustrating that the group went nowhere.
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 5, 2020 11:54:57 GMT
How many of those things were entries to new younger fans and how many reminded/reassured older fans they were still around and worth a(nother) listen?
I wonder. I don't know. But those are things I don't see as having been particularly influential to young people at that time (speaking as someone who was a young person at that time). I say that with the caveat that it's just my experience and my impression; obviously some young people would've been turned into fans by those things. I truly just wonder the percentages.
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Post by kds on Aug 5, 2020 12:11:03 GMT
If Taylor Swift told all of her fans how great Surfer Girl is, that song would be getting hundreds of thousands of streams per day. I could see Taylor Swift doing a pretty good Disney Girls. (Ducks to avoid the rocks KDS throws...) Playing off another thread exchange between myself and Lonelysurfer, I think Disney Girls would be more appropriate for Miley Cyrus and Selena Gomez.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Aug 5, 2020 12:13:13 GMT
How many of those things were entries to new younger fans and how many reminded/reassured older fans they were still around and worth a(nother) listen?
I wonder. I don't know. But those are things I don't see as having been particularly influential to young people at that time (speaking as someone who was a young person at that time). I say that with the caveat that it's just my experience and my impression; obviously some young people would've been turned into fans by those things. I truly just wonder the percentages.
Younger PEOPLE? Maybe not significantly. Younger MUSIC FANS? I would think a lot of younger music fans watched most of those above things. To the Beach Boys' credit, those appearances were not small potatoes. Live Aid, Farm Aid, MTV, Solid Gold (that was a pretty good show with a lot of younger acts), the radio (which was still hanging on), Full House of course, and the Endless Summer TV show featured a variety of acts. If I was younger music fan around that time, I would've been watching those shows.
Now, the frustrating thing is that the band's new music around that time was at its nadir - Beach Boys 1985, Still Cruisin', Summer In Paradise - and, Brian's appearances were awkward to say the least, though that might've fed into the fascination with his "story".
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Post by kds on Aug 5, 2020 12:13:46 GMT
How many of those things were entries to new younger fans and how many reminded/reassured older fans they were still around and worth a(nother) listen?
I wonder. I don't know. But those are things I don't see as having been particularly influential to young people at that time (speaking as someone who was a young person at that time). I say that with the caveat that it's just my experience and my impression; obviously some young people would've been turned into fans by those things. I truly just wonder the percentages.
I don't know how many children of the 80s grew up to be diehard BB fans thanks to Full House, but I'm willing to bet a lot of them have at least some variation of The Beach Boys greatest hits in their collections as a result of it.
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 5, 2020 12:26:59 GMT
I don't know how many children of the 80s grew up to be diehard BB fans thanks to Full House, but I'm willing to bet a lot of them have at least some variation of The Beach Boys greatest hits in their collections as a result of it. If only they could locate such a thing: a greatest hits comp? From the Beach Boys?
(OK, maybe they could find one from among the 537 choices out there...)
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Post by kds on Aug 5, 2020 12:38:28 GMT
I don't know how many children of the 80s grew up to be diehard BB fans thanks to Full House, but I'm willing to bet a lot of them have at least some variation of The Beach Boys greatest hits in their collections as a result of it. If only they could locate such a thing: a greatest hits comp? From the Beach Boys?
(OK, maybe they could find one from among the 537 choices out there...)
It's funny you say that. In the summer of 2006, when I decided to purchase a BB comp, I was actually a bit overwhelmed by the choices on Amazon. At the end of the day, to piggyback on something Mike's the Greatest said, I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing that the majority of BB fans don't look too far beyond the 1962-66 era of the group. I think you'll find that's true with a lot of bands / artists.
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 5, 2020 12:49:16 GMT
I don't think it's a bad thing, either. It wouldn't be my choice of a 5-year period to represent the group's best work, but especially the last two or three of those five are pretty damn strong, not just for them but in rock and roll history overall. (What would be my 5-year period? I would have said 66-70, probably, for years; now I might say 64-68? Not sure.)
Those are obviously the peak hits years, and so it makes perfect sense for them to be the most popular. Everyone is entitled to a personal opinion, but the combined personal opinions are what lead to there being hits in the first place: most people preferred that music over their other music!
To argue against it is like saying Bon Jovi is the best band ever, but you wish people didn't focus so much on the '86-'92 hits period. I mean, okay, but...
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bellbottoms
Pacific Coast Highway
Posts: 727
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Post by bellbottoms on Aug 5, 2020 12:50:50 GMT
I think the music just needs to be out there in pop culture. Darlin' was a central piece in a Big Bang theory episode and it really boosted its streaming numbers. It also brought attention to a song that not everyone knew about. Similarly, Kokomo has been either the most or second most streamed Beach Boys song over the past few months due to it being featured in a couple of shows recently. As long as the music is viewed as relevant, people will continue to listen. I think there is potential for the perception to evolve, if not necessarily undergo a sudden shift. And they don't even have to do anything new. There are songs that are already in the Beach Boys catalogue who very few people have heard, that we know if they did hear them, they'd see the Beach Boys differently. All I Wanna Do is one that I don't think I'm alone in thinking its timeless, ethereal sound could easily get the band some new fans, if released as a single today. It's something they could even do along with the Feel Flows box set release, if that ever happens.
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Post by kds on Aug 5, 2020 13:09:03 GMT
I don't think it's a bad thing, either. It wouldn't be my choice of a 5-year period to represent the group's best work, but especially the last two or three of those five are pretty damn strong, not just for them but in rock and roll history overall. (What would be my 5-year period? I would have said 66-70, probably, for years; now I might say 64-68? Not sure.)
Those are obviously the peak hits years, and so it makes perfect sense for them to be the most popular. Everyone is entitled to a personal opinion, but the combined personal opinions are what lead to there being hits in the first place: most people preferred that music over their other music!
To argue against it is like saying Bon Jovi is the best band ever, but you wish people didn't focus so much on the '86-'92 hits period. I mean, okay, but...
I've gone back and forth on this over the years, and as much as I really enjoy their material from 68-73, they just has so many great songs in the early years. Maybe 1963-67 to include the best bits of Smile and Wild Honey as well over Surfin Safari.
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Post by Kapitan on Oct 15, 2020 18:16:30 GMT
Reviving this older thread because of some thoughts I had in the Van Halen thread while talking to KDS.
I think death can change perception of artists. When an artist dies, large numbers of people tend to take more time and effort to listen to, and (for those in media) to come up with fresh takes on, the music. There is also the inevitable vault-opening for those who have enough history to accumulate a vault: posthumously completed works in progress; unreleased music; live music; alternate takes of existing music; not to mention photo books or other collectibles.
Between getting people's attention, giving them new or unfamiliar product, and giving them "hot takes" from writers looking for an angle, I think that can change perception of artists, to some degree.
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