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Post by horsemen4ever on Jan 10, 2021 21:54:51 GMT -5
Something that shocked me, is multi verse Debbie Gibson was or probably still is. She wrote all her songs, she produced or co produced a lot of her songs on her debut album, and produced or co produced almost every song on her second album. She was a musical project. Not to mention she played a number of instruments. Other people like that, Stevie Wonder, Prince, they are celebrated and have long careers. So what happened?
Is that because she was so young, she was lumped with the other teeny bopers of her time. Perhaps if she waited a few years longer to make her debut maybe things would change, Prince didn't release his first album till he was 19, so he wasn't lumped in with the teeny idols acts of the mid 70's.
I wonder if there a Debbie Gibson album that could be a topic for a Todd in the Shadows Trainwreaks, or she just stopped having hits some point.
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Spider2024
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Post by Spider2024 on Jan 10, 2021 22:15:33 GMT -5
T'was a foolish beat of the music listening public's heart.  But you're right, it is occasionally puzzling when super talented artists don't quite get all the success that their talent level might've warranted. Ironically, I could point to a Todd's Trainwreckers episode, or at least the first 2 minutes where he mentions Cyndi Lauper: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wB9ky1PkmE All music careers have a lifespan, a gas tank with a not-unlimited amount of gas. Although when it comes to longevity, or lack thereof, I find that even the biggest of artists need to tweak their sound every so often (even if only a slight tweak) and they need to hope it resonates like their previous songs did, because no one can do the same songs forever and expect to keep selling. Even Prince & Stevie Wonder managed to switch their style up across decades. Gibson was unlikely to get 80's sounding pop over in the 90's and I suppose her 90's output of songs didn't hit. |
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Post by horsemen4ever on Jan 10, 2021 22:17:26 GMT -5
I do think they down played her writes her all her song and can play some instruments aspect. If she was giving the treatment Jewel was giving 10 years later, who knows, maybe it wouldn't change anything hit wise, but maybe at the very least more respected among the music experts.
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BlackoutCreature
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Post by BlackoutCreature on Jan 10, 2021 22:22:10 GMT -5
I was gonna suggest her for One Hit Wonderland, but I looked it up and discovered she had another number one hit besides "Electric Youth", "Lost in Your Eyes", a song I've heard many times but never really attributed to her. "Foolish Beat" also apparently charted quite well.
My best guess would be that she was a very 80's singer who hit her peak at a time when the 80's were ending and was just never able to segway into a more 90's sound.
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Post by Toilet Paper Roll on Jan 10, 2021 22:23:19 GMT -5
Her first album was a top ten album, her second hit number one, they both went multi platinum.
Her third barely made gold andher forth didnt crack the top 100
She was a cute kid singing cute songs for other young teen girls and as she went into her 20's it just no longer translated
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Post by horsemen4ever on Jan 10, 2021 22:27:47 GMT -5
Her first album was a top ten album, her second hit number one, they both went multi platinum. Her third barely made gold andher forth didnt crack the top 100 She was a cute kid singing cute songs for other young teen girls and as she went into her 20's it just no longer translated I do find it head scratching how is it possible that someone like Debbie Gibson could have massive hits at the same time as someone like Madonna or even a Janet Jackson were having big hits. Does not compute. The 80's were more diverse than we give it credit for. FYI, "Shake Your Love" is a guilty pleasure of mine. Catchy is catchy. That song is as good as any 80's song. |
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Post by Toilet Paper Roll on Jan 10, 2021 22:33:43 GMT -5
Her first album was a top ten album, her second hit number one, they both went multi platinum. Her third barely made gold andher forth didnt crack the top 100 She was a cute kid singing cute songs for other young teen girls and as she went into her 20's it just no longer translated I do find it head scratching how is it possible that someone like Debbie Gibson could have massive hits at the same time as someone like Madonna or even a Janet Jackson were having big hits. Does not compute. The 80's were more diverse than we give it credit for. FYI, "Shake Your Love" is a guilty pleasure of mine. Catchy is catchy. That song is as good as any 80's song. Debbie Gibson for a couple years was as big a music superstar as anybody. But her music had a niche fan base. Janet and Madonna covered a lot more ground. |
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adamclark52
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Post by adamclark52 on Jan 10, 2021 22:34:56 GMT -5
She played teenage pop, the shelf-life for that isn’t long. Ask the Backstreet Boys
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Post by floundertime on Jan 11, 2021 2:30:59 GMT -5
She ran out of electric youth!
Btw she does a great job on cameo. Puts time in it and would sing a few lines from her songs. She was reasonably priced before but now is like $250. Out of my price range now at that price
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Post by The Dark Order Inferno on Jan 11, 2021 6:56:44 GMT -5
When you produce bubblegum teen pop, you kind of have to transition into something else after a few years as younger, cuter people arrive doing what you do. Madonna, Miley and others developed an edge, reinvented themselves, she didn't to the extent she needed.
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Push R Truth
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Post by Push R Truth on Jan 11, 2021 7:30:22 GMT -5
I just want to say that she's good in the Asylum movies.
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Paul
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Post by Paul on Jan 11, 2021 7:47:23 GMT -5
I think Tiffany was even less successful than Debbie in this regard..
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Post by KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! on Jan 11, 2021 8:17:49 GMT -5
She shook her love too much.
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Post by SHAKEMASTER TV9 is Don Knotts on Jan 11, 2021 10:18:50 GMT -5
Debbie Gibson had a specified fanbase; young adult teen girls. Of course, there would be some boys, some adults, but the appeal is going to be mostly female and young since Gibson was 17 at the time of her debut album. It's a good base that spends a lot of money, but things can change dramatically in just a few years. Like a 14 year old girl loves Debbie Gibson, would buy all the singles and albums etc. In 4 years, when that girl is 18, heading to college, she's probably not going on about how much she loves Debbie Gibson.
Madonna and Janet Jackson are just different. While Madonna famously had high school girls dress up as her, her self-titled debut album was a club hit too. So her fans were young, but adults were her fans too. Janet started the 80s attempting a teen pop act, but by Control, she was an adult and came off as one. They were sexy and I don't mean just sex appeal or attractiveness, but what the vibe they gave off, the aura was this was hot, this was in. As the teen fans got older, they can still be fans because Madonna and Janet were still acts for adults. A teen who loves Control will have no problem buying Rhythm Nation. A teen can grow up with Like a Virgin to True Blue to Like a Prayer.
I think Gibson's first 90s albums was considered a slight departure from what she put out before and they didn't do great except in Japan. Maybe she was too early in changing, or needed to be more dramatic. Maybe not go from Robin Sparkles to Robin Daggers.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 11, 2021 10:45:24 GMT -5
Well if you look at her Wikipedia page, she's kinda been consistently active since the '80s. Not as much charted like it used to, but lots of writing and (especially) touring.
After her BIG success in the '80s (seemingly all between '86 and '89), her next 2 albums were released 1990 and 1993........ that's a big gap for her teen/young adult fanbase. Think of all the musical changes in that time. Heck, I recall a fairly sized gap between 2 of MC Hammer's albums (the 2nd of which is when he dropped MC) and that was really the end of his heyday, from which he never recovered.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 11, 2021 11:43:12 GMT -5
Whenever people bring up Debbie Gibson the first thing that always springs to mind is that MTV News story from the 90's where she stage dived at a Circle Jerks concert.
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Post by Stu on Jan 11, 2021 12:56:41 GMT -5
She should have moved to Canada. The '80s didn't arrive until the 1990s and by then going to the mall was still popular.
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Post by horsemen4ever on Jan 11, 2021 13:07:05 GMT -5
Well I was 5 years old when her first album was released, so her whole run was before my time, but I do remember the teen pop revolution of the late 90's and 2000's,the critics of these pop acts they said they don't write their own songs, play their own instruments, but Debbie check all those boxes, she wrote her own songs, played some instruments, produced a lot of her own stuff, did they promote that fact during her run?
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Post by Deleted on Jan 11, 2021 13:37:49 GMT -5
She should have moved to Canada. The '80s didn't arrive until the 1990s and by then going to the mall was still popular. Going to the mall was still cool to US teens in the 90's. That's how Kevin Smith got the idea for Mallrats. |
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Post by Stu on Jan 11, 2021 13:59:25 GMT -5
She should have moved to Canada. The '80s didn't arrive until the 1990s and by then going to the mall was still popular. Going to the mall was still cool to US teens in the 90's. That's how Kevin Smith got the idea for Mallrats. I know. I was making a reference to How I Met Your Mother. |
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