Speaker 1: Anyone. Yeah, welcome back to Crash Course Pot, the show
Speaker 1: where we dive deep into the music you love, the
Speaker 1: artists you analyze, and the tracks that stick in your head.
Speaker 1: I'm the host Ash Tone, and we're coming off of
Speaker 1: a deep dive into the business brilliance of Taylor Swift.
Speaker 1: If you heard that episode. If not, go back and
Speaker 1: some to it after this one. And then we talked
Speaker 1: about the experimental genius of Li YACHTI last week. Take
Speaker 1: a look at that one, or take a listen if
Speaker 1: you haven't already heard it. After this one, though, wait
Speaker 1: till you listen to all of this one that brings
Speaker 1: us to today. We are going big picture and talking
Speaker 1: about music's most elusive and fascinating creature, the one hit wonder.
Speaker 1: We all know them, that one song, that one summer,
Speaker 1: that one artist who just vanished. But what exactly defines
Speaker 1: a one hit wonder? Essentially, it's an artist known for
Speaker 1: one song that achieved massive, global, genre defining success, and
Speaker 1: then every subsequent release failed to chart or capture public
Speaker 1: interest at the same level. We're talking about massive peaks
Speaker 1: followed by immediate drop offs, and we're going decade by
Speaker 1: decade to find the kings and queens of the quick
Speaker 1: success story. So let's crash this course. First up, we're
Speaker 1: talking the seventies and eighties disco since and sheer novel.
Speaker 1: We have to start in the seventies. This was the
Speaker 1: era of the disco boom where novelty entrance moved fast.
Speaker 1: My pick for the seventies has to be the Buggles
Speaker 1: with Video Killed the Radio Star. You know, Video Killed
Speaker 1: the rainio Star, Video Killed the Radio Star. I actually
Speaker 1: really really liked that song, and I think well I
Speaker 1: am and Nicki Minaj sampled that song on this song
Speaker 1: they have together called check it Out.
Speaker 2: Check it Out, check it Out, check it out, check
Speaker 2: it out, check it out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, we feel in it. No, I can't remember.
Speaker 1: There is stemp up.
Speaker 2: In the punny and my name is Oh the Mother,
Speaker 2: and hate is Madame.
Speaker 1: So established don't don't don't shoot me, don't shoot me.
Speaker 1: I don't know that. I mean, I still don't know
Speaker 1: the words. Anyways, that song literally ushered in the MTB generation,
Speaker 1: a perfect prophetic piece of synthpop. It was huge, but
Speaker 1: the Buggles never got close to that success again. Now
Speaker 1: jumping into the eighties, you couldn't escape the synth and
Speaker 1: the sheer strangeness of music videos.
Speaker 2: For me, the one.
Speaker 1: Hit wonder that defines this decade is Tim Buck three
Speaker 1: with the Future So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades. Back
Speaker 1: when MTB played music videos twenty four to seven, this
Speaker 1: one was on a lot. Granted I wasn't born in
Speaker 1: the eighties, but that's what my sources saying. This song
Speaker 1: was played a lot back back then when it came out.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm getting good grade.
Speaker 2: Wait, I'm doing all right, I'm getting good grades.
Speaker 1: The future is so bright, I Gotta Wear Shades. The
Speaker 1: ultimate misunderstood song. Everyone thought it was an optimistic gradual
Speaker 1: euation anthem, but the lyrics are actually about nuclear holocaust
Speaker 1: and students being trained for careers so bright they literally
Speaker 1: need shades. It had that perfect blend of catchy hook
Speaker 1: and dark irony. A huge charting success, but they couldn't
Speaker 1: bottle that lightning twice. The eighties was full of those
Speaker 1: lightning in a bottle moments. Actually, moving on down to
Speaker 1: the nineties, grunge, dance pop, and global crossovers. The nineties
Speaker 1: were chaotic musically. We had grunge, exploding pop coming back,
Speaker 1: and electronic music crossing Over. It's hard to pick just one,
Speaker 1: but I'm going with Fountains of Wayne. Stacy's Mom a classic.
Speaker 1: Though Fountains of Wayne were an excellent band with solid,
Speaker 1: deep cuts. As I would like to say, Stacy's Mom
Speaker 1: became a cultural phenomenon that overshadowed everything else they did.
Speaker 1: The video the hook, pure earworm gold. You guys know,
Speaker 1: Stacy's Mom has got it going on Stacy's most Wait,
Speaker 1: Stacy's Mom has got it going on? Dun you I
Speaker 1: know you know that song. I'm probably not doing it justice,
Speaker 1: but go listen to it after this Stacy's Mom by
Speaker 1: Fountains of Wayne. Anyways, Stacy's Mom was their only massive
Speaker 1: global Top forty hit. They did have another song, Radiation Vibe,
Speaker 1: which was a significant alternative rock radio hit in the
Speaker 1: US and in the UK ninety six. I have another
Speaker 1: one for a global pure dance pop phenomenon, you can't
Speaker 1: ignore Chumbawamba with tub Thumb.
Speaker 2: I get knocked down, but I Get up again.
Speaker 1: This song was inescapable at every sporting event am Bar
Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety seven. Honestly, even to this day, if
Speaker 1: you put us on at a karaoke night, you will
Speaker 1: get the crowd moving. It was an anomaly, a wildly
Speaker 1: successful pop punk anthem by an anarchist collective who openly
Speaker 1: rejected commercial success. It's the ultimate one hit wonder narrative.
Speaker 1: They didn't want the fame and they certainly didn't repeat it.
Speaker 1: And that, my friends, in a nutshell, is the nineties.
Speaker 1: Now let's move on to the two thoys and twenty tens.
Speaker 1: Viral hits and the digital age. The Internet started to
Speaker 1: act the life cycle of a hit song. My choice
Speaker 1: for this decade is gonna be Daniel Powder with Bad Day,
Speaker 1: So You Had a Bad Day, Oh, the ultimate soundtrack
Speaker 1: to every sad movie scene and farewell montage. It was
Speaker 1: everywhere a global chart topper. It's a perfect example of
Speaker 1: a melancholic ballad that hit the cultural nerve just right.
Speaker 1: But Powder's follow ups just couldn't replicate the bigness of
Speaker 1: that song. I believe any rom com in the two
Speaker 1: thousands you can probably catch this song at least once. Like,
Speaker 1: pull out ten rom coms, and I'm sure twice you'd
Speaker 1: hear this song in one of them. I didn't even
Speaker 1: know the guy's name, Honestly, his songs the song superseded him,
Speaker 1: or maybe that's just anything I don't know. Moving on
Speaker 1: into the twenty tens, we have to talk about songs
Speaker 1: that became viral events. My pick is pi Psy with
Speaker 1: Gagnum Style Got Good, Good, good good good good Gagnum Style,
Speaker 1: Hey is it pretty Lady? No, no, no, Gangnum Style.
Speaker 1: This is arguably the biggest one hit wonder of all time,
Speaker 1: measured by sheer global reach. It was the first YouTube
Speaker 1: video to hit a billion views. It was a phenomenon
Speaker 1: that transcended language, genre, and culture. The pressure to follow
Speaker 1: that up was insurmountable. You can't recreate a global accidental
Speaker 1: viral moment, and that's why pi Psy remains the king
Speaker 1: of the twenty tens one hit wonders. Now for the
Speaker 1: trickiest decade, the twenty twenties. We're living in the age
Speaker 1: of algorithms, where hits are born on TikTok and die
Speaker 1: on the radio. But the sheer explosiveness of some of
Speaker 1: these songs is undeniable. My twenty twenties pick has to
Speaker 1: be Dance Monkey by Tones and I No.
Speaker 3: No no no no no no no no h uh
Speaker 3: see I see you see you every time? No no no, no,
Speaker 3: no no no, No, No, Dance for Me, Dance for Me,
Speaker 3: Dance for Me.
Speaker 1: That song, I don't know the words, honestly, if I'm real,
Speaker 1: I didn't like the song. I still don't. That's why
Speaker 1: I don't know the words that well. But I know
Speaker 1: the tone because it was a colossal inescapable hit tones
Speaker 1: and I is an established artist in Australia, but that song,
Speaker 1: dance Monkey globally was ever you, groundbreaking records for the time,
Speaker 1: spent at number one in multiple countries. It had that unique,
Speaker 1: slightly strange vocal hook that TikTok loved and radio couldn't
Speaker 1: stop playing. The music video was also weirdly addicting, like
Speaker 1: I don't know if you watched it because you enjoyed
Speaker 1: the randomness or you just figured the more you watch it,
Speaker 1: the more context you'll get, more understanding you get. But
Speaker 1: whatever the case, that song was a number one. Despite
Speaker 1: follow up efforts, the massive global hit of dance Monkey
Speaker 1: has been impossible to repeat. It defined that period of
Speaker 1: the pandemic, becoming a global anthem of weird, infectious joy.
Speaker 1: It's a perfect modern one hit wonder, wonder, born of
Speaker 1: a strange alchemy between a unique voice and the global algorithm.
Speaker 1: The hit is massive, but the artist struggles to escape
Speaker 1: its shadows. Typical one hit wonder curse Shalley's sat White say.
Speaker 1: The twenty tens and twenty twenties are full of these
Speaker 1: viral flashes, but I had to pick the biggest. But
Speaker 1: we have to mention some close calls. What about I
Speaker 1: Love Maconan's Tuesday. It was an undeniable club anthem that
Speaker 1: defined a year. And what about the SoundCloud generation artists
Speaker 1: like Wybi and de Mer with Rubbing Off the Paint
Speaker 1: and Blue Face with Thoughtiana. They had massive signature tracks
Speaker 1: that exploded and launched their career. But did the rest
Speaker 1: of their catalog manage to sustain that initial shocking peak
Speaker 1: of success. I'd argue that it didn't. You know, some
Speaker 1: of the stands and the fans would say that they're
Speaker 1: still relevant. They aren't one hit wonders. What I'm talking
Speaker 1: about is the global scale of the hit, and were
Speaker 1: they able to repeat that again? Were they able to
Speaker 1: taylor swift their hit where almost everything is global. That's
Speaker 1: my criteria for judging the what Hit Wonder, and that's
Speaker 1: why I'd say they're honorable mentions. It proves that in
Speaker 1: the streaming age, the peak of a single viral moment
Speaker 1: can be the hardest thing to replicate. If you it
Speaker 1: makes you wonder does an artist even need a second
Speaker 1: hit when the first one generates that much cultural conversation
Speaker 1: and financial success. Some don't like Stacy's mom and Gagnum style,
Speaker 1: maybe even top thumping.
Speaker 2: I get knocked down, but I get up again.
Speaker 1: I feel like these songs are like generation one hit
Speaker 1: wonders like I don't think they ever need another hit
Speaker 1: again because these songs are still relevant today. So if
Speaker 1: I answer my question, no, some artists don't need another
Speaker 1: second hit because the first one generated so much cultural
Speaker 1: conversation and financial success. Looking across all those decades, it's
Speaker 1: fascinating how the definition changes from music novelty to viral anomaly.
Speaker 1: The only constant is that the song was always bigger
Speaker 1: than the artist. They all share that one trait. The
Speaker 1: song was bigger than the artists. It was the right
Speaker 1: track at the right exact moment in time. Whether it
Speaker 1: was the synthesizers of the eighties or the TikTok algorithm
Speaker 1: of the twenty twenties, they all managed to capture lightning
Speaker 1: in the bottle so I want to know if you
Speaker 1: could listen to just one of these one hit wonders
Speaker 1: on repeat for the rest of your days. Which one
Speaker 1: are you picking? I think I have to go it too.
Speaker 1: The first one is gonna be Video Killed the Radio Star.
Speaker 1: I really love that song, and the other one is
Speaker 1: gonna be tub Thumpin'.
Speaker 2: I get knocked down, but I get up again.
Speaker 1: Because I want to take that nostalgia trip back to
Speaker 1: the nineties and get knocked down and then get up
Speaker 1: again with Chabawamba. Let us know your favorite one hit
Speaker 1: wonder and if we missed a truly legendary track. You
Speaker 1: can find us on our website, Viva La Life Media.
Speaker 1: All the details are below, or follow Viva Life Media
Speaker 1: on YouTube and Instagram. Thanks for joining us. This is
Speaker 1: Crash Course Pot and I will catch you next time.
Speaker 2: Bye.