Staging a Comeback: Lessons From the Music Industry

I am a pop culture and music junkie. If you were to look at my iTunes right now, you’d realize that I easily have more than a 1,000 songs in my library, ranging from Nirvana/Foo Fighters to Marvin Gaye and the Beatles to Usher. I've been thinking for quite some time about a blog that would tie my obsession with music to business strategy, and I think I have finally found a connection.

Musical trends come and go, frequently sweeping out the old and ushering in the new at a rapid and often unexpected pace. I once read that the average band only lasts five years or less. There are those occasional acts with staying power, and perhaps one day I will write a blog looking at their success. But for now, I want to focus on five musicians who were successful, faded into obscurity and staged a comeback.

Zeitgeist
Green Day seemed burned out after helping lead a punk revival in the mid-1990s. But the anti-war movement in 2004 provided the right environment for rebellious angst, and the trio delivered. The expletive-laden song/rant of American Idiot took not-so-veiled swipes at the Bush administration and other songs clearly fed off of the notion of a jaded population. The album sold more copies than the band’s prior three releases combined.

Reinvent Yourself and Play to Your Strengths
Darius Rucker was a mainstay on mainstream radio in the late 1990s. As the supposed “Hootie” in Hootie and the Blowfish, Rucker was the lead singer for a band that issued three straight platinum-certified albums, filled arenas and a recorded string of obnoxiously catchy tunes. By 2008, the band was three years removed from issuing an album with lukewarm sales. Rucker had even attempted a prior solo tilt, releasing a all-but-forgettable R&B record that was a departure from the southern rock sound he had crafted with the band.

How did he stage a comeback? By going country, Rucker found a new market that played to his musical strengths. As other artists, particularly Toby Keith, have realized, country music lovers are a small part of the population, but they are loyal and they buy a lot of albums. Rucker has added a solo platinum album and seven top-five country singles in the past five years.

In some ways, I compare this strategy to Apple roughly a decade ago. The company was losing the battle for computer buyers, so they reinvented how people upload and listen to music with the iPod. Further advancements in the market have helped fuel the company’s comeback.

Return to Your Roots

Marvin Lee Aday had a nice career in the 1970s. Meat Loaf became known for booming, operatic anthems and album covers that were considered artistic and iconic. Legal issues with his primary songwriter forced the singer to pen more songs in the 1980s. That, combined with a departure with cover art, led to a downward spiral in his popularity.

How did Meat Loaf stage a comeback? By reconnecting with his songwriting partner on a sequel to Bat Out of Hell, he managed to reintroduce himself to a new generation of music listeners. (Interestingly, record executives initially wrote the comeback off as a joke.) And the classic cover art returned. As it turned out, the album included his biggest single, “I Would Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That)”. People are still trying to figure out what “it” was, but what really mattered was the comeback.

Interesting post-script: Meat Loaf’s '90s comeback was short-lived, though Bat Out of Hell III actually went gold in 2006.

Photo: Wikipedia

Collaborate With A Fresh, New Face

Some of the best comebacks involve putting egos aside and serving as a supporting act to someone else. A great example is taking place this summer, with Nelly (right) appearing on the infectious Florida Georgia Line song, Cruise.

Nelly’s own single bombed earlier this year, but an appearance on another act’s highly played song can only help sales of his upcoming album. Georgia Florida Line’s debut album is nearing 800,000 sales, which is quite impressive in the iTunes era. Mariah Carey could learn something from this.

Find a New Groove

The comeback that I still marvel at was Kylie Minogue’s Can’t Get You Out of My Head. After having a huge debut in the 1980s with a cover of The Loco-Motion, the Australian singer faded into near-oblivion in the U.S. throughout the 1990s. But she revamped her image, brought in a new dance groove and struck a chord with younger listeners in 2001. Subsequent songs have been a letdown, but I find it interesting when someone goes 14 years between hit singles. Does that mean hope still exists for Sugar Ray?