WORK on chord progressions, lay down a backing track, or shag on the label’s tab? If these bandmates had spent less time banging they could have written more banging tunes:
No Doubt
The relationship between Gwen Stefani and bassist Tony Kanal ultimately ended in heartbreak but not before the tragedy of their ska-punk albums. Even their break-up inspired Stefani to pen Don’t Speak, a radical departure from everything they’d done before in that it was still shit but horribly successful.
Plastic Ono Band
After redefining popular music, John Lennon stopped writing good songs as abruptly as Huw Edwards stopped being a national treasure. Not an intentional artistic move towards stark emotional honesty, he was just getting his end away with wife and collaborator Yoko Ono. So why not scream down the microphone between orgasms instead of singing?
Sonic Youth
Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore married a few years after founding the noise rock pioneers, and discovered dissonant guitar tones by plugging in their instruments, lying them on a bed, and then screwing on top of them.The sounds created as their writhing limbs randomly hit guitar strings were largely unlistenable, but filled gaps on albums.
Fugees
Their music was a collage of samples and steals, and Wyclef Jean and Lauren Hills’s on-off relationship was concurrent with Wyclef’s marriage. All that sneaking around and arguing meant that they didn’t have the headspace to actually compose so they’re largely remembered for saying ‘one time’ and ‘two times’ over a cover of a Roberta Flack record.
Arcade Fire
Win Butler and Regine Chassagne got hitched just as their band was about to make it big. Subsequent parenthood explains why their lyrics were mostly ‘aah-ahh-ahh-aah’; it was all the sleep-deprived bastards were hearing. The music? All frantic strings, pounding drums, four to the floor rhythms, building to a climax. We get it, you f**k.
Paramore
Hayley Williams became romantically involved with new guitarist Taylor York, and ever since they’ve been trapped in the wholly uninteresting genre of adolescent emo-pop. Their upbeat numbers have the sonic appeal of a teenager’s bedroom door slamming, while their quieter moments are abominations worthy of Coldplay B-sides. Sex is bad, kids.
