Diversity is Good

My lovely wife and I were watching a bit of VH-1's "One Hit Wonders" special, which is of course a guaranteed source of groans, sighs and cries of injustice. Being a person who spent a lot of time outside America, I naturally protest the inclusion of a lot of these artists as "one hit wonders" because many of them did have other hits, sometimes lots of other hits. A number of really seriously great artists who contributed a lot to music, such as Ian Dury or Madness, get tarred with the shameful scarlet letter of "one-hit wonder" because only one of their songs ever managed to crack the American charts.

(at first I thought the definition was merely cracking the Top 40, but artists I know had follow-up hits were included, so apparently VH-1's definition of OHW is pretty strict.)

At least they usually mentioned when an artist was, in fact, a very long-standing and hot-selling commodity in countries outside the US (such as Gary Glitter).

What I did like about the countdown was that they made no attempt to pass judgment on the songs or the artists (for the most part), and that the eras covered (VH-1's usual territory of the 70s, 80s, and 90s) were given roughly equal footing. Then of course there was Shatner as the host. I love Shatner. I seriously love Shatner. I particularly love the way his hair changes with each new appearance.

But I digress.

There are a ton of really, really fine songs on the OHW list, including my all-time favourite in at #100 even, "Kung Fu Fighting" by Carl Douglas. Serious genuises who are defamed on the list include Bow Wow Wow, the Tom Tom Club, the Proclaimers, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Big Country, The Vapors, Buster Poindexter, M, Devo, Gary Numan, Thomas Dolby, A-ha, Toni Basil and Soft Cell.

Guilty Pleasures on the list (for me, anyway) include the aforementioned "Kung-Fu Fighting," "Harper Valley PTA" (#95), "I Know What Boys Like" (#82), "867-5309" (#59), "Smokin' in the Boys Room" (#57) ... somebody really needs to do a documentary on that particular sub-genre of rebel rock! ..., "It's Raining Men" (#55) (what can I say, I like gay disco), "Rock n Roll pt. 2" (#47), "Rock Me Amadeus" (#44), "Me & Mrs. Jones" (#38) ... it was the anthem of a specific time ..., "Too Shy" (#25), "Tubthumping" (#23), "Play That Funky Music" (#22), "We're Not Gonna Take It" (#17), "Groove is in the Heart" (#14), "99 Luftballoons" (#10), and "Come On Eileen" (#3). Amazingly, they left off "Disco Duck!"

(By the way -- if you're reading this, I'll bet you know the melody to every song I've mentioned. Admit it!)

The greats and the groans live side-by-side on this list. "Tainted Love" lost out to "The Macarena," and the brilliant "Take On Me" sits between "Rico Suave" and "Ice Ice Baby" (!!) here. And only here, thank goodness. :)

This got me thinking ... the eras that produced the most one-hit wonders were specific periods within their respective decades. Looking over the list, you see that 73-76 was a very fertile period, along with 79-84. Of course the disco period had a huge string of one-hit wonders, but VH-1 rightfully counted only the most popular of these (but did mention a whole bunch of the better disco songs, such as "Knock On Wood" and "Ring My Bell" and "Rock the Boat"). These were two particular eras where musical tastes were all over the map, and record companies had little control over what became popular. There was a lot of crap in the charts then, but at least there was a lot of diversity too. Another such period was the early 90s, when college radio came into its own. Sure enough, most of the 90's OHW entries are from the first half of that decade.

I guess what I'm saying is that maybe one-hit wonders are a good thing. They shake things up, come from nowhere, keep the record companies on their toes, surprise and delight the audience. With only the dozen or so radio-favoured acts out there now and the tight control media congloms put on our entertainment, we don't get much of that anymore. I think it's hurting music's reputation as something to be really passionate about.