Sunday, December 29, 2024

Critics, Not Fans, Perpetuate the Failed Second Album Myth

After a debut hit, many bands often find their follow-up album panned: further evidence of the curse of the "sophomore slump," critics say.

Posted by LampLighter at 05:30 PM | 7 COMMENTS | permalink

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A study reveals the "sophomore slump" in music is mainly a critic-driven phenomenon. Fans do not exhibit this bias, suggesting critics may conform to social norms in their reviews.

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-- Science X / Phys.org (@sciencex.bsky.social) December 3, 2024 at 4:02 PM

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More from the article...

... But it might just be critics saying that. That's according to a new study that discovered that the sophomore slump effect"where a band's second album is exceptionally bad compared to their first and third records"only crops up among professional critics, not fans.

"If every music critic has heard of a sophomore slump and everyone knows it happens, they might be convinced to over-apply it in their reviews," said Gregory Webster, Ph.D., the R. David Thomas Endowed Professor of Psychology at the University of Florida and co-author of the new study in the journal Psychology of Music. "We suspect it's a kind of social conformity, which we see in a lot of social groups." ...


#1 | Posted by LampLighter at 2024-12-26 12:14 AM

imo, of course the second album will be judged at a lower level than the first.

Well, duh.

The first album represents going from zero to something.

That can be an infinite gain.

The second album goes from that "something" of the first album to some other "something."

That second gain will never be as large as the first because the first was based upon zero.


#2 | Posted by LampLighter at 2024-12-26 12:18 AM

Bands whose second albums are easily superior than their excellent first albums ...

Death Cab for Cutie - We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes
Weezer - Pinkerton
Gorillaz - Demon Days
Jimmy Eat World - Clarity
Girl and Girl - Call a Doctor
Brand New - Deja Entendu
Grandaddy - The Sophomore Slump (tongue and cheek with your article)
Parquet Courts - Light up Gold
Pixies - Surfer Rosa
The Magnetic Fields - Holiday
JJ Cale - Naturally
Neil Young - After The Gold Rush

Just to name a few ...

#3 | Posted by Bluewaffles at 2024-12-26 01:25 AM

I believe it was Belinda Carlisle, from the Go-Gos, who said, "you have your whole life to write the first album, but only a few months to write the second one."

#4 | Posted by TFDNihilist at 2024-12-26 04:26 AM

#2 unless youre the Beatles. and 2 the same year, iirc.

#5 | Posted by ichiro at 2024-12-27 05:14 AM

@#1 ... That's according to a new study that discovered that the sophomore slump effect"where a band's second album is exceptionally bad compared to their first and third records"only crops up among professional critics, not fans. ...

So, it seems to be the critics, and not the fans, who decided whether or not the second album "failed?"


That is good, why?


#6 | Posted by LampLighter at 2024-12-27 11:02 PM

So people who are paid to find flaws, overperform on anticipated items... shocking

#7 | Posted by kwrx25 at 2024-12-31 01:34 PM

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