History BreakupBreakout / Music

* Before becoming a soundtrack composer for the likes of ''Film/TheCrow'', ''Film/FromDuskTillDawn'' and ''Film/SinCity'', '''Graeme Revell''' was the frontman of the {{industrial}} band SPK.

* Smash!![[labelnote: *]] exclamation marks part of the name[[/labelnote]] was a Russian pop duo formed in 2000 by Vlad Topalov and '''Sergey Lazarev'''. Lazarev left the project in 2004 due to his contract with Universal, the duo's label, expiring, and in 2006 Smash!! officially ceased to exist[[labelnote: *]] aside from a quick reunion in 2011 when they performed two songs together [[/labelnote]]. Lazarev eventually continued his music career solo, becoming one of the most popular Russian pop singers and coming in third on Eurovision Song Contest 2016. The only notable thing Vlad Topalov did after Smash!! was confessing to having been addicted to drugs in 2008.

* '''Suzy''' of Music/MissA is so well-known for this in KoreanPopMusic that if TV Tropes was Korean, we might have created this page as "The Suzy" instead of TheJannetty. Although Miss A were definitely [[{{Pun}} "A-listers"]] together -- even being the first ever group to have their debut song reach #1 on the Gaon Digital Chart -- Suzy's ventures into acting led to her fame quickly overshadowing the other members. Today, she's the only Miss A veteran who's still a top star in South Korea.

* Geggy Tah was an alternative rock trio with funk and world music influences, who put out three albums on [[Music/DavidByrne]]'s record label Luaka Bop. However, they would only have one moderate rock radio hit ("Whoever You Are", which reached #16 on the Modern Rock charts in 1996) before splitting up in 2001. Not long afterwards, their keyboardist '''Greg Kurstin''' would become a huge name as a producer, scoring hits with Music/{{Adele}}, Music/KellyClarkson and Music/{{Sia}} (among many others), and racking up nine Grammys (including winning Producer of the Year, Non-Classical twice in a row in 2017 and 2018).

* '''Suzy''' of Music/MissA is so well-known for this in KoreanPopMusic that if TV Tropes was Korean, we might have created this page as "The Suzy" instead of TheJannetty. Although Miss A were definitely [[IncrediblyLamePun "A-listers"]] together -- even being the first ever group to have their debut song reach #1 on the Gaon Digital Chart -- Suzy's ventures into acting led to her fame quickly overshadowing the other members. Today, she's the only Miss A veteran who's still a top star in South Korea.

* When alternative country pioneers '''Music/UncleTupelo''' broke up, LeadGuitaristAndLeadSubger Jay Farrar achieved moderate success with his new band Music/SonVolt, while bassist-turned-guitarist and singer Jeff Tweedy and the rest of the band became Music/{{Wilco}}, which, after a few major changes in musical direction and members, became way more successful than Uncle Tupelo or Son Volt.

* When alternative country pioneers '''Music/UncleTupelo''' broke up, lead guitarist and singer Jay Farrar achieved moderate success with his new band Music/SonVolt, while bassist-turned-guitarist and singer Jeff Tweedy and the rest of the band became Music/{{Wilco}}, which, after a few major changes in musical direction and members, became way more successful than Uncle Tupelo or Son Volt.

* '''Bluesology''' is a largely forgotten blues band from the 60s, and almost all of its members are largely forgotten. Organist Reggie Dwight, however, is well known largely because we know him now as Music/EltonJohn. Meanwhile, lead singer Creator/LongJohnBaldry went on to a successful solo career in England, as well as doing voice acting after he moved to Canada later in life, most notably as the voice of Dr. Robotnik on ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog''.

* '''Bluesology''' is a largely forgotten blues band from the 60s, and almost all of its members are largely forgotten. Organist Reggie Dwight, however, is well known largely because we know him now as Music/EltonJohn. Meanwhile, lead singer Music/LongJohnBaldry went on to a successful solo career in England, as well as doing voice acting after he moved to Canada later in life, most notably as the voice of Dr. Robotnik on ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog''.

* '''The Del Fuegos''' was a Boston roots rock band that experienced moderate success in the 80s, with notable fans including Music/TomPetty and Music/BruceSpringsteen, and ''Magazine/RollingStone'' named them "Best New Band" in 1984. Today, they are mostly remembered for the fact that the band's lineup included Dan Zanes, who went on to become a pioneer of the kindie rock genre of children's music a few years after the band dissolved. Zanes' brother and bandmate Warren has also had a well-regarded career as a music journalist. He's best known for writing Petty's semi-official biography in 2015.

* The Del Fuegos was a Boston roots rock band that experienced moderate success in the 80s, with notable fans including Music/TomPetty and Music/BruceSpringsteen, and ''Magazine/RollingStone'' named them "Best New Band" in 1984. Today, they are mostly remembered for the fact that the band's lineup included '''Dan Zanes''', who went on to become a pioneer of the kindie rock genre of children's music a few years after the band dissolved.

* Smash!![[labelnote: *]] [[ExcitedShowTitle exclamation marks part of the name]][[/labelnote]] was a Russian pop duo formed in 2000 by Vlad Topalov and '''Sergey Lazarev'''. Lazarev left the project in 2004 due to his contract with Universal, the duo's label, expiring, and in 2006 Smash!! officially ceased to exist[[labelnote: *]] aside from a quick reunion in 2011 when they performed two songs together [[/labelnote]]. Lazarev eventually continued his music career solo, becoming one of the most popular Russian pop singers and coming in third on Eurovision Song Contest 2016. The only notable thing Vlad Topalov did after Smash!! was confessing to having been addicted to drugs in 2008.

* '''Music/TheYardbirds''', while successful in their own right, is arguably more well-known ofr launching the careers of Music/EricClapton, Music/JeffBeck and Jimmy Page, the latter of which formed Music/LedZeppelin from the ashes from the group. Lead singer Keith Relf is mostly famous for his electrocution death in 1976 and for forming the progressive rock band Music/{{Renaissance}}.

* Music/{{Take That|Band}} was an interesting case. When the group broke up in 1996, '''Music/RobbieWilliams''' was easily the breakout star, scoring multiple hits on both sides of the pond. This became inverted, however, when Take That reunited (sans Williams) a decade later with renewed success, while Williams' career plateaued, eventually rejoining the band in 2010. Otherwise, of the other members, only Music/GaryBarlow did reasonably well as a solo artist.

Whenever a band ends up splitting up, there is almost a guarantee that this trope will come into play.

* Music/DestinysChild propelled '''Music/{{Beyonce}}''' to global stardom. Her bandmates have since carved out much lower-key but still fairly respectable solo careers (Music/KellyRowland being the most successful) but will never come as close to Beyoncé.

* After '''Music/TheJonasBrothers''' broke up in 2013 due to getting dropped by the Creator/DisneyChannel and being increasingly outcompeted by the like of Music/OneDirection and Music/JustinBieber, two of its members formed careers of their own to commercial (though not quite to the level of the band at their prime) and critical (much moreso than the band) success:
** Music/NickJonas developed a mature ContemporaryRAndB sound far removed from his original band and scored a pair of hits with "Jealous" and "Chains" off his debut SelfTitledAlbum. Additionally, he garnered [[SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct significant acclaim]] as an actor with lead roles in ''Kingdom'', ''Film/JumanjiWelcomeToTheJungle'' and ''Series/ScreamQueens2015''.
** Music/JoeJonas founded DNCE, a band with an upbeat funky disco sound, and their debut single "Cake By the Ocean" was a huge hit. Unfortunately, [[OneHitWonder they've yet to score a notable follow-up]].

* A pretty extreme inversion of this trope, where all but one member continued their high success after the breakup, is South Korean multi-genre trio '''Seo Taiji [[ProtagonistAndFriends and Boys]]'''. After they broke up, Seo himself maintained a flourishing music career, even gaining the nickname "President of Culture". Yang Hyun-suk founded YG Entertainment, one of the biggest [[KoreanPopMusic k-pop]] companies of all time. As for Lee Juno, he also tried being a music executive, but didn't have much luck and faded out of the public eye to become a mildly successful producer & dance teacher. Lee's most recent stint in the news was getting convicted of sexual harassment and fraud in 2017, and almost every headline referred to him as "former Seo Taiji & Boys member".
* '''Those Who Lie Beneath''' was a low-level deathcore act from the Pacific Northwest who recorded one full-length and toured for a year who were critically well-liked and went over well with crowds, but never really attracted a dedicated fanbase or broke out of the low-level support milieu. Nowadays, they are known for three people: Jamie Hanks, who left the band to join I Declare War and became far more famous through them than he ever was in Those Who Lie Beneath, and Kyle Rasmussen and Adam Roethlisberger, who took over leadership of the band after Hanks left and gradually transformed it into the critically-lauded death metal act Vitriol, who released one of the most heavily hyped debuts of 2019.

* In the fictional history of Music/GarthBrooks' alter ego Chris Gaines, Chris started off in a band called Crush that scored its only hit "My Love Tells Me So". When one of its band members died in an airplane crash, Chris went solo with his debut album ''Straight Jacket'' and became a bigger success up until the release of his 1999 ''[[Music/InTheLifeOfChrisGaines Greatest Hits]]'' album which would precede ''The Lamb''.

* * A pretty extreme inversion of this trope, where all but one member became super famous after the breakup, is South Korean multi-genre trio '''Seo Taiji [[ProtagonistAndFriends and Boys]]'''. After they broke up, Seo himself continued to have a very successful music career, even gaining the nickname "President of Culture". Rapper Yang Hyun-suk founded YG Entertainment, one of the biggest [[KoreanPopMusic k-pop]] companies of all time. As for dancer Lee Juno, he also tried being a music executive, but didn't find much success and faded into obscurity as a mildly successful producer & dance teacher. Lee's most recent stint in the news was getting convicted of sexual harassment and fraud in 2017, and almost every headline referred to him as "former Seo Taiji & Boys member".
* 1980s trio '''S-K-O''' (Schuyler, Knoblock, and Overstreet) lost Paul Overstreet after their first album, which included the #1 hit "Baby's got a New Baby" (1986), and became S-K-B when Craig Bickhardt replaced him. Overstreet went on to become a semi-successful solo artist, with nearly twice as many Top 10 hits as S-K-O did (including the #1 "Daddy's Come Around" and a guest spot on Music/TanyaTucker's chart-topper "I Won't Take Less Than Your Love", which he also wrote). After his career fizzled out, Overstreet returned to songwriting, but occasionally dabbled in Christian music as well. Two of his sons have gained some fame as well: Chord Overstreet is a ''Series/{{Glee}}'' cast member, and Nash is a member of pop group Hot Chelle Rae.
** This [[InvertedTrope went the other way]] with the other members: Fred Knoblock previously had a #1 AC hit with "Why Not Me" and two Top 10 country hits, while both Thom Schuyler and Craig Bickhardt had several songwriting credits both before and after S-K-O/S-K-B's short life.

* Music/TenaciousD's track "The Ballad of Hollywood Jack and the Rage Kage" parodies this, with the Rage Kage languishing in obscurity while Hollywood Jack gets famous and stars in movies not entirely unlike the dynamic that was in place while the band themselves were on hiatus between albums). It culminates in the Rage Kage losing his mind in a jealous fury.

*** Music/TomoakiIshizuka worked with hide but have struggled to make a solo name for himself aside from X Japan and hide solo, and a lot of people are still very mixed about Ra:IN.

* '''Suzy''' of Music/MissA is so well-known for this in the KoreanPopMusic industry that if TV Tropes was Korean, we might have created this page as "The Suzy" instead of TheJannetty. Although Miss A were definitely [[IncrediblyLamePun "A-listers"]] together -- even being the first ever group to have their debut song reach #1 on the Gaon Digital Chart -- Suzy's ventures into acting led to her fame quickly overshadowing the other members. Today, she's the only Miss A veteran who's still a top star in South Korea.

* After '''Music/TheJonasBrothers''' broke up in 2013 due to being dropped by the Creator/DisneyChannel and increasing levels of cultural irrelevance thanks to Music/OneDirection and Music/JustinBieber, two of its members formed careers of their own to commercial (though not quite to the level of the band at their prime) and critical (much moreso than the band) success:

* Interestingly, this happened twice with Canadian alt rock group '''Len'''. The band scored a U.S. Top 10 hit with "Steal My Sunshine" 1999, and some minor success overseas a year later with the single "Kryptik Souls Crew" before their fame waned. Lead guitarist Brendan Canning decided to split off, and subsequently formed the supergroup Music/BrokenSocialScene with Kevin Drew, which subsequently rode to a long-running string of critical smash hits in Canada (along with a US Top 50 record with ''Forgiveness Rock Record'' in 2010). Meanwhile, fellow Len bandmate Moka Only, who was briefly part of the group (and can be seen in the "Kryptik Souls" music video) split off to record music with rap[=/=]rock hybrid Swollen Members, who charted in the Canada and US multiple times over several albums. The other two lead members in Len, brother[=/=]sister duo Marc and Sharon Costanzo, released several more albums to diminishing success before calling it quits in 2005. Len subsequently attempted a comeback in 2012 with the album ''It's Easy If You Try'', but it once again failed to hit the charts.
* '''Oh-OK''' was a band that was part of the Athens, Georgia alternative rock scene in the early Eighties. (In fact, vocalist Lynda Stipe was the sister of Michael Stipe from Music/{{REM}}) They disbanded in 1984. Within ten years, when alternative rock had gained mainstream popularity, guitarist Music/MatthewSweet had started a solo career while other singer Linda Hopper and drummer David [=McNair=] formed the band Magnapop. Both Sweet and Magnapop had more success than their former band.

* In the mid-2000s, there was a short-lived pop rock girl group called the '''Valli Girls'''. While they had some mainstream hype, including appearances on the soundtracks to such TV shows and films as ''WesternAnimation/{{Trollz}}'' and ''Film/TheSisterhoodOfTheTravelingPants'', they broke up after just a short while. Members Este and Danielle Haim went on to far greater success as part of Music/{{Haim}}, while the rest of the band faded into near-complete obscurity.

* 1980s trio '''S-K-O''' (Schuyler, Knoblock, and Overstreet) lost Paul Overstreet after their first album, which included the #1 hit "Baby's got a New Baby" (1986), and became S-K-B when Craig Bickhardt replaced him. Overstreet went on to become a semi-successful solo artist, with nearly twice as many Top 10 hits as S-K-O did (including the #1 "Daddy's Come Around" and a guest spot with Paul Davis on Music/TanyaTucker's 1987 chart-topper "I Won't Take Less Than Your Love", which he also wrote). After his career fizzled out, Overstreet returned to songwriting, but occasionally dabbled in Christian music as well. Two of his sons have gained some fame as well: Chord Overstreet is a ''Series/{{Glee}}'' cast member, and Nash is a member of pop group Hot Chelle Rae.

* The girl group Choice had a song "Key to My Heart" which appeared on the soundtrack for ''Kazaam''. When it broke up, the members went their separate ways -- Sharon Flanagan went nowhere, Chrissy Conway had decent success with Christian rock group Zoegirl, and Alecia Moore started using the stage name '''Music/{{Pink}}''' and became a hugely successful pop star throughout the 2000s and into the 2010s.

* '''Clover''' was a country rock band that lasted from 1967 to 1978. They never had much success other than backing Music/ElvisCostello on his debut album ''Music/MyAimIsTrue''. But after they broke up, backing vocalist and harmonica player Huey Louis [[note]]who wasn't involved in recording ''My Aim Is True''[[/note]] changed the spelling of his last name to the more traditional "Lewis" and teamed up with keyboardist Sean Hopper to form (you guessed it) Music/HueyLewisAndTheNews.

* The '60s rock band '''The Hassles''' recorded two low-key albums before disbanding. The bassist co-founded Ram Jam ([[OneHItWonder best known for]] "Black Betty"). The drummer and keyboardist experimented in metal before going their separate ways, and that keyboardist had a pretty good solo career. His name? Music/BillyJoel.
* Two members - singer Paul Heaton and drummer Dave Hemmingway - of 80s British indie pop group '''The Housemartins''' went on to become Music/TheBeautifulSouth. Another, bassist Norman Cook, went through a [[IHaveManyNames lot]] of bands and acts before eventually settling on being Music/FatboySlim. [[note]]If you're wondering what happened to the fourth member, guitarist Stan Cullimore? He went a more low-key route and became a composer for British children's shows. Which is still far more successful than original drummer Hugh Whitaker. He ended up attacking the other half of an unsuccessful business partnership with an axe, and spent six years in prison as a result.[[/note]]

** As for Kevin, he had a (very) brief stint on the reality TV circuit with ''Celebrity Apprentice'' and ''Married to Jonas'' but never returned to the music biz and faded into complete obscurity.

* '''Music/{{Sting}}''' and Music/ThePolice. While The Police are hardly obscure, Sting is easily the most recognizable in terms of post-band success.
** Referenced in a [[Radio/TheVeryWorldOfMiltonJones Milton Jones]] sketch where he is pretending to hold a police [[WaxingLyrical interview]] with Sting:
--->'''Milton:''' Now, let me make you an offer. You tell me everything you know, and I'll make sure you get a new identity and start your life over, while the other two get put away and never heard of again.
** Stewart Copeland has also made quite a name for himself in the decades since the Police's dissolution, being a well-regarded soundtrack composer; 90s kids might know him best as the guy who scored [[VideoGame/SpyroTheDragon1998 the]] [[VideoGame/Spyro2RiptosRage first]] [[VideoGame/SpyroYearOfTheDragon three]] ''Franchise/SpyroTheDragon'' games.

* The girl group Choice had a song "Key to My Heart" which appeared on the soundtrack for ''Kazaam''. When it broke up, Sharon Flanagan went nowhere, Chrissy Conway had fair success with Christian rock group Zoegirl, and the third girl? Alecia Moore is now known as '''Music/{{Pink}}'''.

* '''Bluesology''' is a largely forgotten blues band from the 60s, and almost all of its members are largely forgotten. Organist Reggie Dwight, however, is well known largely because we know him now as Music/EltonJohn.
** Their lead singer was Long John Baldry, who had a successful solo career in England, as well as doing voice acting (most notably as the voice of Dr. Robotnik on ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog'').

* The Chad Mitchell Trio had only one real breakout star, but it was not any of the original members of the group. [[ExecutiveMeddling Record execs]] felt the 'folk trio' fad was passing, and urged Chad Mitchell to leave the trio and perform solo. Chad Mitchell recorded a few solo albums, but has never had any mainstream success. The guy who replaced him in the Mitchell Trio, on the other hand, was '''John Denver'''. Yes, THE Music/JohnDenver. He went on to become a breakout star while the others in the trio more or less retired.