History ExecutiveMeddling / Music

** In yet another example of Executive Meddling winding up to have positive endpoint, Music/JamesBlunt gave 'Weird' Al permission to do a parody of "You're Beautiful". But after "You're Pitiful" was recorded, the executives at Creator/AtlanticRecords -- Blunt's label -- told Al he couldn't release the song on his next album because they feared it would turn Blunt into "a one hit wonder" (Ironically, he has not had a Billboard Top 40 appearance in the US since). So instead he released it for free online, and performs it in concert. Part of said performance is wearing an "Atlantic Records Sucks" t-shirt. Yet, this still left his next record a bit short. Al went back to the recording studio and recorded "Do I Creep You Out" and "White and Nerdy". When released as a single, the latter song became the biggest hit in Al's three-decade-long career (and its video also takes a shot at the case, when he edits Wiki/{{Wikipedia}}'s entry for Atlantic Records...).

* Music/ElectricSix ended up reluctantly covering Music/{{Queen}}'s "Radio Ga Ga" on ''Señor Smoke'' because the record company wanted them to use it as a single. Perhaps not coincidentally, they've only put cover songs on their albums a couple of more times since.

** Devo 2.0 was essentially a pre-teen {{Music/Devo}} cover band marketed by Disney with a fair deal of input from Devo themselves, who mostly went along with the idea [[ItAmusedMe because it they thought it was just the right kind of ridiculous]]. A lot of the original songs had substantially rewritten lyrics due to executive meddling. Some were pretty reasonable things like excising a repeated reference to a gun in "Big Mess" or changing "Girl U Want" into "Boy U Want" and making it about an innocent crush rather than lust. Other changes were a little weirder -- in one interview Jerry Casale said "That's Good" lost the completely inoffensive couplet "Life's a bee without the buzz / it's going good 'til you get stung" because someone was convinced they were trying to get a drug reference past the censors. Apparently they interpreted the lyrics as hip-hop slang and took them to mean "Life is a bitch when you're not high, so make sure that you don't get caught with drugs by the police".

* Music/{{Sloan}}: Creator/GeffenRecords choose not to provide their second album, Twice Removed with much promotion due to artistic disputes. The band would leave the label not long after.

* Stabbing Westward were primarily an IndustrialMetal[=/=]AlternativeMetal band, but their 2001 SelfTitledAlbum, [[NewSoundAlbum did away with most of the heavier and more "industrial" elements]] in favor of melodic, mid-tempo AlternativeRock. Lead vocalist Christopher Hall would later say this was due to the band being under new management - the original demos for the album were darker and heavier, but their manager rallied the band to a poppier sound to sell more records (against the majority of members' wishes), had their guitarist replaced with a new member who had much more of a BritPop / GlamRock playing style, and even kicked Hall out of the recording studio for two weeks. Ironically, it ended up being one of their worst-selling albums, which led to the band breaking up and not releasing another full album until 21 years later.
* For the album ''Skull Ring'', Creator/VirginRecords requested Music/IggyPop collaborate with some artists that would appeal to a younger audience. The album ended up with two guest appearances each by Music/GreenDay and {{Music/Peaches}}, one by Music/Sum41 (the only specific band the label insisted he work with), and three songs reuniting him with Music/TheStooges, while the rest of the songs were performed with The Trolls, his backing band for the previous album.

* Stabbing Westward were primarily an IndustrialMetal[=/=]AlternativeMetal band, but their 2001 SelfTitledAlbum, which ended up being their last, [[NewSoundAlbum did away with most of the heavier and more "industrial" elements]] in favor of melodic, mid-tempo AlternativeRock. Lead vocalist Christopher Hall would later say this was due to the band being under new management - the original demos for the album were darker and heavier, but their manager rallied the band to a poppier sound to sell more records (against the majority of members' wishes), had their guitarist replaced with a new member who had much more of a BritPop / GlamRock playing style, and even kicked Hall out of the recording studio for two weeks. Ironically, it ended up being one of their worst-selling albums.

* Music/{{Heart}}, after they signed on with Capitol Records. Their last two records (''Private Audition'' and ''Passionworks'') had sold poorly, so Capitol revamped them to give them a "glam-metal" look and "arena-rock" sound, downplaying the folk and acoustic elements of some of their earlier music, as well as using outside writers to write songs for them. The moves worked, and the band scored a major comeback in 1985, as their self-titled record had five hit singles (four made the top 10) and sold very well.

** This is common with ProgressiveRock acts because their songs are frequently [[EpicRocking so long]]. It's a major reason that Music/{{Genesis}}' "Music/SuppersReady" (22:54) has seven movements, or Caravan's "Nine Feet Underground" (22:45) has eight.

** Similarly, Black Sabbath's ''Music/{{Paranoid}}'' album was supposed to be named ''War Pigs''. It was changed by studio execs at the last minute because the song "Paranoid" had become a surprise hit, and because they felt the title could be interpreted as a reference to UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar.

* Stephen Malkmus wanted to call his post-Music/{{Pavement}} band The Jicks, but Matador Records resisted the idea, presumably thinking it'd be easier to promote the association with Pavement if he used his own name. Thus, what was meant to be the first album by the Jicks was released as a SelfTitledAlbum credited to Stephen Malkmus alone - as a nod to this, the CD version of the album had the word "Jicks" printed on the disc itself, while the vinyl has it printed in the inner sleeve. A compromise was made and all subsequent albums were credited to Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks.
** When Malkmus presented his label with his electronic solo album '',Groove Denied'', the label balked at the idea of releasing a NewSoundAlbum after a four year hiatus, and asked that he produce another indie rock album with The Jicks first. He did, and the result was The Jicks' ''Sparkle Hard'', To be fair, Matador founder Chris Lombardi personally traveled to Portland to explain to Malkmus why the label thought the timing wasn't right for the album, and ''Groove Denied'' did get a belated release the next year.

* CountryMusic band Music/{{Lonestar}} originally recorded conventional late-90s "neotraditional" country, but after changing producers to Dann Huff, they had a massive crossover between 1999 and 2000 with the poppy PowerBallad "Amazed". Then in 2001, they had another pop crossover with another sentimental pop ballad, "I'm Already There". Naturally, their then-label BNA Records pressured them to record more songs with [[LoudnessWar Huff's trademark over-the-top production]], increasingly MelismaticVocals from frontman Richie [=McDonald=], and TastesLikeDiabetes overly family-friendly lyrics -- which worked-short term but gradually saw diminishing returns come their 2004 album ''Let's Be Us Again''. Lead guitarist Michael Britt told Creator/{{CMT}}, "They started putting out a bunch of family-type songs. I think that really pigeonholed us. The majority of the band didn't really want to continue doing that same thing." BNA eventually dropped them due to plummeting record sales, and [=McDonald=] quit in 2007 before turning in 2011.

* This happened to Music/{{Live}}, and how. [[WordOfGod Guitarist Chad Taylor]] says their album ''V'' was never supposed to be released at all (they intended to release an album called ''Ecstatic Fanatic'' which was going to be dedicated to the fans). They then wanted "Overcome" from the same album to be released as a charity single for 9/11 victims. MCA said no to that. The meddling ended up leading to the band becoming [[IAmTheBand Ed Kowalczyk and some other guys]], and Ed eventually writing entire albums with minimal input from the rest of the band. It all went downhill from there.
* Part of the reason for Music/VanHalen parting ways with both original lead singer Music/DavidLeeRoth and producer Ted Templeman was allegedly (at least according to interviews Eddie Van Halen gave not long after the split) Templeman's insistence on the band recording cover songs for hits (Ted feeling that covers were halfway to success anyway) and his and Roth's opposition to Eddie using synthesizers and writing more ballads. Eddie took over production of ''1984'', leading to a number one album and number one single with the synth-heavy "Jump", but Eddie by then had enough of not being able to do enough of what he wanted to do on Van Halen albums. When Roth wanted to do more touring in 1985 rather than record a new album (Ed didn't want to tour without new music to promote, along with spending more time working on a vanity film project rather than write new material, it proved to be the last straw.

** ''Youthanasia'''s producer Max Norman insisted that every song be 120bpm to ensure radio airplay. This did not happen with every song, but it was close. Executives at MTV thought the song ""A Tout le Monde" was about suicide so did not play it even though the band and producer thought it was a sure-fire hit single.

** Executive Meddling was the reason Al wrote "Christmas at Ground Zero". They kept insisting he write a "Christmas-y" song for the holiday season. [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor They eventually regretted it]].

** {{Averted}} on ''Music/{{Nevermind}}''. Executives wanted to censor the cover famously featuring a naked baby, but the only form of censorship Cobain would agree to was a [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome sticker covering the penis that read "If you’re offended by this, you must be a closet pedophile"]]. The executives backed down.
** "You Know You're Right" was this for a '''long''' while back in the day. Dave and Krist garnered in a law suit with Courtney Love due to their interest in releasing the song in a box set but Love argued the song would be wasted in a box set. The song was eventually released in a greatest hits compilation simply entitled ''Nirvana'' as an agreement between Love and Dave/Krist, although a box set of the band ''was'' released a few years later under the name ''With the Lights Out''.

** The Britney album was originally supposed to be titled ''Shock Your Mind'' and was supposed to have much edgier, darker songs...she actually had co-written all but one of the tracks for the album. The label was displeased, though, and long-time producer Max Martin was called in to sweeten the sound. Britney was displeased with the meddling, though, and the two clashed in the studio, which ultimately ended in the two not working together for several years.

* Nazareth's song "Hair of the Dog" was originally named "Son of a Bitch," but A&M Records asked the band to change the title. Strange that the song's lyrics remained untouched.

** ''Killing Is My Business... And Business Is Good'' originally used a cover design that was not what Mustaine intended. He was allegedly 'mortified' by it, and created a new cover for the remaster that was based on his original design. Also, "These Boots" was cut from reissues of their album because Lee Hazelwood objected to their lyric changes. Eventually he let them release it but only if the words were censored.

** The GreatestHits collection ''Capitol Punishment'' was a contractual fulfillment by the band's label, which they didn't really want to release. They ended up including new songs "Kill The King" and "Dread and the Fugitive Mind" on it as new tracks. Whilst "Dread" would appear on Sanctuary's follow up album ''The World Needs a Hero'', "Kill The King" had to remain an exclusive track to sell the album, but was later reissued on several compilations.

** In 1999, the group discovered their manager Lou Pearlman had been defrauding them of their share of profits. After a months-long legal battle with Pearlman, NSYNC successfully ended their contract with Creator/RCARecords and signed with Creator/JiveRecords.

* Music/HedPE ended up in this after their self-titled Jive Records debut, which was untypically dark for a genre, didn't catch on at first and sold poorly. Jive eventually turned them into Music/LinkinPark Lite for their 2000 follow-up ''Broke'' and 2003's ''Blackout'', demanding more commercial availability, and restricting their topics to depression, teen angst and relationships. It ultimately resulted in probably their most well-known single "Bartender" (sometimes it even gets mistakenly attributed to Linkin Park or P.O.D.), and their Billboard best-charted album, but the band hated the experience, their first post-Jive album had some TakeThat at "the industry [that's] dumbing down the nation" and "phony punk bands crying about relationships". Jive promptly released compilation of their best hits against their Suburban Noize debut album on the same day (06.06.06), the move which frontman Jared Gomez described as infuriating and dismissed the compilation proclaiming [[https://web.archive.org/web/20080725054634/http://www.live-metal.net/features_interviews_hedpe.html they never had a hit]].

* According to [[http://www.louisvillemusicnews.net/webmanager/index.php?WEB_CAT_ID=50&storyid=11324&headline=Doug_Supernaw this interview]], Doug Supernaw's second album, ''Deep Thoughts from a Shallow Mind'', was handled this way by BNA Records. The album's lead single was "State Fair", but some stations started playing his cover of Music/DavidAllanCoe's "You Never Even Called Me by My Name" (which featured Coe, Music/MerleHaggard, Music/WaylonJennings, and Charley Pride) instead. The label then chose to axe "State Fair" and officially push the Coe cover as a single, but the stations that actually ''were'' playing "State Fair" failed to add "Name", so the ensuing confusion blunted both singles. The album finally got back on track with its third and final single, a cover of Music/RandyTravis's "What'll You Do About Me"... only for that song to get swiftly yanked when its StalkerWithACrush theme met resistance in the wake of the O. J. Simpson trials, leading to BNA dropping him entirely.

** {{Averted}} on ''Music/{{Nevermind}}''. Executives wanted to censor the cover famously featuring a naked baby, but the only form of censorship Cobain would agree to was a [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome sticker covering the penis that read "if you are offended by this you must be a pedophile"]]. The executives backed down.

* An almost certainly positive example comes from an Creator/RCARecords executive to replace the cover of Music/ChuckBerry's "Round and Round" on Music/DavidBowie's ''[[Music/TheRiseAndFallOfZiggyStardustAndTheSpidersFromMars Ziggy Stardust]]'' album. Is this where "It Ain't Easy" comes from? No, that was already going to be on there... in fact, the two were going to play back-to-back between "Moonage Daydream" and "Lady Stardust." That's right. ExecutiveMeddling is is responsible for "Starman," which turned out to be Bowie's BreakthroughHit.

* In a positive example, the name of ''Music/LicensedToIll'' by the Music/BeastieBoys comes from Def Jam Records rejecting their first title: ''[[IntentionallyAwkwardTitle Don't Be a Faggot]]''.

** A less positive example was Al's label's insistence that ''Dare to Be Stupid'' have a Music/CyndiLauper parody. Al disliked the resulting song ("Girls Just Want to Have Lunch"), and decided against including it on ''The Food Album''. One obvious factor about "Girls Just Want to Have Lunch" is that Al sings it as gratingly and sarcastically as possible.

* Karma To Burn were performing as an instrumental group for years, but when Roadrunner Records signed them, the label insisted that they tour and record with a vocalist. Thus Jay Jarosz, a friend of the band, was added to the lineup on vocals - after one album and tour they decided to fire him and were subsequently dropped by Roadrunner. The band kept recording as an instrumental group for other labels though, leaving their SelfTitledAlbum a bit of EarlyInstallmentWeirdness.

* Music/{{Metallica}} considered naming its debut album ''[[IntentionallyAwkwardTitle Metal Up Your Ass]]'', but the label vetoed. The eventual title, ''Music/KillEmAll'', comes from Cliff Burton's suggestion on what they should do to record distributors.

* [[Music/TilTuesday 'Til Tuesday]]'s single "Voices Carry" was originally written from a man's point of view - Aimee Mann's lyrics were inspired by a male friend's troubled relationship, so the subject of the song was addressed with female pronouns. Their label saw potential for a hit, but were wary of the song being read as being about a closeted lesbian relationship, so ultimately male pronouns were used instead.

* Music/JasonDonovan's fourth album, "All Around the World", was an obscure NewSoundAlbum that suffered through executive meddling from Creator/{{Polydor}}. Originally, the album was going to have the entire tracklist with new songs, but Polydor thought that it would be more successful if some of his songs from his previous albums were included. Jason Donovan was not happy about this decision, but he had to accept it anyway. Jason didn't have a good relationship with Polydor, and when this album failed, he ended up being kicked out of the record label, thus cutting his deal with Polydor short. He didn't come back to music, until 2007, when he made and released the album "Let it be Me". He ended up coming back to the Polydor label for his 2012 album "Sign of Your Love".

* The initial master tapes of The Music/JimiHendrix Experience's ''Music/AreYouExperienced?'' album were rejected by Creator/RepriseRecords because it was thought that the feedback was unplanned distortion. The tapes were sent back to Reprise with a note explaining that the distortion was intentional and should not be corrected.

* Like many musicians, Trent Reznor (Music/NineInchNails) has had his share of disagreements with his record label, but the release of ''Year Zero'' brought with it new and exciting forms of ExecutiveMeddling. Trent's viral marketing/Alternate Reality Game promoting the album was largely an independent effort between him and 42 Entertainment (yes, the company that made the ARG/ILoveBees ARG for ''VideoGame/{{Halo 2}}''), where he purposely leaked tracks to the public; the RIAA reacted by prosecuting some of the people who posted these online. Additionally, Trent wanted to surprise the fans by pressing the CD with special thermal material that would make the disc a different color when it was removed from a heat-producing CD player; unfortunately, the marketing team got word of this and decided to advertise it as a special feature of the album, which spoiled the surprise. "Thermally reactive disc that changes color when you touch it!" The thermal material has a bit more executive meddling to it, as they also hiked up the overseas price of the album $10 because of it, despite the fact that it cost almost nothing, and Trent paid the money for it out of his own pocket. This is commonly accepted to have been the final straw leading up to his going independent.

* Tony Wilson's Creator/FactoryRecords became known for a complete lack of Meddling, or sometimes Meddling that made things ''more'' bizarre than the artists would have liked. For instance, the album sleeve for ''Return of the Durutti Column'' by The Durutti Column was made out of sandpaper, "to destroy all your other records from the inside". They also went ahead with releasing Music/JoyDivision's ''Music/{{Closer}}'' with the planned tombstone cover, despite the whole [[AuthorExistenceFailure lead singer suicide thing]].

* Music/NellieMcKay suffered from executive meddling with her first record label, Columbia. She wanted to release ''Get Away from Me'' as a double album, but the label insisted on a shorter release. The label's reasoning was that the songs on ''Get Away from Me'' could all fit on one CD, while [=McKay=] wanted to release the songs as a DistinctDoubleAlbum to emulate turning a vinyl record over After convincing them with a humorous [=PowerPoint=] slideshow, she was allowed to release it as she intended, provided she fronted her own money for the production. She has since started her own record label.

* Music/NellieMcKay suffered from executive meddling with her first record label. She wanted to release ''Get Away from Me'' as a double album, but the label insisted on a shorter release. After convincing them with a humorous [=PowerPoint=] slideshow, she was allowed to release it as she intended, provided she fronted her own money for the production. She has since started her own record label.

* Part of the reason for Music/VanHalen parting ways with both original lead singer Music/DavidLeeRoth and producer Ted Templeman was allegedly (at least according to interviews Eddie Van Halen gave not long after the split) Templeman's insistence on the band recording CoverVersions for hits (Ted feeling that covers were halfway to success anyway) and his and Roth's opposition to Eddie using synthesizers and writing more ballads. Eddie took over production of ''1984'', leading to a number one album and number one single with the synth-heavy "Jump", but Eddie by then had enough of not being able to do enough of what he wanted to do on Van Halen albums. When Roth wanted to do more touring in 1985 rather than record a new album (Ed didn't want to tour without new music to promote, along with spending more time working on a vanity film project rather than write new material, it proved to be the last straw.

* 'Til Tuesday's single "Voices Carry" was originally written from a man's point of view - Aimee Mann's lyrics were inspired by a male friend's troubled relationship, so the subject of the song was addressed with female pronouns. Their label saw potential for a hit, but were wary of the song being read as being about a closeted lesbian relationship, so ultimately male pronouns were used instead.