History FollowTheLeader / Music

* Much of the criticism of Music/{{Eminem}}'s legacy in hip-hop is to do with this. He is one of the most respected and skilled emcees of all time, and has been an influence on many prominent artists like Music/JayZ, Music/KendrickLamar, Music/KanyeWest, Music/NickiMinaj, Music/EdSheeran, Music/JuiceWRLD, Music/LanaDelRey, Music/TylerTheCreator, Music/DannyBrown, Music/ChanceTheRapper and Music/JCole, to name just a few. However, his position as the most visible ''white'' rapper has led to him having an outsized influence on white rappers, spawning a subgenre -- sometimes called White Rap, although many of the artists within the genre are not white -- who emulate Eminem's quick, aggressive and gimmicky style of rapping, his CardCarryingVillain and confessional lyrics, and mockery of artists who don't use this aesthetic. It's worth pointing out that few, if any, of the rappers in this subgenre share Eminem's musicality, performance ability, or omnivorous love of hip-hop -- many have admitted to ''only'' listening to Eminem, with the worst offenders not even going deeper than the records he made in TheNew10s. Eminem himself has had mixed opinions about these rappers -- while he has collaborated with and supported more respected members of the genre like Music/{{Logic}} and Music/JoynerLucas, and shouted out Music/{{Hopsin}} (one of few Eminem clones who tries to rip off his ''early'' style), he has also sneered at "[[BoomerangBigots honkies]] [[KnockingTheKnockoff sounding like me]]", dismissed Music/{{NF}} as "a ''Recovery'' clone of me", slapped at Music/{{Macklemore}} for trying to be TheMoralSubstitute to him, and made Music/MachineGunKelly the subject of the most commercially successful DissTrack of all time ("Killshot"). He's also collaborated with plenty of white rappers seen in opposition to the subgenre, such as Music/JackHarlow (who, incidentally, cites Eminem as an influence).

** African-American rap itself inspired a lot of white folks copying the style, such as Music/TheBeastieBoys, Music/VanillaIce and Music/{{Eminem}}.

* English singer David Gray believes the success of his 1998 album "White Ladder" paved the way for "soul-baring" male solo singer-songwriters such as James Blunt, Music/EdSheeran, George Ezra, James Bay and Tom Walker.

* Ever since Ed Sheeran's success, countless other English folk-style singers like James Bay, James Arthur, Passenger, George Ezra and even Music/NiallHoran (despite being Irish) have started popping up on the American charts.

* Back in TheNineties, after Music/{{Nirvana}} really blew up, record labels scrambled to sign any act that was even remotely grunge-y. The absurdity reached a fever pitch when Sony Records went all the way to Australia to sign Music/{{Silverchair}}, whose members weren't even old enough to shave. [[CrazyEnoughToWork It worked.]]

* Back in TheEighties, UsefulNotes/{{Europe}} was all about the {{New Wave|Music}}, SynthPop, hi-NRG, italo disco or whatever other type of dance pop music was popular at the time. Once the German duet Music/ModernTalking started making tracks that were like an eclectic mix of synth-pop & italo disco, everyone wanted to follow their style of music, like C.C. Catch (produced by Dieter Bohlen who was still one half of Music/ModernTalking), Blue System (formed by post Music/ModernTalking Dieter Bohlen), Bad Boys Blue (who tried their hardest to sound like they were produced by Dieter Bohlen) etc..

* Once Music/BoneThugsNHarmony became popular a lot of other rappers emerged with a melodic R&B styled rap delivery (minus the speed). In fact their influence can still be heard all the way into TheNewTens.

* EmoMusic first started in TheEighties and has changed a lot since then, but more recently the enormous mainstream success of angsty hardcore-influenced bands such as The Used, Music/MyChemicalRomance and Music/TakingBackSunday seems to have proven that emo teenagers are a good audience to target. Thus every cookie-cutter pop punk act now has to over-straighten their hair, have the odd tattoo or piercing and wear eyeliner and overly tight jeans. See Metro Station, Boys Like Girls, etc.
* In the early-to-mid [[TheNineties '90s]] R&B acts followed 2 archetypes. One type was the 4 to 5 member group type with gospel-inspired harmonies ala En Vogue and Boyz II Men. The second type followed the 2 to 3 group member formula that was based on a [[DarkerAndEdgier edgy]], [[HotterAndSexier sexually explicit]] street/Hip-Hop look and sound ala Music/{{TLC}} and SWV (the latter soften their hard edge look though, to a more soft feminine style). Some were terrible rehashes and copycats, while others were good in their own right.

* Much of the criticism of Music/{{Eminem}}'s legacy in hip-hop is to do with this. He is one of the most respected and skilled emcees of all time, and has been an influence on many prominent artists like Music/JayZ, Music/KendrickLamar, Music/KanyeWest, Music/NickiMinaj, Music/EdSheeran, Music/JuiceWRLD, Music/LanaDelRey, Music/TylerTheCreator, Music/DannyBrown, Music/ChanceTheRapper and Music/JCole, to name just a few. However, his position as the most visible ''white'' rapper has led to him having an outsized influence on white rappers, spawning a subgenre -- sometimes called White Rap, although many of the artists within the genre are not white -- who emulate Eminem's quick, aggressive and gimmicky style of rapping, his CardCarryingVillain and confessional lyrics, and mockery of artists who don't use this aesthetic. It's worth pointing out that few, if any, of the rappers in this subgenre share Eminem's musicality, performance ability, or omnivorous love of hip-hop -- many have admitted to ''only'' listening to Eminem, with the worst offenders not even going deeper than the records he made in TheNewTens. Eminem himself has had mixed opinions about these rappers -- while he has collaborated with and supported more respected members of the genre like Music/{{Logic}} and Music/JoynerLucas, and shouted out Music/{{Hopsin}} (one of few Eminem clones who tries to rip off his ''early'' style), he has also sneered at "[[BoomerangBigots honkies]] [[KnockingTheKnockoff sounding like me]]", dismissed Music/{{NF}} as "a ''Recovery'' clone of me", slapped at Music/{{Macklemore}} for trying to be TheMoralSubstitute to him, and made Music/MachineGunKelly the subject of the most commercially successful DissTrack of all time ("Killshot"). He's also collaborated with plenty of white rappers seen in opposition to the subgenre, such as Music/JackHarlow (who, incidentally, cites Eminem as an influence).

** When Nirvana was the most successful "grunge" act, most PostGrunge bands looked and sounded like them. When Pearl Jam outsold them, you started seeing {{yarling}} and bands like Music/{{Creed}} and Days of the New.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et63XsMZJas As parodied by]] Series/{{MADtv}}, The Calling and Music/{{Creed}} were accused of ripping off Music/PearlJam (particularly Eddie Vedder's {{Yarling}} - which the video points out is a style OlderThanTheyThink).
* Music/ChristinaAguilera's critics like to point out how she seems to be hopelessly behind every trend in pop, the standard '90s pop at the start of her career, the Rnb/Rock/Pop/Jazz second album, the 40's 50's 60's sounds which were popular only 5 years before and Bionic, it's electronic pop sound which happened four years prior never exactly hitting the trend when it's at its trendiest. "Bionic" was a big blow to her image and her way of working and took the sheen off her for a lot of people.

** Music/{{Nirvana}} also led to the signing of many acts that were underground, but not grunge, such as Music/GreenDay. This occasionally led to ''incredibly'' mainstream unfriendly acts getting signed (''Boredoms,'' anyone?) Those acts seldom lasted long on the labels, however, which was probably for the better, as they didn't have to worry about being screwed by the label.

* Music/{{Korn}} released their SelfTitledAlbum in 1994 to unexpected success. Naturally, many bands looked to replicate that success by copying their style of murky down-tuned guitars, "funky" slap-style bass technique, angsty lyrics, and complete removal of guitar solos. This eventually led to the creation of the NuMetal genre. Naturally, [=KoRn=] took note of this and later released an album called ''FollowTheLeader'' in [[TakeThat reference to it]].

*** In turn, an alternate scene dubbed by the media as the "anti-[[Music/BritneySpears Britney]]" movement made headway after the success of Music/AvrilLavigne, a teenage star who countered the trend of teenage pop performers by [[ThreeChordsAndTheTruth writing (or co-writing) their own material and performing with musical instruments]], adopting a more "rock" image and sound, downplaying the sexualized, slick, choreographed IdolSinger image Britney and her fellow pop stars adopted, and by asserting (or giving the impression of asserting) control of their musical input, often with a feministic "Girl Power" message attached to it. Artists like Music/MichelleBranch, Music/VanessaCarlton, Skye Sweetnam, and Music/SaraBareilles followed Avril, while Music/DemiLovato and Music/TaylorSwift took strong cues from that scene within more commercial styles. Music/MandyMoore, who began as a Britney-like teen pop starlet (with dyed blonde hair), even tried to re-emerge in the movement after her reinvention with her album ''Wild Hope''. The scene enjoyed a resurgence in the 2020s with Music/OliviaRodrigo and Willow Smith, who reinvented herself as an artist of this genre after starting out as an R&B artist.

** The success of Music/{{Hanson}}, an at-the-time pre-teen {{Bishonen}} boy band (they were, however, truly a band, as all sang, wrote or co-wrote their own material, played their own instruments and had input into their material and image from the start) and their major label debut ''Middle Of Nowhere'', and infectious Jackson Five-like number one single, "[=MMMBop=]", released in 1997 at the height of grunge and nu-metal, was also very influential in the popularity of teen-pop in the late '90s.

* Much of the criticism of Music/{{Eminem}}'s legacy in hip-hop is to do with this. He is one of the most respected and skilled emcees of all time, and has been an influence on many prominent artists like Music/JayZ, Music/KendrickLamar, Music/KanyeWest, Music/NickiMinaj, Music/EdSheeran, Music/JuiceWRLD, Music/LanaDelRey, Music/TylerTheCreator, Music/DannyBrown and Music/JCole, to name just a few. However, his position as the most visible white rapper has led to him having an outsized influence on ''white'' rappers, spawning a subgenre -- sometimes known specifically as White Rap, although many of the artists within the genre are not white -- who emulate Eminem's SignatureStyle, quick and aggressive rapping, heavy rhyming and wordplay, vocal gimmicks, CardCarryingVillain or confessional lyrics, and mockery of artists who don't use this aesthetic. It's worth pointing out that few, if any, of the rappers in this subgenre share Eminem's musicality, performance ability, or omnivorous love of hip-hop -- many have admitted to ''only'' listening to Eminem, with many not even going deeper than the records he made in TheNewTens. Eminem himself has had mixed opinions about these rappers -- while he has collaborated with and supported more respected members of the genre like Music/{{Logic}} and Music/JoynerLucas, and shouted out Music/{{Hopsin}} (one of few Eminem clones who tries to rip off his ''early'' style), he has also sneered at "[[BoomerangBigots honkies]] [[KnockingTheKnockoff sounding like me]]", dismissed Music/{{NF}} as "a ''Recovery'' clone of me", slapped at Music/{{Macklemore}} for trying to be TheMoralSubstitute to him, and made Music/MachineGunKelly the subject of the most commercially successful DissTrack of all time ("Killshot"). He's also collaborated with plenty of rappers seen in opposition to the subgenre, such as Music/JackHarlow (who, incidentally, cites Eminem as an influence).