History Music / HappyMondays

* LyricalDissonance: They were masters of this trope. For example, lyrics dealing with sexually transmitable diseases ("Tart Tart"), Manchester's crazy Chief Constable who claimed he talked directly to God ("God's Cop"), blowjobs ("Kuff Dam"), being busted for dope smuggling ("Holiday") and most notably, ParentalAbandonment ("Kinky Afro"). All over danceable rhythms.

* SingingSimlish

* IncrediblyLamePun:

* BlackSheepHit: Their cover of John Kongos' "Step On" was this for a while. Shaun used to hate singing that song. He mellowed a bit, later.

* DevelopmentHell: A famous case. The album: ''Yes Please!''. First, they moved to Barbados in order for Shaun to avoid Heroin and focusing only on Methadone. It didn't work. Working with a different producer (Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne produced ''Pills 'n' Thrills And Bellyaches'', now this album was being produced by Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz) caused a lot of slacking. Add to that Shaun's discovery of Crack, leading to spending a lot of money and basically loading Eddy Grant's studio gear into a van and going downtown to sell for Crack (they also took his sun loungers and basically created "crack dens"). After they got back to England, they didn't want to give the master tapes to Tony Wilson and the rest of the Factory personnel. However, they sold it for £50, only for the Factory guys to discover that it didn't contain any vocals (because Shaun didn't write any lyrics and couldn't be bothered). This waste of time and money ultimately led to Factory going bankrupt.

* MissingEpisode: "Desmond", from their first album, drew a lawsuit because it blatantly lifted the vocal melody from Music/TheBeatles' "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da", and had to be removed from subsequent pressings of the album.

They were later portrayed/parodied in [[Film/TwentyFourHourPartyPeople 24 Hour Party People ]], the movie about the story of Factory Records, which included a cameo of bassist Paul Ryder as a gangster. The title of the movie comes from the single and debut album track of the same name.

* "Playground Superstar" (2005) (single) (off the Goal! soundtrack)

* "The Boys Are Back In Town" (single) (1999) (cover of a ThinLizzy song)

* DevelopmentHell: A famous case. The album: ''Yes Please!''. First, they moved to Barbados in order for Shaun to avoid Heroin and focusing only on Methadone. It didn't work. Working with a different producer (Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne produced ''Pills 'n' Thrills And Bellyaches'', now this album was being produced by Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz) caused a lot of slacking. Add to that Shaun's discovery of Crack, leading to spending a lot of money and basically loading Eddy Grant's studio gear into a van and going downtown to sell for Crack (they also took his sun loungers and basically created "crack dens"). After they got back to England, they didn't want to give the master tapes to Tony Wilson and the rest of the Factory personnel. However, they sold it for £50, only for the Factory guys to discover that it didn't contain any vocals (because Shaun didn't write any lyrics and couldn't be bothered). This waste of time and money ultimately led to Factory going bankrupt..

** "Donovan" is named because its vocal melody is taken from Donovan's "Sunshine Superman"

* DevelopmentHell: A famous case. The album: ''Yes Please!''. First, they moved to Barbados in order for Shaun to avoid Heroin and focusing only on Methadone. It didn't work. Working with a different producer (Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne produced ''Pills 'n' Thrills And Bellyaches'', now this album was being produced by Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz) caused a lot of slacking. Add to that Shaun's discovery of Crack, leading to spending a lot of money and basically loading Eddy Grant's studio gear into a van and going downtown to sell for Crack (they also took his sun loungers and basically created "crack dens"). After they got back to England, they didn't want to give the master tapes to Tony Wilson and the rest of the Factory personnel. However, they sold it for £50, only for the Factory guys to discover that it didn't contain any vocals (because Shaun didn't write any lyrics and couldn't be bothered). This waste of time and money ultimately led to Factory going bankrupt.
* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: "Donovan" is named because its vocal melody is taken from Donovan's "Sunshine Superman".

* Shoutout: Marlene Dietrich's most famous line of ''Shanghai Express'' is quoted in "Angel" ("It took more than one man to change my name to Shanghai Lily").

* AlbumTitleDrop: Except for the "Squirrel And G-Man" part, ''Squirrel and G-Man Twenty Four Hour Party People Plastic Face Carnt Smile (White Out)'' gets it's title from the chorus of "24 Hour Party People". However, "24 Hour Party People" itself wasn't on the original version of the album - it was only added to the track-list to replace the song "Desmond" (see MissingEpisode).

* TakeThat: "God's Cop" is directed at the controversial then-Chief Constable of Greater Manchester James Anderton, who became known as "God's copper" since he claimed to speak with God. (Anderton was a regular punching bag for Manchester bands thanks to his fundy craziness. Music/TheFall also took shots at him in "Hit the North", and Music/TheKLF defaced a poster of him and used that as the cover for the "What Time Is Love?" single.)

* AlbumTitleDrop: Except for the "Squirrel And G-Man" part, ''Squirrel and G-Man Twenty Four Hour Party People Plastic Face Carnt Smile (White Out)'' gets it's title from the chorus of "24 Hour Party People". However, "24 Hour Party People" itself wasn't on the original version of the album - it replaced the song "Desmond", which had to be removed due to it's borrowing too heavily from Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" by Music/TheBeatles.

* AlbumTitleDrop: Except for the "Squirrel And G-Man" part, ''Squirrel and G-Man Twenty Four Hour Party People Plastic Face Carnt Smile (White Out)'' gets it's title from the chorus of "Twenty-Four Hour Party People". However, "Twenty-Four Hour Party People" itself wasn't on the original version of the album - it replaced the song "Desmond", which had to be removed due to it's borrowing too heavily from Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" by Music/TheBeatles.

They were signed by Factory after coming last in a "battle of the bands" contest held at the Hacienda nightclub and released an EP in 1985. The significance of their band name is unknown; a popular rumour was that it referred to how the unemployed residents of Manchester received their benefits on Monday.

They were signed by Factory after coming last in a "battle of the bands" contest held at the Hacienda nightclub and released an EP in 1985.

* TakeThat: "God's Cop" is directed at the controversial then-Chief Constable of Greater Manchester James Anderton, who became known as "God's copper" since he claimed to speak with God. (Anderton was a regular punching bag for Manchester bands thanks to his fundy craziness. Music/TheFall also took shots at him, and Music/TheKLF defaced a poster of him and used that as the cover for the "What Time Is Love?" single.)

* LyricalDissonance: They were masters of this trope. For example, lyrics dealing with sexually transmitable diseases ("Tart Tart"), Manchester's crazy Chief Constable who claimed he talked directly to God ("God's Cop"), blowjobs ("Kuff Dam"), and most notably, ParentalAbandonment ("Kinky Afro"). All over danceable rhythms.

* TwentyFourHourPartyPeople: One of their most famous songs. TropeNamer

* 24HourPartyPeople: One of their most famous songs. TropeNamer

* LoudnessWar: A possible UrExample comes from the album ''Bummed''. Producer Martin Hannett basically put a lot of echo and reverb in the drum sound, which gave the album a good amount of power and volume. Justified, in the sense that it probably reflected and was made for clubs.

Formed in 1980 the band's original line-up was Shaun Ryder on lead vocals, his brother Paul Ryder on bass, lead guitarist Mark Day, keyboardist Paul Davis, and drummer Gary Whelan. Later on Shaun's friend Mark "Bez" Berry joined them during a live performance, by serving as a dancer and percussionist. In the early 90s Rowetta Satchell joined the band to provide backing vocals and also dancing.

However, it was only through the release of the ''[[TropeNamer Madchester EP ]]'', that the Mondays finally got into Top of the Pops. They played alongside Music/TheStoneRoses, who also got into the national charts through the "Fools Gold" single, transforming what was mainly a regional scene into a full-blown national craze which also got the nickname "Baggy", at the same time that Rave culture, fueled by Acid House and Techno, started to cause interest among the nation.

** Shawn also enjoyed quoting famous other songs but twisting them into something considerably more dissonant. For example, "Kinky Afro"'s chorus borrows from Labelle's "Lady Marmalade", except Shawn then sings ''[[{{Squick}} I had to crucify somebody today]]''. Even when not quoting from other songs, Shawn's general {{Cloudcuckoolander}} lyrics had a way of causing [=WTFing=] among listeners: "Holiday"'s contrast between upbeat music and lyrics about being arrested by customs for smuggling drugs isn't helped by Shawn barking "Lemme look up your arse, you!" at the end of one verse.

The recording of the follow-up, ''Yes Please!'', however, was a disaster (check DevelopmentHell below), to the point that, at the time of release, it got mixed reviews, got poor album sales (at least compared to their previous album, and in the rise of Grunge music in the music mainstream) and famously caused Factory Records to go bankrupt. The band broke up soon afterwards.

* WordSaladLyrics