Line #3 Music/IggyPop


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/22c57fd013fd655feecb27ec216bd048.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:[[WalkingShirtlessScene Possibly the only photograph of Iggy Pop wearing a shirt]].]]
3
4	->''"I am the passenger,\
5	and I ride and I ride,\
6	I ride through the city's backsides,\
7	I see the stars come out of the sky,\
8	Yeah, the bright and hollow sky,\
9	You know it looks so good tonight."''
10	-->-- "The Passenger"
11
12	The Godfather of Punk, [[Music/LustForLife the Passenger]], the [[Music/RawPower World's Forgotten Boy]] and a mainstay in rock and roll since 1969, Iggy Pop (born April 21, 1947) may be one of the most energetic, threatening and exciting performers in the genre.
13
14	Born as James Newell Osterberg in Muskegon, UsefulNotes/{{Michigan}}, Iggy was one of many teenagers whose life was made more colorful by RockAndRoll. In high school in Ann Arbor, Michigan, he played the drums for a band called The Iguanas. He stayed in the Ann Arbor music scene for a brief period studying at the University of Michigan, during which time he joined a blues band called The Prime Movers. This inspired him to drop out and move to UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}} to study the blues more thoroughly. He seemed for a time like he was embarking on a career in the Chicago blues scene...until Music/JamesBrown and Music/TheDoors inspired him to do something completely different.
15
16	Moving back to Ann Arbor, he founded a band with bass player Dave Alexander and the brothers Ron (guitar) and Scott (drums) Asheton, where he became the frontman. Initially called the Psychedelic Stooges, the band was a PsychedelicRock band as there were thirteen in a dozen near the end of The60s. Under a new name, Music/TheStooges, the band eventually made the bridge between the peace-loving hippie crowd and the proto-punk music that would shape The70s towards PunkRock.
17
18	Iggy was TheFace of the band. He was an exciting and outrageously energetic performer during stage shows, just all movement. You couldn't take his eyes off him and often his antics were so audacious that a large part of the crowd actually felt frightened of him at times. Iggy smeared himself with peanut butter, rolled around in broken glass and even jumped into the crowd (which later became known as stage diving and crowd-surfing), all while baiting and verbally abusing his audience. This alienated a large part of the crowd, but attracted a dedicated cult audience. Their three albums, ''Music/{{The Stooges\|Album}}'' (1969), ''Music/{{Fun House\|Album}}'' (1970) and ''Music/RawPower'' (1973) are now {{cult classic}}s, but didn't sell well at the time. The band also suffered under extreme heroin and alcohol abuse. After Music/DavidBowie produced the Stooges' third and final album ''Music/RawPower'' (1973) the band had a GrandFinale with a grandiose album in every sense of the word, but nevertheless split soon afterwards.
19
20	Bowie then helped Iggy with getting a solo career on the road. Iggy provides backing vocals on Bowie's song "What in the World" from ''[[Music/LowDavidBowieAlbum Low]]'' (1977), while Bowie produced Iggy's debut album ''Music/TheIdiot'' and ''Music/LustForLife'' (both also from 1977), which launched Iggy as a rock star in his own right. His third album, ''New Values'' (1979), went back to his roots with the Stooges and therefore met with lesser sales. His next albums ''Soldier'' (1980) and ''Party'' (1981) didn't fare well either and he was dropped from his label. ''Zombie Birdhouse'' (1982) didn't change anything, but when Bowie covered "China Girl" (a song from ''Music/TheIdiot'') on his album ''Music/LetsDance'', the royalties and interest revitalized public interest in Iggy Pop. Bowie produced and co-wrote his next album, ''Blah Blah Blah'', which spawned the UK Top 10 Hit "Real Wild Child". ''Instinct'' (1988) saw Iggy again returning to Stoogesque rock and once again he was dropped by the label. Creator/VirginRecords signed him instead and his next album ''Brick by Brick'' (1990) was his best album in years, with the lead single "Candy" (a duet with Kate Pierson from Music/TheB52s) becoming a US Top 20 hit. As Iggy's career rolled on interest in his work was solidified by use of his music in ''Film/{{Trainspotting}}'' (1996), frequent touring and covers of his songs by other artists.
21
22	Iggy has also acted a few times, mostly in the films of Creator/JimJarmusch, among which ''Film/CoffeeAndCigarettes'' (with Music/TomWaits) and ''Film/DeadMan'', where he appears in drag. He also appeared in ''Film/SidAndNancy'' (1986), ''Film/TheColorOfMoney'' (1986), ''Film/CryBaby'' (1990), ''Film/TankGirl'' and ''Film/TheCrowCityOfAngels''. He also appeared as Yelgrun in ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', as a man with a whiplash injury in ''Film/SnowDay'' (2000), gave voice contributions to ''Series/OnceUponATimeInWonderland'', ''WesternAnimation/RockAndRule'', ''WesternAnimation/TheRugratsMovie'' and the English dub of ''ComicBook/{{Persepolis}}''.
23
24	Has nothing to do with Music/IggyAzalea.
25	----
26
27	'''Discography'''
28	* ''Kill City'' (demos recorded in 1975 with the Stooges' second guitarist, James Williamson; not released until 1977)
29	* ''Music/TheIdiot'' (1977) (produced by Music/DavidBowie)
30	* ''Music/LustForLife'' (1977) (produced by David Bowie)
31	* ''New Values'' (1979)
32	* ''Soldier'' (1980)
33	* ''Party'' (1981)
34	* ''Zombie Birdhouse'' (1982) (produced by Chris Stein of Music/{{Blondie\|Band}})
35	* ''Blah Blah Blah'' (1986) (produced by David Bowie)
36	* ''Instinct'' (1988)
37	* ''Brick by Brick'' (1990)
38	* ''American Caesar'' (1993)
39	* ''Naughty Little Doggie'' (1995)
40	* ''Beat 'Em Up'' (2001)
41	* ''Skull Ring'' (2003)
42	* ''Préliminaires'' (2009)
43	* ''Après'' (2012)
44	* ''Post Pop Depression'' (2016) (produced by Josh Homme of Music/QueensOfTheStoneAge)
45	* ''Free'' (2019)
46	* ''Every Loser'' (2023)
47	----
48
49	!! Iggy Pop's work provides examples of:
50
51	* BalladOfX: "The Ballad of Cookie [=McBride=]" from ''Zombie Birdhouse''.
52	* BlahBlahBlah: The name of one of Iggy's solo albums.
53	* CarefulWithThatAxe: Iggy can shriek, moan and yell ear piercingly loud during performances.
54	* ClusterFBomb: "Head On", from his album ''Metallic K.O.'' where Iggy rants about in all kinds of expletives.
55	* ConceptAlbum: ''Post Pop Depression'' is from the point of view of a war veteran reflecting on his place in life.
56	* DancingIsSeriousBusiness: Iggy is a very energetic dancer on stage, literally possessed by the music. He has once stated in an interview that he was very much inspired by Music/JamesBrown.
57	* DarkerAndEdgier: He is infamous from bringing back a sense of danger and excitement to rock 'n' roll that caused outrage during the final years of The60s when most of the music was still into the "peace and love" realms of flower power. Musically Music/TheStooges were one of the pinnacles of proto-punk and therefore Iggy had no problems being accepted by the PunkRock movement, which he more or less paved the road for.
58	* DeliberatelyMonochrome: Iggy seems to like appearing in black and white on his album covers, as ''Music/TheIdiot'' and ''Music/LustForLife'' demonstrate.
59	* DogFoodDiet: while the song "Dog Food" is nominally about this, it is more a denunciation of fads and snobbery.
60	* DrugsAreBad: Despite being a frequent abuser himself Iggy has written a lot of anti-drugs songs, especially against heroin, such as "Dum Dum Boys", "Tonight", "Turn Blue" and "Lust for Life".
61	* ExpositoryThemeTune: He wrote and performed the opening song of the French animated series ''WesternAnimation/SpaceGoofs''. The show's producer, Marc du Pontavice, simply asked him, he watched the pilot and, in du Pontavice's own words, "fell in love" with the concept.
62	* FriendlyRivalry: With Music/HenryRollins, who has always been vocal about his love for The Stooges and Iggy. As Henry tells it, his entire stage presence is built on one thing: trying to be a more compelling performer than Iggy. The one time he came ''close'' (exhausting himself to the point that he could barely walk and was hyperventilating), Iggy just got mad that Henry had done so well, and proceeded to turn up his own efforts even more than usual, utterly crushing any dream Henry had of winning the contest.
63	-->'''Henry Rollins:''' Then you realize, you're ''never'' gonna beat the master.
64	* LocationSong: It's never stated in the lyrics, but "Butt Town" is about UsefulNotes/LosAngeles.
65	* MadeOfIron: Despite his history of drug and alcohol abuse, Iggy's managed to outlive a good portion of his contemporaries. Most people probably didn't expect him live longer than Music/LouReed ''and'' Music/DavidBowie, yet he's done just that.
66	* MaleGaze: Acknowledged in "Butt Town."
67	-->"''The tits are amazing\
68	And everyone's gazing\
69	At some body part\
70	That's the nature of art!''"
71	* NewSoundAlbum: ''Préliminaires'' and ''Après''. Both albums are LighterAndSofter in tone as ''Préliminaires'' is heavily influenced by {{Jazz}} and bossa nova, and ''Après'' is a CoverAlbum of his favorite French and jazz songs. In fact, he called ''Préliminaires'' his response to being bored sick of the state of rock music.
72	* ObsessionSong: Many of his songs have the protagonists almost despair over their lustful feelings towards the opposite sex. This was already the case in the days of Music/TheStooges ("I Wanna Be Your Dog" on ''[[Music/TheStoogesAlbum The Stooges]]''), but also prominent in solo songs such as "Fall in Love with Me" and "Sixteen".
73	* OutOfGenreExperience: His first and last Music/DavidBowie solo collaborations, ''Music/TheIdiot'' and ''Blah-Blah-Blah'', are considerably far-removed from his usual sound. The former is a proto-{{industrial}} album that served as a prototype for Bowie's Berlin Trilogy (especially ''Music/{{Low\|DavidBowieAlbum}}''), while the latter was a synth-heavy dance-pop album that presaged Bowie's ''Music/NeverLetMeDown''; Pop's only continuation of the latter sound was "Risky", a one-off collaboration with Music/RyuichiSakamoto.
74	* PepTalkSong: His music is often raw, fresh and bubbling with life, most noticeable in "Lust for Life".
75	* SexDrugsAndRockAndRoll: Iggy's vocal delivery was always sexy, suave and full of lust. He performed in his bare midriff and sang about IntercourseWithYou topics. Iggy often battled with alcohol and heroin addiction and songs like "Nightclubbing", "Funtime", "Dum Dum Boys" (from ''Music/TheIdiot'') and "Lust for Life", "Tonight" (from ''Music/LustForLife'') condemn the monotone and dangerous lifestyle that goes with it, and "Gardenia" off ''Post Pop Depression'' ends with a rant condemning the dingy conditions surrounding the titular stripper.
76	* ShoutOut: Now has its own page: [[ReferencedBy/IggyPop Referenced By: Iggy Pop]].
77	* SillyLoveSongs: Iggy's "Candy," a duet with Music/TheB52s' Kate Pierson.
78	* StageNames: Iggy Pop is actually named James Newell Osterberg, and still goes by "Jim" in private. The "Iggy" part came from the fact that he used to drum for a band called The Iguanas while in high school.
79	-->"''Hey, you know, you could call me Jim. I mean, you know, my friends call me Jim, or Jimmy, or Iggy, or Jiggy... Call me, call me Iggy!''"
80	* WalkingShirtlessScene: Iggy not only has a tendency to perform bare chested, but also makes public appearances without wearing a shirt. It didn't go unnoticed [[http://loven4ever.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Screenshot_20171226-092521.jpg by caricaturists]].
81	* WanderlustSong: "Paraguay" off ''Post Pop Depression''.
82	* WhenImGoneSong: "American Valhalla" off ''Post Pop Depression'', judging from the line "death is the hardest pill to swallow".

Context Music / IggyPop