Line #4 Music/TheBangles


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/BangleTrope_8363.gif]]
2	[[caption-width-right:300:'''L-to-R:''' Michael Steele, Susanna Hoffs, Vicki Peterson, and Debbi Peterson.]]
3	->''It's just another manic Monday\
4	I wish it were Sunday\
5	'Cause that's my fun day\
6	My I don't have to run day\
7	It's just another manic Monday...''
8	-->-- "Manic Monday"
9
10	The Bangles are an all-female band that started in the [[TheEighties early 1980s]]. Their genre can be summed up as a combination of rock, pop, PowerPop, NewWaveMusic, and jangle pop, with a pronounced influence from Music/TheByrds and TheSixties rock that lumped them in with the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paisley_Underground Paisley Underground]] movement. The band currently consists of Debbi Peterson (vocals, drums), Vicki Peterson (vocals, guitar) and Susanna Hoffs (vocals, guitar), and Annette Zilinksas (vocals, bass), with former member [[GenderBlenderName Michael Steele]] (vocals, bass). Their first album, the Beatlesque {{Power Pop}}py ''All Over the Place'' earned them some good reviews but most importantly the attention of Music/{{Prince}}, who wrote "Manic Monday" for them. The song and its accompanying album ''Different Light'' departed from the band's sixties rock sound in favour of state-of-the-art [[NewWaveMusic New Wave]] pop and more outside songwriters, to great commercial success and another hit single ("Walk Like an Egyptian"). Then, intra-band tensions worsened, and after releasing one more album, ''Everything'', they split in 1989.
11
12	They re-formed in 1999 to make a song for ''[[Film/AustinPowers Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me]]'' (whose director, Jay Roach, is also Susanna Hoffs' husband), and after that stayed together again. Michael Steele left the group in 2005. Annette Zilinksas later returned to the group in 2018.
13
14	Several of their songs have appeared on movie soundtracks, including "I Got Nothing," which they wrote for ''Film/TheGoonies'', and their hit cover of "Hazy Shade of Winter", which appeared on the soundtrack for ''Less Than Zero''. They have also provided backup vocals for Music/CyndiLauper and Music/TomPetty.
15	----
16	Albums:
17	* ''[[SelfTitledAlbum The Bangles]]'' EP (1982)
18	* ''Music/AllOverThePlace'' (1984)
19	* ''Different Light'' (1986)
20	* ''Everything'' (1988)
21	* ''Greatest Hits'' (1990)
22	* ''September Gurls'' (all previously-released material) (1995)
23	* ''Doll Revolution'' (2003)
24	* ''Sweetheart of the Sun'' (2011)
25	* ''Ladies and Gentlemen...The Bangles!'' (2014)
26	* ''The Bangles: Gold'' (2020) (updated greatest hits album)
27	----
28	!!The Bangles are the TropeNamers for:
29	[[index]]
30	* WalkLikeAnEgyptian
31	[[/index]]
32
33	!!Trope Like an Egyptian...
34	* AccentUponTheWrongSyllable: Walk Like an Egyptian has several instances where the pronounciation is strange either to rhyme, or to make them fit with the cadence (including the title phrase -- "Walk like an Egyp-[=SHUNNN=]").
35	* AntiLoveSong: "James" ("I must have been a masochist/to ever take up with you, James")
36	* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: Vicki (medium blonde, though brunette before ''Different Light''), Debbi (pale blonde), Susanna (brunette), and Michael (redhead).
37	* ChristmasEpisode: For a few years in the '80s, the Bangles released an annual Christmas/Crimble tape full of improvisation and general goofiness, to members of their fan club, Bangles 'n Mash, in tribute to Music/TheBeatles' similar offerings. In 2004, they released ''Holiday in Bangleonia'', a limited-edition CD with both a re-release of their 1983 recording and a new one for 2004. The Bangles revived the tradition in 2009 with an annual holiday podcast.
38	* CompositeCharacter: Anna Lee in "Anna Lee (Sweetheart of the Sun)":
39	-->'''Susanna:''' Interestingly, a character sort of developed in the song. We had all just read ''Girls Like Us'', the book about Carly Simon, Carole King and Joni Mitchell, and we were inspired by it. We sort of made up a portrait of a person based around those women -- it's kind of mythical.
40	* TheCoverChangesTheGender:
41	** Their cover of Jules Shear's "If She Knew What She Wants" changes the perspective from first person ("I'd be giving it to her") to third person.
42	** On their cover of Music/BigStar's "September Gurls", the gender is changed to "he." In more recent performances Michael Steele changed the gender ''back'' to "she" ("That's the time she makes things right/ ooh when she makes love to me...").
43	** In an interesting twist, while Music/{{Prince}} wrote the song "Manic Monday" for The Bangles, Prince himself sung a version of the song, switching a few lines [Bangles/Prince]: "I was kissing Valentino/a by a crystal blue Italian stream" and "He/she tells me with his/her bedroom voice".
44	* CoverVersion: "Live" by Emmitt Rhodes, "September Gurls" by Music/BigStar, "Hazy Shade of Winter" by Music/SimonAndGarfunkel, "Open My Eyes" by [[Music/ToddRundgren Nazz]], "If She Knew What She Wants" by Jules Shear, "Outside Chance" by Music/TheTurtles, and "Steppin' Out" by [[Music/PaulRevereAndTheRaiders Paul Revere & the Raiders]]. "Going Down to Liverpool" doesn't really count since it was written for them by Kimberley Rew from Music/KatrinaAndTheWaves.
45	* DaysOfTheWeekSong: "Manic Monday"
46	* DistaffCounterpart: They've said in many interviews that their original goal was to be this to Music/TheBeatles. You can even match them up if you like:
47	-->'''Susanna:''' Paul ("the cute one")\
48	'''Vicki:''' John ("the edgy one")\
49	'''Michael:''' George ("[[TheQuietOne the quiet one]]")\
50	'''Debbi:''' Ringo ("the drummer")\
51	'''Annette:''' ThePeteBest[[invoked]]
52	* DonutMessWithACop: "Walk Like an Egyptian":
53	-->''If you want to find all the cops\
54	They're hanging out in the donut shop\
55	They singin' and dance ''(oh-way-oh)''\
56	They spin the clubs; cruise down the block.''
57	** And the last bridge for that song: "All the cops in the donut shop say:"
58	* TheEighties: There's very little about their look and videos during their prime that doesn't scream '80s.
59	* EightiesHair: In many aspects, the Bangles seemed more a [[TheSixties '60s]] band than an [[TheEighties '80s]] one. [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pur1_3968.jpg Hair]] was [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tall_7244.jpg not]] [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/265f26c0_1694.jpg one of]] those [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/5_3913.jpg aspects]].
60	* EvolvingMusic:
61	** When Vicki Peterson wrote "Single By Choice," it was a pretty personal song for her. After getting married to John Cowsill in 2003, she jokes about doing a "Married By Choice" version.
62	** Vicki's songs seem especially prone to this trope. She wrote "Lay Yourself Down" (which appears on ''Sweetheart of the Sun'') for her fiancé Bobby in 1990, as he was struggling to find his place in the music business. The song and its lyrics like those below became even more personal and poignant when Bobby began a battle with leukemia (to which he eventually succumbed in 1991):
63	--->''Even if the battle is won\
64	The war is not over\
65	It's only begun\
66	If there's one still standing\
67	One still standing his ground\
68	Don't you lay yourself down''
69	* FakeOutFadeOut: "Waiting For You"
70	* GenreMashup: The comments section on any Bangles video music video on [=YouTube=] is usually a weird mix of people bringing up ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'', ''Series/StrangerThings'', Creator/RobertDowneyJr, ''Film/IronMan'', ''Film/LessThanZero'', Creator/LeonardNimoy, how ridiculously attractive Susanna Hoffs is and her eye porn, and then people just generally there loving the Bangles' music.
71	* GriefSong: "Song For A Good Son"
72	* IntercourseWithYou: "In Your Room," the last verse of "Manic Monday". Also on the receiving end of this trope in the Music/TheSawDoctors song "I'd Love to Kiss The Bangles" -- mostly directed at Susanna but, apparently, one member prefers Vicki.
73	* IWantSong: "Want You" from the ''Bangles'' EP.
74	* MsFanservice: Susanna Hoffs gets the most attention, although all could apply.
75	* NakedPeopleAreFunny: When the band was recording "Eternal Flame", producer Davitt Sigerson ''somehow'' managed to convince Susanna Hoffs that the reason Olivia Newton-John sounded so openly emotional on her records was that she recorded all her vocals in the nude. So, Hoffs stripped off in the studio and sang the vocal naked. The band now tells this story as an example of how comically naive they were.
76	* {{Neologism}}: Like Music/JohnLennon, the Bangles will wish you "Happy Krimble" in late December.
77	* NonAppearingTitle: If you don't count [[TheSomethingSong "The Rain Song"]], only four times: "Dover Beach," "Silent Treatment," "Between the Two," and "Song For a Good Son."
78	* OneWomanSong (inverted): "James"
79	* OrdinaryPeoplesMusicVideo: "Walk Like An Egyptian" has members of the public attempting the classic Sand Dance in various locations.
80	* PintSizedPowerhouse: Susanna is 5'1", but delivers powerful vocals.
81	* PowerBallad: "Eternal Flame" may be one of the defining ones of the late 80s.
82	* RereleaseTheSong: ''Ladies and Gentlemen...'' compiles the ''Bangles'' EP and early non-LP singles.
83	* RunningGag: All of the bridges for "Walk Like An Egyptian" end with "The (something mentioned in the preceding verse) go "oh-way-oh", Walk Like An Egyptian".
84	* SelfReferentialTrackPlacement: "Manic Monday," about the beginning of a week, appears at the beginning of its album.
85	* TheSomethingSong: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfLHZVlqf3g "The Rain Song"]]
86	* StalkerWithACrush: "Following." The song leaves it ambiguous just who is stalking whom.
87	* StatuesqueStunner: Debbi is 5'9" and easily towers over her bandmates.
88	* VocalTagTeam: All four sing lead on various album tracks, but for the most part only Susanna's were released as singles
89	* WhamLine: "What I Meant to Say" sounds like the singer is setting up a special date to tell a good guy friend that she’s in love with him, and is agonizing over telling him so. Then we get to the final verse.
90	-->''It's a simple, honest thing\
91	Just to close my eyes and tell you\
92	There'll be one less person in your arms tonight...''
93	* WhatBeautifulEyes: One of Hoffs' defining features: They're big, they're beautiful, and she has a habit of looking side to side while singing[[note]]Looking directly at individual audience members was a technique she used to overcome stage fright[[/note]] that draws even more attention to them. Doubles as HoistByHisOwnPetard, since people really reacted to them to the point that she got more attention than the rest of the band, accelerating their demise.

Context Music / TheBangles