History CreatorKiller / Music

* A ''literal'' killer occurred with Music/LinkinPark frontman Chester Bennington, who died by suicide two months after the release of the band's 2017 album ''One More Light'', which earned [[BrokenBase polarized reviews from critics and fans alike]] due to [[CreatorsOddball its pop-oriented sound]] -- a reaction that Bennington [[DearNegativeReader had not taken well]]. This was compounded by the sudden suicide of his friend Music/ChrisCornell after a concert days before ''One More Light''[='s=] release. After this, and a one-time show in October in his memory, Linkin Park remain officially on hiatus.

* After the post-hardcore band Hum scored some unexpected success with ''You'd Prefer An Astronaut'' in 1995, the band spent waiting nearly three years before they released their follow-up, ''Downward Is Heavenward''. The album was a commercial failure in comparison to its predecessor, and the band's label, RCA, lost a great deal of money trying to promote it. Partially because of the album's inability to reach an audience, the band broke up shortly afterward. However, [[VindicatedByHistory over the years]] the album has come to be recognized as not only Hum's masterpiece but as one of the best albums of the '90s.

** When "Take It to the Limit" became a hit, frontman Glenn Frey pushed bassist Randy Meisner to perform the song during live performances, as he was the only member of the band who could consistently hit the high notes. Meisner grew increasingly disgruntled with having to sing it at every show, culminating in a backstage fistfight between him and Frey during the ''Hotel California'' tour in 1977 that led Meisner to quit the band. The rest of the band broke up three years later after the "Long Night at Wrong Beach" when tensions between Frey and Don Felder boiled over at a concert in Long Beach, California and the two of them threatened physical violence against each other after the show. The Eagles only stayed together long enough to finish the concert tour and record a live album before going on a fourteen-year hiatus.

* [[Music/AphroditesChild Aphrodite's Child's]] ''666'', a double album conceived and composed by Music/{{Vangelis}} that [[NewSoundAlbum `sent the band into]] ProgressiveRock. The album was completed in 1969, but the band's record company turned it down and wasn't willing to release it until 1972. The band stalled in the meantime. Vangelis didn't want to return to the band's old sound, the rest of the band didn't want to stick with the new sound, and there was no point in recording more albums when the band already had one in limbo. Unable to do anything sensible, the band split in 1971. It didn't live to experience ''666'' becoming a BreakthroughHit with an entirely new audience, but Vangelis was free to start a new solo career.

* Music/TheBeachBoys seemed poised for a comeback after the massive (if polarizing) success of their 1988 single "Kokomo", a BreakawayPopHit from the film ''Film/{{Cocktail}}'', but the 1992 album ''Music/SummerInParadise'' destroyed that goodwill immediately. The first Beach Boys album where Music/MikeLove was the driving creative force without any input from Music/BrianWilson, ''Summer in Paradise'' was absolutely thrashed by critics and sold so poorly that it became their first album to not make the ''Billboard'' 200 (the all-genre albums chart). Between this and a half-baked covers album by country music stars in 1996, they were reduced to a touring oldies band and wouldn't record a new album of original music until 2012.

* After the UsefulNotes/SuperBowl XXXVIII halftime show, where Music/JanetJackson's [[WardrobeMalfunction breast was accidentally exposed]] on national television in the middle of a highly sexualized performance, Creator/{{MTV}} was effectively blacklisted from ever putting on another Super Bowl halftime show, and the NFL turned to classic rock for the next six halftime shows before switching back to mainstream pop with Music/TheBlackEyedPeas in 2011. Janet's career also suffered; while it wasn't quite a Creator Killer for her, she did undergo an AudienceAlienatingEra and a career downturn that lasted into the 2010s, only ending with the 2015 album ''Unbreakable'' and her 2019 induction into the UsefulNotes/RockAndRollHallOfFame. Music/JustinTimberlake, however, [[NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity came out virtually unscathed from the incident]].

* In 2002, Music/{{Jewel}}'s career took an unexpected turn with "Serve the Ego", which brought the folk rocker [[BlackSheepHit a surprise #1 hit on the dance charts]]. Seeking to capitalize, in 2003 she recorded and released the dance-pop album ''0304''. Old fans branded her a SellOut, and the project failed to bring her any new ones. An attempted ParodyRetcon claiming that she was satirizing early 2000s {{idol singer}}s did little to stem the damage, especially given that she had licensed the lead-off single "Intuition" to promote a line of razors by that name. While she quickly retreated back into her comfort zone (her later forays into CountryMusic feeling far less removed from her usual style), her career never returned to its '90s heights.

* Music/RunDMC were HipHop legends in The80s, but they struggled to keep up with a rapidly changing music landscape in TheNineties. Their 1990 album ''Back from Hell'', influenced by both Music/PublicEnemy and the NewJackSwing movement, was an embarrassment, and while their 1993 follow-up ''Down with the King'' was welcomed as a return to form, problems at their label meant that it took them eight years to record another album. During that time, NuMetal arose, heavily influenced by the band's RapRock stylings, and so the band drew influence from it in turn for their comeback album ''Crown Royal'', which finally came out in 2001 after three years of delays, a TroubledProduction that saw many fights over the album's direction, and Darryl "D.M.C." [=McDaniel=] stepping back from recording thanks to both a throat condition and [[CreatorsApathy his belief that the whole album was a cynical cash grab]]. Despite a star-studded list of guest artists and production from the legendary producer Clive Davis when he was in the middle of a hot streak, critics and fans alike generally agreed with D.M.C.'s assessment and steered clear of ''Crown Royal'', dismissing it as a desperate attempt to stay relevant that was missing a third of the band. Run–D.M.C. never recorded another record, and after Jam Master Jay was murdered in 2002 they survived chiefly as a touring act.

* Music/FaithHill's 2002 album ''Cry''. In the late '90s and early '00s, she had been a CountryMusic superstar, credited (along with Music/ShaniaTwain) with injecting [[MsFanservice sex appeal and glamour]] into a fairly conservative genre while still remaining wholesome enough for its traditionalist fans, while her romance with fellow country superstar Music/TimMcGraw made her one half of a Nashville SuperCouple. ''Cry'', however, saw her pivot towards adult pop, rock, and even ContemporaryRAndB in a move that felt heavily inspired by Music/CelineDion. The result outraged her fans and country radio and met mixed reviews from music journalists who felt that she was out of her depth with her GenreShift, and while its opening-week sales were the biggest of her career, the album fell off quickly after that. Not only did ''Cry''[='=]s negative reception badly damage Faith's music career, it's seen in hindsight as a tipping point in a broader backlash within country fandom against the genre's '90s era of crossover success, especially its female artists. Afterwards, she only released one more album, 2005's ''Fireflies'', that saw her go back to country and failed to come close to her previous megastardom (even if it [[WinBackTheCrowd won back skeptical fans and critics]]), and since then, she's only recorded a Christmas album and a duets album with her husband [=McGraw=].