History FollowTheLeader / Music

* The main complaint people have with {{Metallica}}'s Load and [=ReLoad=] records is that their music stylings were uncannily similar to the grunge/alternative bands that were popular at the time (albeit with an obvious blues/country influence). YourMileageMayVary on whether this was intentional or simply continuing what the band did on The Black Album (for that matter, YMMV on the actual success of the band's stylistic change).

** Boy band spilled over into country music. Rascal Flatts was basically a boy band with a steel guitar on their early albums.

* After 2pac's death loads of rappers tried to duplicate his image and music (minus the socio-political commentary mind you)

* After JeffersonAirplane, JimiHendrix and TheDoors hit big in the late 60's, major labels signed pretty much every psychedelic act they could find. Some found genuine talent: The jazz label Verve Records signed The Velvet Underground and Frank Zappa. Warner signed the GratefulDead, although they used their contract to make three wildly uncommercial albums before making their two classic records in 1970 (after which, they promptly split from the label). And EMI, looking for a band that sounded similar to the Beatles' new psychedelic sound, signed a small psychedelic band called PinkFloyd. Other labels weren't so lucky and were stuck with multi-million dollar contracts with one hit wonders like The Strawberry Alarm Clock, The Ultimate Spinach, Bubble Puppy and The Electric Prunes.

* In 1978, the album ''Van Halen'' was released with Eddie VanHalen's fretboard-tapping "Eruption" heard round the world. Two years later, Randy Rhoads' playing on Music/OzzyOsbourne's ''Blizzard of Ozz'' cemented fast, classical-inspired guitar playing known as "shredding" as the new standard. Pretty much every lead guitarist in heavy metal--and many even in hard rock and pop music--had to play blazing fast solos, preferably with fretboard tapping, until the rise of grunge in the early 90s pretty much killed off the trend.

* A lot of the post-disco, new wave funk/electro funk/synth funk bands that came out of the late 70's early 80's that died a quick death fall under this trope (though the whole subtly racist "death to disco" residual backlash also might be to blame, but that's a different can of worms). The more popular ones were groups like ''Cameo'', ''Zapp Band'', ''Debarge'', ''Evelyn King'', and The Gap Band, but the rest came and went, bands like; ''The Jets'', ''The SOS Band'', (for all intents and purposes were a 2 hit wonder), ''Skyy'', ''The System'', ''Starpoint'', ''Midnight Starr'', ''The Force M.D.'s'', ''Klymaxx'', ''Ready for the World'' and ''Kleeer''. All though it's debatable on whether or not they weren't better than the other bands that did get huge, cause quite a few of these groups have a significant cult following. Partially due to being SampledUp to hell and back.

* JanetJackson could be credited (or blamed) for sowing the seeds of the raunchy {{Stripperific}} R&B dancer types. Starting with {{Aaliyah}} (although she was tame by today's standards) who then paved way for people like Ashanti, Ciara, {{Rihanna}}, Brook Valentine, Mya, Christina Millian, so on, and so on. Some say Adina Howard helped too. And even before her some would point to ''Vanity/Appolonia 6''. Making this OlderThanTheyThink.

** Similarly, the success of BrooksAndDunn in the early 1990s led to the creation of countless mainstream-sounding singer-songwriter duos, none of whom came even ''close'' to touching Brooks & Dunn's success — most couldn't even get a Top 40 hit. For nearly 20 years, the "Duo of the Year" category at the Academy of Country Music and Country Music Association was a mere formality. Things didn't turn around until 2006, when {{Sugarland}} (who, despite being another singer-songwriter duo, has a more diverse sound) finally snagged a Duo award. B & D retired in 2010.
** ShaniaTwain welcomed in an era of country-pop crossover females, although this mostly translated to existing stars like FaithHill and Martina [=McBride=] bending their sound to a more pop influence, often with lots and lots of belting. However, the bottom has fallen out so hard that virtually no female artist besides CarrieUnderwood (herself a country-pop belter), TaylorSwift and Miranda Lambert can even get beyond the top 30 at country radio.

* The main complaint people have with {{Metallica}}'s Load and ReLoad records is that their music stylings were uncannily similar to the grunge/alternative bands that were popular at the time (albeit with an obvious blues/country influence). YourMileageMayVary on whether this was intentional or simply continuing what the band did on The Black Album (for that matter, YMMV on the actual success of the band's stylistic change).

* The main complaint people have with {{Metallica}}'s Load and ReLoad records is that their music stylings were uncannily similar to the grunge/alternative bands that were popular at the time (albeit with an obvious blues/country influence). YourMileageMayVary on how successful this change in music styling was.

* The main complaint people have with Music/Metallica's Load and ReLoad records is that their music stylings were uncannily similar to the grunge/alternative bands that were popular at the time (albeit with an obvious blues/country influence). YourMileageMayVary on how successful this change in music styling was.

* ChristinaAguilera's critics like to point out how she seems to be hopelessly behind every trend in pop, the standard 90's 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 it's 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.

* MichaelJackson's music videos were very innovative for their time. Before Jackson music videos were mostly registrations of concert performances and dancing wasn't very elementary. Jackson introduced sensational dance moves, line-dancing with other dancers and a plot to each music video, something that was quickly copied by almost every popular music artist afterwards.

* A lot of the new wave/electro/synth funk bands that came out of the late 70's early 80's that died a quick death fall under this trope (though the whole subtly racist "death to disco" backlash also might be the blame, but that's a different can of worms). The more popular ones were groups like ''Cameo'', ''Zapp Band'', ''Debarge'', ''Evelyn King'', and The Gap Band, but the rest came and went, bands like; ''The Jets'', ''The SOS Band'', (for all intents and purposes were a 2 hit wonder), ''Skyy'', ''The System'', ''Starpoint'', ''Midnight Starr'', ''The Force M.D.'s'', ''Klymaxx'', ''Ready for the World'' and ''Kleeer''. All though it's debatable on whether or not they weren't better than the other bands that did get huge, cause quite a few of these groups have a significant cult following. Partially due to being SampledUp to hell and back.

* ChristinaAguilera's critics like to point out how she seems to be hopelessly behind every trend in pop, the standard 90's 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 it's trendiest.

** Around that same time, BritneySpears lead the wave of "teen pop starlets" into the new millennium (thank you very much, ''Total Request Live''). Continued to pick what sounds came along before they hit the big time till right now. Of course, that hasn't stopped the DisneyChannel from trying to build up the next best thing.

* It was arguably the success of AmyWinehouse in the late noughties that resulted in a spate of new British female solo singers such as Lily Allen, Kate Nash, Duffy, X-Factor winner Leona Lewis and FlorenceAndTheMachine (technically a solo singer with a backing group). For a while, the British music press seemed preoccupied with determining who would be the "heir to Amy". If it was ever a contest, it seems to have been "won" by {{Adele}}.

* when the [[Music/{{Friday}} Rebecca Black song "Friday"]] hit the waves and became a viral hit, a large number of pre-teens with sugary pop songs Auto-Tuned to hell and back have come out of the woodwork, like [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UCdcW0RgII Lexi St. George,]] or [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DwT_2QQU64 Jenna Rose.]]

** Around that same time, BritneySpears lead the wave of "teen pop starlets" into the new millennium (thank you very much, ''Total Request Live''). Of course, that hasn't stopped the DisneyChannel from trying to build up the next best thing.
** Spears and Aguilera are actually the second such wave: in the late 1980s/early 1990s there was Tiffany, DebbieGibson, Alanis and others. Of that vintage, only Alanis Morisette is still a legitimate popular star, after starting to use her full name and becoming DarkerAndEdgier.

* ChristinaAguilera's critics like to point out how she seems to be hopelessly behind every trend in pop, the standard pop at the start of her career, the Rnb/Rock pop second album, the 40's 50's 60's sounds which were popular only 5 years before and Bionic and it's electronic pop sound which happened four years prior never exactly hitting the trend when it's at it's coolest.

* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et63XsMZJas As pointed out by]] MadTV, The Calling and {{Creed}} were accused of ripping off PearlJam (particularly Eddie Vedder's NoseYodeling - which the video says it's a style OlderThanTheyThink).

** Around that same time, BritneySpears and ChristinaAguilera led the wave of "teen pop starlets" into the new millennium (thank you very much, ''Total Request Live''). Of these former teen starlets, only Christina seems to have found genuine success doing actual music, winning/sharing a few Grammy awards and a string of hit records (possibly because she was the only one who could actually sing worth a damn). Of course, that hasn't stopped the DisneyChannel from trying to build up the next best thing.

* ChristinaAguilera's critics like to point out how she seems to be hopelessly behind every trend in pop, the standard pop at the start of her career, the Rnb/Rock pop second album, the 40's 50's 60's sounds which were popular only 5 years before and Bionic and it's electronic pop sound which happened four years prior.

* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et63XsMZJas As pointed out by]] MadTV, The Calling and {{Creed}} were accused of ripping off PearlJam (particularly Eddie Vedder's NoseYodeling - which the video says it's a style OlderThanTheyThink).

** Boy band spilled over into country music. Rascal Flatts was basically a boy band with a steel guitar on their early albums, but has now evolved into? whatever genre "whiny power ballad" falls under.

** In the 1990s, the "[[NiceHat hat act]]" craze was in full bloom in country music. Many young, hot acts were kicking off their careers in their mid-20s like GeorgeStrait did, and usually wore cowboy hats. While this gave us some great talents (not to mention keystone acts) in AlanJackson, ClintBlack, GarthBrooks, etc., it also gave the genre plenty of bland radio fodder pretty boys. Over time, "hat act" became a derogatory term.
** Similarly, the success of BrooksAndDunn in the early 1990s led to the creation of countless mainstream-sounding singer-songwriter duos, none of whom came even ''close'' to touching Brooks & Dunn's success — most couldn't even get a Top 40 hit. For the longest time, it was a ForegoneConclusion that B & D would get any award with "duo" in the name. Things didn't turn around until 2006, when {{Sugarland}} (who, despite being another singer-songwriter duo, has a more diverse sound) finally snagged a Duo award and the industry finally realized that Brooks & Dunn had been running on fumes.
** ShaniaTwain welcomed in an era of country-pop crossover females, although this mostly translated to existing stars like FaithHill and Martina [=McBride=] bending their sound to a more pop influence, often with lots and lots of belting. However, the bottom has fallen out so hard that virtually no female artist besides CarrieUnderwood (herself a country-pop belter), TaylorSwift and Miranda Lambert can even get a top 20 at country radio.
** Gretchen Wilson's "Redneck Woman" and to a lesser extent, JasonAldean's "Hicktown" both seem to have started the long-lasting trend of hard-rock country songs in which the singers assert that yes, they are country singers because they listen to MerleHaggard and GeorgeJones, they wear boots and worn-out jeans, they're bad boys/girls who love their mamas, etc. Most singers were brought to this by way of John Rich of Big & Rich, who wrote the aforementioned songs.

** ShaniaTwain welcomed in an era of country-pop crossover females, although this mostly translated to existing stars like FaithHill and Martina [=McBride=] bending their sound to a more pop influence. Between 2003 and 2005, only ''three'' solo females had number one hits. When CarrieUnderwood hit #1 in 2006 with "Jesus, Take the Wheel", it looked like females were coming back into vogue. However, therei s still a near-total drought, as it's down to just her, TaylorSwift and MirandaLambert.

** In the 1990s, the "[[NiceHat hat act]]" craze was in full bloom in country music. Many young, hot acts were kicking off their careers in their mid-20s like George Strait did, and usually wore cowboy hats. While this gave us some great talents in AlanJackson, ClintBlack, GarthBrooks, etc., it also gave the genre plenty of bland radio fodder pretty boys. Over time, "hat act" became a derogatory term.

** ShaniaTwain welcomed in an era of country-pop crossover females, although this mostly translated to existing stars like FaithHill and Martina [=McBride=] bending their sound to a more pop influence. Between 2003 and 2005, only ''three'' solo females had number one hits. When CarrieUnderwood hit #1 in 2006 with "Jesus, Take the Wheel", it looked like females were coming back into vogue — when all this has really led to is Carrie bogarting the charts.
** Gretchen Wilson's "Redneck Woman" and to a lesser extent, JasonAldean's "Hicktown" both seem to have started the long-lasting trend of hard-rock country songs in which the singers assert that yes, they are country singers because they listen to MerleHaggard and GeorgeJones, they wear boots and worn-out jeans, they're bad boys/girls who love their mamas, etc.

** To be entirely fair, this particular game of FollowTheLeader caused a lot of good bands to be signed - including TheWho, TheKinks, The Yardbirds, TheRollingStones, The Moody Blues, and left the door propped wide open for later legends like Black Sabbath, LedZeppelin, and Deep Purple.

* Similarly, after Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens were killed in a plane crash in 1959, American record companies scrambled to find teen rockers to fill the gap. Many were signed, but none had the talent or innovation of these two, and the evolution of rock music was stalled until the British Invasion. This time in rock history may also qualify as a DorkAge.

** Around that same time, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera led the wave of "teen pop starlets" into the new millennium (thank you very much, ''Total Request Live''). Of these former teen starlets, only Christina seems to have found genuine success doing actual music, winning/sharing a few Grammy awards and a string of hit records (possibly because she was the only one who could actually sing worth a damn). Of course, that hasn't stopped the DisneyChannel from trying to build up the next best thing.
** Spears and Aguilera are actually the second such wave: in the late 1980s/early 1990s there was Tiffany, Debbie Gibson, Alanis and others. Of that vintage, only Alanis Morisette is still a legitimate popular star, after starting to use her full name and becoming DarkerAndEdgier.

* In the same vein, much of the late-90s to mid-2000s Top 40 alternative/rock music is essentially knocking off the previous "alternative band", and those surrounding them, which are all knocked off of the basic chords of Canon in D. While you can blame Kurt Cobain for the phenomenon, it was almost definitely started earlier. Still continues to this day, as much of the radio and Top 40 is virtually indistinguishable from each other. Parodied hilariously by Rob Paravonian's "Pachelbel Rant" (easily found on Youtube).

* After Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix and TheDoors hit big in the late 60's, major labels signed pretty much every psychedelic act they could find. Some found genuine talent: The jazz label Verve Records signed The Velvet Underground and Frank Zappa. Warner signed the Grateful Dead, although they used their contract to make three wildly uncommercial albums before making their two classic records in 1970 (after which, they promptly split from the label). And EMI, looking for a band that sounded similar to the Beatles' new psychedelic sound, signed a small psychedelic band called PinkFloyd. Other labels weren't so lucky and were stuck with multi-million dollar contracts with one hit wonders like The Strawberry Alarm Clock, The Ultimate Spinach, Bubble Puppy and The Electric Prunes.

* Classical music is littered with examples of this trope; pieces of music considered revolutionary at the time they premiered would often spawn scores of imitators, sometimes to the point of changing musical tastes and convention the world over. This isn't just true of music that was well-received upon its inception, either; Stravinsky's ''The Rite of Spring'' was so controversial that the audience at its premiere ''rioted'', and yet it's been so influential in the modern era that much of 20th-century orchestral music might as well be called "The Rewrite of Spring".

* Amy Winehouse inspired a retro-blues movement that includes Duffy, Adele, Paloma Faith, and possibly Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings. She also led to a major resurgence in the popularity of female singer, songwriters in general all over the world, with the likes of Lady Gaga, Florence Welch and Jessie J all of whom have emerged since Back to Blacks release crediting Winehouse with paving the way for them and making it easier for them to have mainstream success.

* In what might be the darkest side of this trope, when the SoBadItsGood [[Music/{{Friday}} Rebecca Black song "Friday"]] hit the waves and became a viral hit, a large number of pre-teens with sugary pop songs Auto-Tuned to hell and back have come out of the woodwork. A couple of them aren't too terrible, like [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UCdcW0RgII Lexi St. George,]] but some are lucky to be considered SoBadItsGood at the best of times and mostly stay in SoBadItsHorrible, like poor [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DwT_2QQU64 Jenna Rose.]]

* Amy Winehouse inspired a retro-blues movement that includes Duffy, Adele, Paloma Faith, and possibly Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings. She also led to a major resurgence in the popularity of female singer songwriters in general, with the likes of Lady Gaga, Florence Welch and Jessie all of whom have emerged since Back to Blacks release crediting Winehouse with paving the way for them and making it easier for them to have mainstream success.

* Amy Winehouse inspired a retro-blues movement that includes Duffy, Adele, Paloma Faith, and possibly Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings.

* Amy Winehouse (plus the popularity of ''MadMen'') helped inspire a retro-blues movement that includes Duffy, Adele, and possibly Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings. It also helped that Duffy and co. "took over" after Amy went off the deep end.

* In the same vein, much of the late-90s to mid-2000s Top 40 alternative/rock music is essentially knocking off the previous "alternative band", and those surrounding them, which are all knocked off of the basic chords of [[OlderThanDirt Canon in D]]. While you can blame Kurt Cobain for the phenomenon, it was almost definitely started earlier. Still continues to this day, as much of the radio and Top 40 is virtually indistinguishable from each other. Parodied hilariously by Rob Paravonian's "Pachelbel Rant" (easily found on Youtube).

* In 1978, the album ''Van Halen'' was released with Eddie VanHalen's fretboard-tapping "Eruption" heard round the world. Two years later, Randy Rhoads' playing on OzzyOsbourne's ''Blizzard of Ozz'' cemented fast, classical-inspired guitar playing known as "shredding" as the new standard. Pretty much every lead guitarist in heavy metal--and many even in hard rock and pop music--had to play blazing fast solos, preferably with fretboard tapping, until the rise of grunge in the early 90s pretty much killed off the trend.

* Although there's considerable confusion over exactly ''what'' style of music {{Korn}} popularized -- some say RapMetal, but only about 5 songs in the band's entire 8-album career have rap in them -- it's generally agreed that a lot of bands followed their lead. Hence, they made an album called... FollowTheLeader.