History Music / TheShaggs

* [[DreadfulMusician Dreadful Musicians]]

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: Uh, ...''ostensibly'' they're a 2.

The Shaggs had [[SoBadItsGood an unusual approach]] at making pop music. Not only did their instruments sound blatantly out of tune, but their limited ability caused each member's individual performance to seemingly follow its own time signature. Each individual note matched up to every syllable they sang, and, in general, it all added up to what the average person would hear as a lot of disorganized sound. Despite all this, the band have developed [[CultClassic a small cult following]] as well as some good reviews over the years (amongst them being no less than Lester Bangs, [[Music/{{Nirvana}} Kurt Cobain]] and Music/FrankZappa), with many praising the honesty and humanism of their lyrical content.

* DownerEnding: [[DoubleSubverted Double Subverted]]. They failed to achieve mainstream success, Austin died in 1975 and the band disbanded shortly after. Years later, they were VindicatedByHistory through cult and outsider music aficionados and played a few reunion shows in 1999, then Helen [[DrivenToSuicide committed suicide]] in 2006.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Put off by "Philosophy of the World"s arrhythmic beat, sing-speak vocals and hopelessly amateurish instrumentation? Well get ready for ''eleven more tracks'' of it.

* HalloweenEpisode: The subject of "It's Halloween", with its hilarious line "Why, even dracula will be there".

* ShaggyDogStory: [[IncrediblyLamePun Incredibly Lame Pun]] aside, this is subverted somewhat. [[BittersweetEnding The band failed to achieve mainstream success like Austin thought, but they're appreciated in cult and outsider music circles.]]

!!Tropes featured in their music include:

* ArcWords: 'Roam', pronounced like 'Rom' due to their accents, shows up in a few songs.
* AlbumTitleDrop: ''"The Philosophy of the World"''

* DownerEnding: [[DoubleSubverted Double Subverted]]. They failed to achieve mainstream success, Austin died in 1975 and the band disbanded shortly after. Years later, they were [[VindicatedByHistory Vindicated By History]] through cult and outsider music aficionados and played a few reunion shows in 1999, then Helen [[DrivenToSuicide committed suicide]] in 2006.

* GoodParents: ''"Who Are Parents?"'' is a sweet song about love for your parents and how they take care of you. Despite the fact that the Shaggs' father was a naïve, demanding and overprotective dad.
** There are suspicions that their father wrote the lyrics to this song himself and made them record it, which would make it HarsherInHindsight.

* HaveAGayOldTime: ''"Why Do I Feel"'' is even more hilarious with this in mind.

* ThatPoorCat: The song ''"My Pal Foot Foot"'' describes how the girls search for their lost cat, Foot Foot.

* AbusiveParents: The girls' father forced them to perform solely because of his own mother prophetic dream. They had never played an instrument before and obviously lacked any sort of musical talent. Despite all that he took them out of the regular school system, bought equipment, forced them to rehearse for hours and sent them to live venues where the poor kids were basically ridiculed by the audience. And he disbanded the group because his eldest teenage daughter had met a cute guy during one of the concerts!
** Though, [[WordOfGod Dot Wiggin]] said in an interview that they had a good father and the band did enjoy playing.

* DownerEnding: [[DoubleSubverted Double Subverted]]. They failed to achieve mainstream success, Austin died in 1975 and the band disbanded shortly after. Years later, they were [[VindicatedByHistory Vindicated By History]]through cult and outsider music aficionados and played a few reunion shows in 1999, then Helen [[DrivenToSuicide committed suicide]] in 2006.

* ShaggyDogStory: [[IncrediblyLamePun]] aside, this is subverted somewhat. [[BittersweetEnding The band failed to achieve mainstream success like Austin thought, but they're appreciated in cult and outsider music circles.]]

* GoodParents: ''"Who Are Parents?"'' is a sweet song about love for your parents and how they take care of you. Despite the fact that the Shaggs' father was a naïve, demanding and overprotective dad.

-->''"Oh, the rich people want what the poor people's got''\\

Helen, the drummer, passed away in 2006. An off-Broadway musical about their life recently began in NewYorkCity.

The Shaggs had [[SoBadItsGood an unusual approach]] at making pop music. Not only did their instruments sound blatantly out of tune, but their limited ability caused each member's individual performance to seemingly follow its own time signature. Each individual note matched up to every syllable they sang, and, in general, it all added up to what the average person would hear as a lot of disorganized sound. Despite all this, the band have developed [[CultClassic a small cult following]] as well as some good reviews over the years (amongst them being no less than Lester Bangs, [[{{Nirvana}} Kurt Cobain]] and FrankZappa), with many praising the honesty and humanism of their lyrical content.

The band did have a second recording session in 1975, where, amongst other songs, they did [[CoveredUp a cover of]] "Yesterday Once More" by TheCarpenters. The sessions never materialized into a full album, as the sessions were aborted after [[DownerEnding the death of Austin Wiggins.]]

[[en.wikipedia.org/The_Shaggs They have not gone unnoticed]] by ThatOtherWiki.

* StageDad

* BetterThanItSounds: What the girls lack in talent they make up in beautifully innocent teenage charm.

* BetterThanTheBeatles

* HaveAGayOldTime: "Why Do I Feel" is even more hilarious with this in mind.

I try to think of something gay"

The Shaggs had [[SoBadItsGood an unusual approach]] at making pop music. Not only did their instruments sound blatantly out of tune, but their limited ability caused each member's individual performance to seemingly follow its own time signature. Each individual note matched up to every syllable they sang, and, in general, it all added up to what the average person would hear as a lot of disorganized sound. Despite all this, the band have developed [[CultClassic a small cult following]] as well as some good reviews over the years (amongst them being no less than Lester Bangs and FrankZappa), with many praising the honesty and humanism of their lyrical content.