The Killers Effect by Tom Z.

The Killers are a band from Las Vegas that you already know about. Of course, before 2004, few people knew who they were. That year everything changed with the release of the songs “Somebody Told Me” and “Mr. Brightside.” Those songs were played a combined 87 million times on the radio and became massive hits. Thanks to those tracks, plus other singles like “All These Things I’ve Done” and “Smile Like You Mean It,” the Killers’ album Hot Fuss went multi-platinum, and the band was one of the biggest acts in the world in 2004/2005.

Then came 2006. The Killers released a second album called Sam’s Town. Most die-hard music fans will tell you that Sam’s Town is an incredible album, solid from front-to-back and more consistent than Hot Fuss. Of course, it sold about 1/5 as many copies as the group’s debut. Though the Killers had all sorts of fans, many of the sales of Hot Fuss can be attributed to a young, mainstream audience. When the Killers changed their style and released the more mature and complex Sam’s Town, many of that young, mainstream audience felt alienated. The result was a big decline in sales, which made it look to the casual outsider like the Killers were suffering a sophomore slump.

But real music fans loved the album, and knew the truth: That this change in style not only earned the band a dedicated fan base, but probably made their career. Think about it. What would happen if the Killers kept releasing albums that sounded like Hot Fuss? Their second album probably would’ve been huge, and the third album might have done well, but eventually it would have destroyed the band’s career. The young mainstream fans would grow up and get sick of hearing the same songs over and over, and the die-hard music fans would have discredited the band as a one-trick pony before the third album ever hit shelves. The Killers would have sold more copies of that hypothetical mainstream second album, but eventually the failure to evolve would have caught up with them, and they’d be working in the Stop N’ Shop produce section next to the non-Lachey guys from 98 Degrees.

The Killers Effect is when a band forgoes easy record sales to make deeper and more meaningful music. It represents the choice of artistic success and a smaller, more devout fan base over huge commercial success. It also represents a major risk. When the Killers released Sam’s Town, they were still a relatively new band, and they risked a lot of fans in order to make an album they felt was quality (singer Brandon Flowers called Sam’s Town “one of the best albums of the last 20 years,” which is a little crazy, but alright). The Killers effect is about flipping the tables. My friend Dan, who got a copy of Sam’s Town two weeks early, described it best: “All the teenage girls will hate this album, but people like you and me will love it.” I often describe this phenomenon as “weeding out the softcore fans,” but it’s more than that. When executed correctly, the Killers Effect will lose a lot of fans for a band, but will also win over a certain group of dedicated people (including some that previously hated the band).

Stone Temple Pilots did it with Tiny Music. Pearl Jam did it in classic fashion with Vitalogy. Green Day did it with Insomniac. Weezer did it with Pinkerton (one of the all-time great examples). Radiohead did it with The Bends and Kid A. Linkin Park tried it with Minutes to Minute and it’s still unclear whether they pulled it off. The Smashing Pumpkins attempted it and failed miserably when they released Adore, the worst album ever. A perfect recent example is Panic at the Disco, who alienated a lot of their teenage emo fans to release the Beatles-inspired Pretty. Odd, a mature and very solid album.

Now, most of these artists I’ve mentioned aren’t punk, but the reason you should care is because executing the Killers Effect to success is one of the most punk things a band can ever do. When a band becomes popular, there is a ton of pressure to release new albums and songs that are equally popular. Record labels would rather have an already-proven sound than a groundbreaking or artistic album, because artistic albums don’t pay the utility bills. Most fans want a new single that sounds the old single. The majority of people don’t want change. They want a band to stick with the sound that made them huge originally. There’s a reason people at concerts chant “Freebird!!” and not “Smokestack Lightning!!”

So to go in the face of those pressures and expectations, and release something that is actively more artistic and less commercial than previous efforts, is extremely admirable. And extremely punk.

PS:

The reason I bring this up is because Coldplay will be releasing a new album called Viva La Vida next week, and I fully expect this album to have the Killers Effect. I’ve only heard a couple songs, but it sounds like a departure from the band’s previous work and I think it has potential to be special. I’m not even a huge Coldplay fan -- I own the first CD and I like that song “Talk” -- but I feel so good about this prediction that I pre-ordered the new CD off Amazon. Little girls are going to cry and hate it, elitist hipsters are going to reluctantly admit that “it’s not my thing, but I guess it’s decent” while secretly putting it on their iPods, and everyone else is going to have mixed feeling for a few weeks before finally realizing that it’s great. If I’m right about this prediction, we’ll all have another classic album to add to our collections. If I’m wrong, then I wasted ten bucks, I’ll look like an idiot on the Internet, and I’ll be forced to find Chris Martin and punch him in the face while yelling “You know how I know you’re gay? You listen to you!!”

Please visit Tom Z at: TakeThisSeriously.com