How Pinkerton Defined Weezer
Second albums are hard. For every Nevermind or Led Zeppelin II, there’s dozens of follow-ups that did not have the same level of success of their debut. The term is “Sophomore Slump”. There are many reasons why a second album becomes an issue, and a shit-hot debut is top of that list. Public expectations that weren’t present on your first attempt become deafening. You have to get over the hurdle of creating something that people will love just as much as your earlier stuff, while conversely making it fresh and exciting enough that it doesn’t seem like a rehash. It’s a tricky balance, as many bands have found out. But today I will be talking about Weezer’s awkward, jarring and yet simply genius second album. This is How Pinkerton defined Weezer.
#Weezer #VideoEssay #Pinkerton
First a bit of preamble. In 1994 Weezer released their self-titled debut, known as the Blue Album. Alongside some day-glo punks from Berkeley called Green Day, Weezer became the biggest breakout rock act of that year. They had a triple-platinum hit on their hands with modern rock radio hits in the form of “The Sweater Song”, “Say It Ain’t So” and “Buddy-Fuckin-Holly”. The video for the latter was its own phenomenon both on MTV and elsewhere. A cutting edge quirky novelty directed by future Her director Spike Jonze, where the band were transported into an episode of TV’s “Happy Days”. It was so big that it was packaged with the Windows 95 installation disk. They were a pretty big deal. But how do you follow that up? With Pinkerton of course.
Soundtrack:
Weezer – Buddy Holly [Instrumental]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fef1bPh7Knc
The Weezer Cover Project – Why Bother?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjftG1mYV7Q
The Weezer Cover Project – Across The Sea
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5Jpwo9vELE
The Weezer Cover Project – The Good Life
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwjSxho_E-w
The Weezer Cover Project – Pink Triangle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clB7AbzaNRA
Molotov Cocktail Piano – Falling for You [Instrumental]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBhTI8kULzE
Subscribe for more Trash Theory
You can also follow me here:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TrashTheory
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TrashTheoryYT
Or patronize me here:
https://www.patreon.com/TrashTheory
Comments are closed.