Twitter
EmailWhere’s the copycat?
Sep 05
Whenever someone hits it big, the industry is there to copycat it to cash in. You see it all the time, from TV to movies to music. In this case, I want to discuss music. You have Britney, so you have Christina. You have The Backstreet Boys, so you have 98 Degrees and N Sync. You have The Beatles, so you have everyone else who ever came after them. ;-) Elton John leads to Joshua Kaddison. And so on and so forth. I’m sure you can come up with a dozen examples of your own just looking at today’s Top 40 charts.
Meat Loaf has one of the ten best selling albums of all time with BAT OUT OF HELL. And nobody’s ever tried to copy his style? I’m not upset about this, but curious. Can the record companies not find someone else with a powerful enough voice to try to replicate that success? Granted, the success of that album has to be equally attributed to the songwriting of Jim Steinman. He’s gone on to write songs for others, including Celine Dion and Bonnie Tyler. But there’s never been a Meat Loaf wannabe.
Can anyone else think of one?
(And then I promise this will be the last Meat Loaf-themed entry for awhile…)
Sep 05, 2003 @ 11:23:33
Meat Loaf, in his prime, was:
(1) a great big fat guy, which is practically unmarketable, especially in the image conscious video age that began in the early 80s
(2) the owner of powerfully huge, pseudo-operatic vocal stylings that arefairly (although not impossibly) inimitable
(3) as you mentioned, partnered with Jim Steinman, who was pretty much as responsible for BOOH’s success as Meatloaf was (and IMHO got screwed out of a deserved artist credit, despite the “Songs by Jim Steinman” byline. Even John Oates shared some of the billing.)
Meat Loaf was pretty much an anomaly whose mass commercial appeal pretty much died out after BOOH and didn’t re-emerge until BOOH 2 (which, let’s face it, was brought about mostly via the 70s nostalgia).
Sep 05, 2003 @ 11:24:39
BTW aren’t Joshua Kaddison and Mark Cohn the same guy?
Sep 05, 2003 @ 13:16:15
I can’t help but mention that, at least in this observor’s opinion, Meatloaf’s voice is getting far too much unwarranted praise. His singing style (and, for that matter, Steinman’s writing style) cribs the theatricality from theater music without taking any of the dramatic sensibility that goes along with it. The result is a denutered style that’s just bombast with no substance. That said, there have been several rock singers with the pipes to challenge Meatloaf, all of whom have the phrasing sensibilities to pull the sound off (Freddie Mecury, Bono, Roy Orbison).
Sep 07, 2003 @ 08:53:44
Ah, THAT’S why Dion’s “It’s all coming back to me now” instantly reminded me of Meatloaf…
Oct 12, 2003 @ 14:29:56
Umm, Augie b/c Meatloaf blows, That might be why no one
has cloned him yet :)…But thank god for
promising to not talk about him for a while!
Oct 12, 2003 @ 14:43:27
Too late. I posted about him again on Friday. Oh, well…
And let’s not forget that Meat Loaf’s name is one of the best selling albums of all time, BAT OUT OF HELL.
-Augie
Jul 31, 2004 @ 05:32:30
The reason why nobody’s cloned Meat’s bombastic style is because he’s already done it for them. Springsteen’s legendary (if overwrought) “Born to Run” record is the roadmap Meat Loaf has followed to success. Meat’s music is completely devoid of the incisive lyrics and earthy grit that make Springsteen’s music so compelling, but there you go.
Jul 31, 2004 @ 10:01:56
Surely, you jest. Meat Loaf’s career is a pale imitation of one of Bruce Springsteen’s songs? Since Springsteen is just warmed over Bob Dylan, does that make Meat Loaf a direct descendant of Dylan’s music?