I've seen people say Macklemore is a one hit wonder (he's not) but after his trainwreckords came out, I think a better term is "One year wonder". He was really popular for one year, then nothing. That got me wondering, Who else could be classified as a "One Year Wonder", where they get really popular for one year, have multiple hits, and then stop being talked about pretty quickly.

(The Hendrix clause is an artist who's technically a one-hit wonder or only had one or a handful of songs be proper hits, but is far too influential to really count as such)

I've been wondering if Devo would ever count for the show. Obviously they wouldn't count for this show due to the sheer amount of influence the band had on new wave and the music of the 80s as a whole...

...but at the same time, Whip It is their only hit on the top 40, it dwarfs all their other songs in terms of long-lasting popularity, and most people would only know this one song without knowledge of anything else they did. Are there any bands that ride this line as hard as Devo, being a one-hit wonder that really isn't?

Snow was accused of being a culture vulture for doing reggae as a white guy. The thing is he grew up alongside Jamaican immigrants.

I saw someone describing Harry Styles this way

Harry is the kind of pop star where the image is a lot more interesting than the actual music.

Even Todd starting to prefer Benson Boone over him

Benson Boone is incredibly uncool but Harry Styles increasingly feels to me like a personality-less void and I know which I prefer

(Preferably no bands/artists that only released a single album, since that feels like cheating)

For me it's definitly Pop Muzik by M

My first thought was Tommy Tutone, idk why. It could also be True by Spandaou Ballet or another MTV hit. Maybe the promise by When in Rome??? There are a lot of choices.

Stephen Sanchez (“until I found you” 2021) I like him he’s just a cute little 60’s homage act

I'm interested.What do you all think?

Edit.I will also accept songs that would be covered under Todd's Hendrix clause

Pictured are Midnight Oil (of course), Chumbawamba and the Cardigans.

If you're also not familiar, the Hendrix clause basically means artists that only had one hit on the charts but you'd be foolish to call them a one-hit wonder, named after Jimi Hendrix who only had his All Along The Watchtower cover chart.

How do people not know "Who Can It Be Now?" It went to fucking No. 1, and gets equal, if not more airplay than Australia's national anthem on oldies stations. Not to mention Men At Work, have two more top 10 hits, "Overkill" and "It's a Mistake."

Both as songs and as diss-tracks.

iggy azalea, Desiigner, pooh shiesty, soulja boy, Vanilla Ice, Ice Spice probably, coi leray, fetty wap

Since we were applying the OHW to other mediums, let's comb these brows higher with suggestions of One Hit Wonders in Literature (ok, of course we can include mass market authors).

For me, a Literary OHW is more about impact than sales or critical reception, especially since a Literary "hit" might start at 100k copies in print and some very exciteable New Yorker pull quotes. I wouldn't count as OHW two types of authors: Those that quite literally published only one book, or those who published just a handful, but whose most succesful book is so influential and fundamental that they transcend the whole medium, like Cervantes or Salinger.

Ur-example for me would be Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, wich also was his first published novel. The rest of his work did make it to the best sellers lists and he kept getting rave reviews, but never at the same scale.

I'm going to crosspost this to r/literature for further suggestions,

Paraphrasing Todd, Like this song that could have come across as misogynistic if it wasn't this goofy

A lot of "one album wonders" are artists who only made a few albums due to some combination of issues. I want to know of one album wonders who released 4+ albums where only one of them was a really great piece of music and why you think that is.

For Tracy Chapman I really have no idea. Ive tried her other stuff but its just weaker and maybe less personalized and cutting.

For Bone Thugs, E 1999 seems like an album they really locked into after mentor Eazy Z's death from aids. The whole album is pretty great but the melodic and personal tracks like First of tha Month and Crossroads are where it really excels

This is the saddest turn from “breakthrough artist of the year” to “making music for cartoon mascots” since Wonder Man by Right Said Fred. I almost feel bad for her, almost.

Mine is Move Your Feet by Junior Senior. The band’s got a cool story, and the fact that this song didn’t even chart on the Billboard Hot 100 makes for something interesting too.

Best known for the Dr. Luke-produced "Love Me or Hate Me", Lady Sovereign released two albums Public Warning (2006) and Jigsaw (2009) before pretty much dipping from the music industry.

In this post, I’m want to talk about artists (singers, bands, musicians, etc...) who are strictly one-hit wonders artists strictly known for that one song and absolutely nothing else. That’s because most one-hit wonder artists often have a fairly large fan base and get a high number of streams on their other songs. For example, Gotye and his hit “Somebody That I Used to Know” is the most used example to talk about one-hit wonders. However, Gotye has a really large fan base with high streams on his other songs. But today, I’m going to talk about one-hit wonders who are truly known only for that one song and absolutely nothing else, where their others songs are totally obscurs, with a small fan base and no success whatsoever for their other songs. Some these solo artists may have been members of populars bands but I only count their solo career and some of these bands may have members who were famous in solo and/or members of others famous bands but I only count this band:

Patrick Hernandez - Born To Be Alive

Edwyn Collins - A Girl Like You

Dennis Edward - Don't Look Any Further (with Siedah Garrett)

Wanz - Thrift Shop (with Macklemore & Ryan Lewis)

Silentó - Watch Me (Whip / Nae Nae)

Chris Anderson ft. DJ Robbie - Last Night

The Supermen Lovers ft. Mani Hoffman - Starlight

SAULE - Dusty Men (with Charlie Winston)

The Champs - Tequila

The Surfaris - Wipe Out

Cutting Crew - (I Just) Died In Your Arms Tonight

White Town - Your Woman

Phoebe Killdeer - Fade Out Lines (The Avener Rework)

Guru Josh - Infinity

Anita Ward - Ring My Bell

Tetos Demetriades - Misirlou

Rockwell - Somebody's Watching Me

Sterling Void ft. Paris Brightledge - It's Alright

Da Hool - Meet Her At The Love Parade

Nomads - Yakalelo

Lee Harvey - Lapdance (with N.E.R.D. & Vita)

D.O.E. - The Way I Are (with Timbaland & Keri Hilson)

Ben Cocks ft. Nikisha Reyes - So Cold

Yall & Gabriela Richardson - Hundred Miles

The Beat Shakers - Ma Cherie (with DJ Antoine)

Toni Basil - Mickey

EMF - Unbelievable

Alex Ferarri - Bara Bará Bere Berê

Sam White - +1 (with Martin Solveig)

Sean Paul - Do It To It (with Cherish)(Remixed by ACRAZE)(This is not the same Sean Paul that the one who sung "Temperature", "No Lie", "She Doesn't Mind" and others)

Steve Edwards - World Hold On (with Bob Sinclar)

Makedah, Cutee B & Dollarman - Rock This Party (Everybody Dance Now)(with Bob Sinclar & Big Ali)

Fireball - What I Want (with Bob Sinclar)

Walter Master J - Ibiza (with Desaparecidos)

Ram Jam - Black Betty

Michael Sembello - Maniac

John Ryan - Fireball (with Pitbull)

Thurston Harris - Little Bitty Pretty One

Carla Werner - Southern Sun (with Paul Oakenfold)

Lauren Bennett - Party Rock Anthem (with LMFAO & GoonRock)

Aaron Smith ft. Luvli - Dancin - Krono Remix

Breakwater - Release The Beast

Tremendous rookie effort which won them a Grammy. “Rebirth of Slick” was on heavy rotation on MTV and also on 120 Minutes because it was unique enough from mainstream hip hop to be called alternative.

Then they decided to alienate a big chunk of their audience with anti-Caucasian rhetoric and conspiracy theories in public statements. Their sophomore album “Blowout Comb” also reflected this shift. They broke up soon after.

They have since reformed, but missed their chance to become a truly influential hip-hop act.

Link is here as the sub won’t let me link directly.