Line #40 Music/JohnMellencamp


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jmellencamp.jpg]]
2
3	John J Mellencamp (born October 7, 1951 in Seymour, Indiana), [[IHaveManyNames previously known as Johnny Cougar, John Cougar, and John Cougar Mellencamp]], is an American singer-songwriter and musician.
4
5	Active since the 1970s, he is known for his unique brand of rock music, which started out as HeartlandRock but then took a more eclectic turn, making heavy use of traditional instruments, with a focus on rural and country life. In 1985, Mellencamp, together with Music/WillieNelson and Music/NeilYoung, created Farm Aid. He also holds the record for the most tracks by a solo artist to hit number one on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart (seven), and has been nominated for 13 UsefulNotes/{{Gramm\|yAward}}ies, successfully winning one.
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7	He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 10, 2008, and to the Songwriters Hall of Fame on June 14, 2018.
8	----
9	!!Discography:
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11	* ''Chestnut Street Incident'' (1976)
12	* ''A Biography'' (1978)
13	* ''John Cougar'' (1979)
14	* ''Nothin' Matters and What If It Did'' (1980)
15	* ''American Fool'' (1982)
16	* ''The Kid Inside'' (1983)
17	* ''Uh-Huh'' (1983)
18	* ''Scarecrow'' (1985)
19	* ''The Lonesome Jubilee'' (1987)
20	* ''Big Daddy'' (1989)
21	* ''Whenever We Wanted'' (1991)
22	* ''Human Wheels'' (1993)
23	* ''Dance Naked'' (1994)
24	* ''Mr. Happy Go Lucky'' (1996)
25	* ''John Mellencamp'' (1998)
26	* ''Rough Harvest'' (1999)
27	* ''Cuttin' Heads'' (2001)
28	* ''Trouble No More'' (2003)
29	* ''Freedom's Road'' (2007)
30	* ''Life, Death, Love and Freedom'' (2008)
31	* ''No Better Than This'' (2010)
32	* ''Plain Spoken'' (2014)
33	* ''Sad Clowns & Hillbillies'' (2017)
34	* ''Other People's Stuff'' (2018)
35	* ''Strictly a One-Eyed Jack'' (2022)
36	* ''Orpheus Descending'' (2023)
37	----
38	!!"Little tropes about Jack and Diane...":
39	* AppropriatedAppellation: Took the nickname "Little Bastard" from actor and fellow Indiana native Creator/JamesDean's motorcycle.
40	* CharacterTitle: "Jackie Brown"
41	* CoverVersion: "Wild Night" with Meshell Ndegeocello was a cover of the Music/VanMorrison original.
42	** His first album, ''Chestnut Street Incident'', contains covers of Oh, Pretty Woman by Music/RoyOrbison, Jailhouse Rock by Music/ElvisPresley, Do You Believe In Magic by Music/TheLovinSpoonful, and [[Music/TheDoorsAlbum Twentieth Century Fox]] by Music/TheDoors, with Music/TheManWhoSoldTheWorld by Music/DavidBowie and Kicks by Music/PaulRevereAndTheRaiders as bonus tracks.
43	** He contributed a cover of Music/ElvisPresley's "Jailhouse Rock" to the ''Film/HoneymoonInVegas'' soundtrack.
44	* CreatorProvincialism: Played with in "Small Town." While he says that he's "got nothing against the big town," he still prefers his small town.
45	* DarkerAndEdgier: ''Human Wheels'' was one of his darkest and more introspective works.
46	* NameAndName: "Jack and Diane," of course.
47	* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: Sung word for word in "Crumblin' Down."
48	* PrecisionFStrike: From "Play Guitar" on ''Uh-Huh''.:
49	--->"Forget about all that macho shit\
50	Learn how to play guitar"
51	* ProtestSong: "Rain on the Scarecrow." John had seen first-hand how America's farmers were getting screwed by corporations, and he was an ''angry'' man when he wrote this song.
52	* SelfTitledAlbum: 1979's ''John Cougar'' and 1998's ''John Mellencamp'' both qualify.
53	* SesquipedalianSmith: Inverted, and how.
54	* ShoutOut: "R.O.C.K. in the USA (A Salute to 60s Rock)" salutes Frankie Lymon, Bobby Fuller, Mitch Ryder, Jackie Wilson, The Shangri-Las, The Young Rascals, Martha Reeves and Music/JamesBrown.
55	* TheSomethingSong: "Authority Song".
56	* SpellingSong: "R.O.C.K. in the USA" spells "Rock" in the chorus.
57	* StageNames: One of the most notable cases of both this and an aversion of it, with ExecutiveMeddling playing a role. His manager decided that Mellencamp wasn't very marketable so he renamed him Johnny Cougar (1976-1978), then his label shortened it to John Cougar (1979-1982), then they made a halfway compromise with him to use John Cougar Mellencamp for the rest of the decade, before he dropped the Cougar once and for all in the 90s.
58	* TakeThat: "Pop Singer", his 1989 single off of ''Big Daddy'', is this to the ExecutiveMeddling he put up with early in his career.
59	* ThreeChordsAndTheTruth: From ''Uh-Huh'' onwards, his music became increasingly topical.

Context Music / JohnMellencamp