Line #42 Music/BlondieBand


1	[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/blondie_band_6.png]]
2
3	->''"One way or another I'm gonna find ya,''\
4	''I'm gonna getcha getcha getcha getcha..."''
5	-->-- "'''One Way or Another'''"
6
7	Blondie are an American rock band that formed in 1974 in New York City, first gained fame in the late [[The70s 1970s]] and have so far sold over 60 million records. The band were pioneers in the early American [[NewWaveMusic New Wave]] and PunkRock scenes. Their first two albums contained strong elements of these genres, and although successful in the United Kingdom and Australia, Blondie were regarded as an underground band in the United States until the release of ''Music/ParallelLines'' in 1978. Over the next three years, they achieved several hit singles and were noted for an eclectic mix of musical styles incorporating elements of {{Disco}}, {{Pop}} and {{Reggae}}, while retaining a basic New Wave style.
8
9	Lead singer Deborah Harry [[IAmTheBand achieved a level of celebrity that eclipsed other band members]], leading to tension within the group. Following the poorly received album ''The Hunter'' and with core member Chris Stein diagnosed with a potentially fatal disease, the band disbanded in 1982. As members pursued other projects, Blondie's reputation grew over the following decade and they reformed in 1997, achieving renewed success and a number one single in the United Kingdom with "Maria" in 1999. Blondie toured and performed throughout the world over the following years, and were inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the [=RockWalk=] of Fame in 2006.
10
11	!!Notable songs:
12	* [[http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/search/blondie%2Batomic/video/x3eepj_blondie-atomic_music "Atomic"]]
13	* [[http://www.mtvmusic.com/blondie/videos/113563/call_me.jhtml "Call Me"]]
14	* [[http://www.mtvmusic.com/blondie/videos/178055/dreaming.jhtml "Dreaming"]]
15	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFerLNdpwO4 "One Way or Another"]]
16	* [[http://www.mtvmusic.com/blondie/videos/18111/rapture.jhtml "Rapture"]] - the earliest example of a rock band performing rap music (the parent album was released just a month before Music/TheClash's ''Music/{{Sandinista}}'', which contained "The Magnificent Seven")
17	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0skjm-uJSs "The Tide Is High"]]
18	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWhkbDMISl8 "Hanging On the Telephone"]]
19	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmONePejIIA "In the Flesh"]]
20	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXlaOsNBDkk "Heart of Glass"]]
21
22	!!Studio album discography:
23	* ''Blondie'' (1976)
24	* ''Plastic Letters'' (1978)
25	* ''Music/ParallelLines'' (1978)
26	* ''Eat to the Beat'' (1979)
27	* ''Autoamerican'' (1980)
28	* ''The Hunter'' (1982)
29	* ''No Exit'' (1999)
30	* ''The Curse of Blondie'' (2003)
31	* ''Panic of Girls'' (2011)
32	* ''Ghosts of Download'' (2014) (As part of the DistinctDoubleAlbum ''Blondie 4(0) Ever'', alongside a GreatestHitsAlbum)
33	* ''Pollinator'' (2017)
34	----
35	!!"I'm gonna find ya, I'm gonna trope ya trope ya trope ya trope ya":
36	* EightiesHair: See Debbie Harry on the cover of ''The Hunter''.
37	* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: "Out in the Streets," a cover of a song by classic '60s girl group the Shangri-Las, is about a girl regretting that her influence has reformed a bad boy, because she thinks he's missing his old life and she preferred him when he was bad.
38	* ArmedBlag: "The Hardest Part" from ''Eat to the Beat'' talks about a robbery on an armored car ("''Twenty-five tons of hardened steel...''"). The title refers to the "hardest part" of the robbery being the armed guards inside the vehicle.
39	* ArtifactTitle: The band name references the fact that they had two blonde backing singers in addition to Debbie Harry. [[ThePeteBest Neither of them stayed long enough to perform live or record with them.]] Therefore, for the record, the name has nothing to do with Hitler.
40	* AttackOfThe50FootWhatever: "The Attack Of The Giant Ants" is about ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin.
41	* TheCoverChangesTheGender: "Denise" became "Denis". Likewise "man" becomes "girl" in the Paragons' "The Tide is High", and "he" becomes "she" in The Nerves' "Hanging on the Telephone". Averted with their cover of "I'm Gonna Love You Too" by Buddy Holly, which retains the line "After all, another fella took ya": Intentionally or not, this makes it sound like the narrator's male love interest left with another man.
42	* CulturalRebel: A female-fronted punk/new wave band formed in the [[The70s 1970s]], albeit only the singer was female. Then again, Deborah Harry herself is a really good example, as she was in her early thirties when her band became a hit -- a little old for one of the founders of female punk rock, and also a good bit older than her bandmates (she is ''eight and a half years'' older than Clem Burke, who has been with Blondie from practically the beginning). (By contrast, Music/TheRamones were still in their mid-twenties when they hit it big.)
43	* DatingCatwoman: "X Offender" is about a prostitute who falls in love with the police officer who busts her.
44	* {{Disco}}: "Heart of Glass" is undeniably disco. "Call Me" and "Rapture" have shades of the style too, though the latter also features rapping.
45	* DistinctDoubleAlbum: ''Blondie 4(0) Ever'', which includes ''[[GreatestHitsAlbum Greatest Hits Deluxe Redux]]'' with new recordings of old songs alongside ''Ghosts of Download'', an all-new release.
46	* EpicRocking:
47	** The full, extended version of "Call Me" is definitely epic, especially by punk standards -- it's over 8 minutes long!
48	** "Heart of Glass" ''almost'' counts -- the extended version (which replaced the original 3:50 version on almost all pressings of the album made since 1979, and almost all CD versions) runs for 5:50.
49	** "Rapture" runs for six and a half minutes, with the disco remix clocking in at an even ten minutes.
50	* FemmeFatale: To some extent Debbie Harry's stage persona, and some of their songs at least hint at dangerous femininity. From "Maria":
51	-->''"She moves like she don't care\
52	Smooth as silk, cool as air\
53	Ooh, it makes you wanna cry..."''
54	* FreeHandedPerformer: Debbie Harry remains the sole singer of the band and has stated that she doesn't know how to play any instrument.
55	* FrenchMaid: The video for Deborah Harry's solo single "French Kissing in the USA" depicts a number of French maids as extras.
56	* GenreRoulette: Blondie are well known for this, spanning several different genres across each album. A good example is ''Eat To The Beat's'' second half (Side 2 on the original vinyl/cassette release) which has each track in a distinct genre:
57	** "Die Young Stay Pretty" - Reggae
58	** "Slow Motion" - Motown
59	** "Atomic" - Disco
60	** "Sound A Sleep" - Easy Listening
61	** "Victor" - NoiseRock
62	** "Living In The Real World" - Punk
63	* GratuitousFrench:
64	** "Sunday Girl", which also has its own French version. The version on ''The Best of Blondie'' was a mix made from both and is well known.
65	** "Denis" also featured a verse in French, which explained the cover's name and gender change (from a girl named Denise to a French boy named Denis).
66	** "Francois, c'est pas" in the ''Rapture'' rap.
67	** From ''Call Me'': "Appelle-moi, mon chéri, appelle-moi", just after some GratuitousItalian: "Amore chiamami, chiamami". Both verses mean "Call me, my dear/love".
68	** Debbie's solo song "French Kissin' In The USA" also has Gratuitous French in the repeated line "Embrasser c'est Francais". Like "Sunday Girl", it also has its own French version, which was the B-Side to the single "In Love With Love".
69	* GratuitousSpanish: "''Mucho'' mistrust, love's gone behind" in "Heart of Glass".
70	* LimitedLyricsSong: The original album version of "Atomic" has one verse, then goes into an instrumental for most of its running time before returning to a vocal refrain near the end. The single edit is more conventionally structured, as it edits down the instrumental section and also throws in a repeat of the sole verse.
71	* LyricalDissonance:
72	** "One Way or Another" is a catchy, upbeat little ditty about ... a stalker ex-boyfriend that Debbie Harry had.
73	** "The Attack Of The Giant Ants" is an upbeat, catchy song about the obliteration of mankind.
74	* MaleBandFemaleSinger: One of the first examples in rock and [[FountainOfExpies and inspiration for other bands]].
75	* MsFanservice: Debbie Harry. Case in point, Harley Quinn's {{Stripperiffic}} outfit in the film ''Film/{{Suicide Squad\|2016}}'' looks similar to [[http://40.media.tumblr.com/51094bb32bb1e89810f9bd579856493a/tumblr_nspb140FAO1uww4h9o1_500.png one memorable outfit of Harry's.]]
76	* MundaneMadeAwesome: Deborah Harry makes up for "Atomic"'s {{Limited Lyrics\|Song}} by wringing unsuspected awesomeness from the simple line "Oh, your hair is beautiful".
77	* ObsessionSong: Several, including "One Way or Another", "Accidents Never Happen" and "Hangin' On the Telephone".
78	* OneManSong: "Denis".
79	* OneWomanSong: "Maria".
80	* PerformanceVideo
81	* PlayboyBunny: Debbie Harry worked at New York's Playboy Club back in the '70s.
82	* PrecisionFStrike: The final verse of "Heart of Glass"
83	--> ''"Once I had love and it was a gas\
84	Soon turned out to be a pain in the ass."''
85	* PunBasedTitle: "'''Rap'''ture". It's got rapping in it, geddit?
86	* QuestioningTitle: "Will Anything Happen?"
87	* RapRock: TropeMaker with "Rapture", along with Music/TheClash's "The Magnificent Seven" and the crossover between Music/RunDMC and Music/{{Aerosmith}} "Walk This Way".
88	* RearrangeTheSong:
89	** The band's early song "Once I Had A Love" was rearranged several times until it became "Heart of Glass" several years later. When first written the song was blues inspired, it went on to become more upbeat and poppier, and finally the band decided on the electro-disco arrangement that made "Heart of Glass" famous. Several demos of it are available and show the song in its various stages of development.
90	** A similar case for "Just Go Away" which was once a 1975 song called "Lullaby" with different lyrics. Although not recorded or played live "Fade Away And Radiate" was one of the first songs the band wrote. The band were somewhat short of material for ''Parallel Lines'', and hadn't been considering these songs for an album, but producer Mike Chapman liked them.
91	* SelfBackingVocalist: Debbie Harry did almost all of the vocals on "Atomic."
92	* ShoutOut:
93	** "Dreaming" makes one to Music/BobDylan's song "Watching the River Flow."
94	** Debbie's rap in "Rapture" references old-school hip-hop artists Fab 5 Freddy and Grandmaster Flash.
95	* SmallNameBigEgo: The titular "her" in "Rip Her To Shreds".
96	* StalkerWithACrush: "One Way Or Another" was inspired by one of Harry's ex-boyfriends who stalked her.
97	* SugarAndIcePersonality: "Sunday Girl".
98	-->''"I know a girl from a lonely street\
99	Cold as ice cream but still as sweet."''
100	* TeenageDeathSongs: "Suzy and Jeffrey", about a teenage couple who die in a car crash.
101	* TelephoneSong: "Call Me" is about the day to day business of a call girl.
102	* UncommonTime:
103	** Yes, Blondie of all bands have an example of this trope, and in one of their best known songs to boot. In the instrumental parts of "Heart of Glass" the band will frequently skip a beat three times in an eight-measure pattern, meaning that there is a popular {{disco}} song containing examples of UncommonTime. (The exact pattern, in case you're wondering, is 4+3+4+3+4+3+4+4/4, meaning that there are twenty-nine beats in the cycle instead of the popular 32).
104	** They also skip a beat in "I'm on E", appropriately on the line 'skip a beat', and in "Detroit 442", which catches off people trying to play along to Clem Burke's drumming.
105	* VerbalTic: They tend to insert French (or French-sounding nonsense) lyrics into most of their tracks. They even did this with their [[TheCoverChangesTheGender gender-flipped cover]] of "Denise".
106	* VisualPun: The cover of ''Parallel Lines'' is the band standing in front of a background of black-and-white, well, parallel lines.
107	* VocalEvolution: Debbie's voice becomes noticeably deeper and huskier during the '90s.
108	* WanderlustSong: "Screaming Skin".
109	-->''"Following my lust for wander everywhere I've ever been,\
110	I can't escape the sound of it -- the sound of my screaming skin"''
111	* AWildRapperAppears: Subverted in "Rapture", although considered an UrExample. Instead of someone else rapping in her song, Debbie Harry does it herself. Even when they had Coolio appear on "No Exit", they dodged having a true example of this trope - both Debbie Harry ''and'' Coolio were rapping in the verses.

Context Music / BlondieBand