Rock 'n' roll shark-jumping

I think a better example would be the video for "Estranged," which actually featured an excess of aquatic wildlife.

Q. What is jumping the shark?

A. It's a moment. A defining moment when you know that your favorite television program has reached its peak. That instant that you know from now on...it's all downhill. Some call it the climax. We call it "Jumping the Shark."  From that moment on, the program will simply never be the same.

The term "jump the shark" was coined by my college roommate for 4 years, Sean J. Connolly, in Ann Arbor, Michigan back in 1985. This web site, book, film, and all other material surrounding shark jumping, are hereby dedicated to "the Colonel."

The aforementioned expression refers to the telltale sign of the demise of Happy Days, our favorite example, when Fonzie actually "jumped the shark." The rest is history.

Jumping the shark applies not only to TV, but also music, film, even everyday life. "Did you see her boyfriend? She definitely jumped the shark." You get the idea.

Elton John jumped the shark already around 1978-79.

- Genesis releases their first albums with some of the songs written by Phil Collins alone

- The Beatles adopts a "back to the roots" approach on The White Album, somewhat ignoring the musical revolution that they, themselves, helped kickstart.

- Damon Albarn distances himself from Britpop, stop playing "Country House" live, and starts talking about their forthcoming "darker" album.

this is the most worthy definition I've heard yet.

That said Billy Squier did a pliet over the shark with the "Rock Me Tonite" video.

Pearl Jam releasing every single live concert is one of the coolest things any band has ever done. They could be the shittiest band in the world (and some probably think they are the shittiest band in the world), but that was still one of the coolest things any band has ever done.

And I absolutely hate Pearl Jam

i'm sure the fact that they'd lose out on royalties from bootlegs had NOTHING AT ALL to do w/ pearl jam's decision to dump all of those live albums.

-- manthony m1cc1o

Yes, it really does get to the heart of the matter.

If this definition is the best, then that seems to make it clear that Kraftwerk jumped the shark when they went digital for the single 'Tour De France', and started using the samples everyone else was using (slap bass, strings, kick and snare): that lost them a fair bit of their mystique.

in yer estimation, colin, when did gary numan REALLY jump the shark? before or after berserker?

And what about John Foxx? For me, it was The Golden Section. Terminal loss of mystique there with those romantic happy lyrics and tunes.

REM -- green used to be the one where i'd pin the blame, though now i really think it was document, precisely b/c "finest work song" sounds like U2.

U2 -- they jumped for rattle and hum, came back w/ achtung, baby and zooropa, then disappeared COMPLETELY up their asses.

david bowie -- i'm really tempted to say heroes, only b/c i think that station to station and low were his peaks and it was just downhill thereafter. which isn't to say that what immediately came after low was bad (not till tonight, anyway).

Re John Foxx - many would say Metamatic is the peak. Some would say The Garden was the shark jump, but, again, I liked that one too. So romantic, but still very weird. My version had a book of poetry and photos in there! My sister read it and said, 'this is drivel'. You could see even then he was considering taking up a career in photography.

oh, i like everything in b/w low and tonight. i'm being lawyerly and interpreting "jump the shark" as "reached the peak." and i think that bowie peaked at low. the rest of the berlin troika, as well as scary monsters and let's dance are fine -- just not quite as unbelieveably good as low.

Damn someone explain what jumping the shark means once more.

for example, i fear the "just lose it" nomination upthread will prove to be a quintessential example, obviously Encore could be great, but it looks like this new single could be a definite sign that we're gonna get nothing but irredeemable crap from Eminem from now on.

it's NOT a tv show's (or a musician's, or anybody else's) peak.

it IS the telltale sign of the tv show's demise.

that's what we're looking for here, kids -- the moment when it becomes clear a musician has reached a point of suckiness from which there is no return.

Janet Jackson unleashes her left puppy in front of the nation.

What is this about?

Michael Jackson's new face for Bad has to count for something in this regard.

Plus, the whole "reunion" thing managed to succeed at doing something that nothing else has made me do -- I now hate every single person who was a fan of Duran Duran's back in the '80s. Yes, I hate every single one of them. Okay, wait -- there are a few exceptions I'm thinking about, but those exceptions were there at the concerts in 1999 and 2000 and were actually happy when the band played their newer material. Aside from that -- I. Hate. You.

Poor Harry Nilsson jumped the shark already in 1968 then :-)

John meets Yoko

Yoko meets John, uh? ;)