Fanon Discontinuity/Music

Sometimes, it's easy to ignore music from the favorite artist of a fandom that they perceive end up sucking. If this happens to an entire genre of music, it becomes a Dead Horse Genre.


 * From Pearl Jam's Vitalogy: Most people stop the album after "Immortality", ignoring "Hey Foxymophandlemama, That's Me".
 * A number of KISS fans prefer to pretend there was never a time when the band performed without the makeup. Another group would like to throw the disco album in there as well.
 * Which is ironic, because one of their most popular songs (I Was Made for Lovin' You) comes off of said disco album (Dynasty).
 * Many fans would like to forget Music From The Elder was ever made.
 * Aphex Twin, considered one of the greatest Electronica musicians alongside Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, Autechre, Leftfield and Brian Eno, is a particularly complex case. There are those who consider his first two ambient albums to be his greatest, whilst others only consider the first one any good; some detest the manic drill n bass/drum n bass noise of ...I Care Because You Do, Girl/Boy EP and the Richard D. James albums. The recent Analord series, consisting of Acid Techno tracks done completely on analogue equipment without computers has an avid fanbase and yet many detractors, some calling it a masterpiece whilst others saying that his experimentation Drukqs is the true magnum opus. All the while the other side says Drukqs is a bunch of Richard's B sides thrown together as a double album. Funnily enough, his most commercial releases, Come To Daddy and Windowlicker have everyone agreeing that they're great.
 * Except Richard D. James himself, he's expressed his contempt for Come To Daddy, referring to it as a 'death metal jingle'.
 * Autechre seems to have forgotten that its first release was a generic oldskool hardcore single from 1991, Cavity Job, and not its first foray into IDM, "The Egg" (released on the seminal 1992 Warp compilation Artificial Intelligence).
 * Similarly many fans of Warp Records would rather forget that it ever released straightforward Techno in its earliest years rather than IDM, or that it now focuses on more commercially-accessible indie rock.
 * Whenever a progressive rock group releases an album that is more "commercial" and less "progressive," there are always legions of progressive rock fans to deny its existence. Examples include ELP's Love Beach, anything by Genesis after Duke, Yes's entire Trevor Rabin era, and any Gentle Giant studio album released after Interview.
 * With Genesis, some fans go even further and deny everything after The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, the last album with Peter Gabriel. In contrast, some fans refuse to acknowledge Calling All Stations, the one album the band released after Phil Collins left the band. In a sense, the band itself kind of does this, as they didn't include any songs from that album on their recent reunion tour.
 * The members of ELP even admitted that they recorded Love Beach only because they owed their record label another album.
 * Many people think that Black Sabbath ended when Ozzy left in 1979, and didn't exist again as a band until they got back together with Ozzy in 1997. Literally.
 * Even more think there were no Black Sabbath albums between Sabotage and Heaven and Hell.
 * And there are some Sabbath fans who claim that there was no real Sabbath UNTIL Ozzy left. Unpleasable Fanbase to say the least
 * Many fans of The Clash would prefer to believe that the band ended after 1982's Combat Rock album. The band's next three troubled years, which included a drastic reshuffle of personnel and the widely-panned 1985 Cut The Crap album (most people agree that the song "This is England" is the album's only redeeming feature) were all just a bad dream.
 * Word of God is on those fans' side...sort of. Joe Strummer disowned the album, calling the lineup that recorded it "The Clash Mark II" (Mick Jones and Topper Headon had been fired prior to its recording). He was, however, just one God (albeit an important one), and the album does exist and says "The Clash" on the cover. But that's what denial is for.
 * It does help that the album recorded was far from what was to have been, with their manager adding a majority of overdubs, drum machine and synthesizers without Strummer's acknowledgement (Paul Simonon was featured on just one track too).
 * Bad Religion fans (and the band itself) tend to ignore Into the Unknown, which was a prog rock album from an '80s punk band, and their last two albums on Atlantic Records, No Substance and New America. They cite the latter two as an example of what can happen when your main songwriting partner quits the band, your band is stuck in major label politics, your wife divorces you, you record the album with one of your favorite artists from back in the day and find out he's a douche...
 * Most Iron Maiden fans prefer to develop selective amnesia during the eight-year period between Fear of the Dark and Brave New World. Two albums were (not) released during this time. Interestingly, the band themselves do not acknowledge this, instead occasionally integrating some of the more well-received songs from the Blaze albums into their latter-day setlists.
 * Some Iron Maiden fans tend to consider anything produced by the band without Bruce Dickinson fronting the band to be sub-par, although most do recognize Paul's work on the first two albums.
 * Another part of the fandom just pretend that everything after Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son just never existed.
 * Similarly, many fans of Judas Priest pretend the band did not exist in the time between Rob Halford leaving the band and their reunion with him. The band was on hiatus for about half of this time. It helps that the band is also steadfastly ignoring everything they released during that time.
 * Some also like to forget that Rocka Rolla exists, firstly due to its poor production, especially as the band didn't have full control over the track selection. However, the executive meddling was good in hindsight because it meant that Sad Wings Of Destiny, containing some songs written after the first album, is flawless.
 * Since it deprived the world of hearing what Judas Priest intended to be their Epic Rocking masterpiece at the time, "Caviar and Meths", what happened to the album is still a crime.
 * Many fans of Metallica insist that they released nothing after that bus crash. Others say that their recording career ended immediately before the Black Album, or immediately after it. The tiny fraction of fans left insist that they went on to make three more albums after this, but when faced with a copy of St. Anger, go into violent conniptions.
 * And another small group of Metallica fans pretends that there was an eleven-year period where they didn't record any new studio albums: specifically, the eleven years between ReLoad and Death Magnetic. All they did during that time was get a new bassist and put out a live CD and a cover album. Do not tell them otherwise.
 * It's actually faster to note the number of albums that AREN'T considered Canon Discontinuity by any number of fans, right down to the people who thought Ride the Lightning of all albums was selling out because of "Fade to Black".
 * Though to a lesser degree, a very few Less Than Jake fans like to pretend their last album was Borders & Boundaries. Other like to pretend that their whole discography exists, except for the non-existent album In With the Out Crowd.
 * Many prefer to believe that Abbey Road was the last album that The Beatles put out, rather than Let It Be. It helps that Abbey Road was the last album they recorded (Let It Be was recorded earlier, but its release was delayed until after Abbey Road) and is widely considered almost perfect, with several tracks clearly laid down by a band knowing they were at the end of the road and determined to go out on a high. Let It Be is widely disliked -- several fine tracks aside (this is still The Beatles we're talking about -- even their rubbish albums have great songs like "Across the Universe") -- for being a slapdash effort created when tensions between the band members had all but reached the breaking point, sabotaged (depending on your viewpoint, certainly if you're Paul McCartney) by a combination of over-production and spite, and released to get it out of the way and to have an album to go with the Let It Be film.
 * The existence of "new" Beatles albums after Let It Be (and the legal break-up) is even less certain. The Red Album, the Blue Album, Past Masters and 1 exist, but most other compilations are not consistently acknowledged. Most experienced Beatles fans do think that the 1999 Yellow Submarine Songtrack album exists, but it forced the original 1968 Yellow Submarine soundtrack album out of existence (and out of print) in the process (at least before the '68 album was re-released with the remasters).
 * Like Let It Be, the Yellow Submarine issue is helped by the fact that the original was not considered one of the band's better efforts to begin with and the reworking removes some of the cruft and filler (mainly the George Martin soundtrack instrumentals which, while not bad themselves, aren't of a great deal of interest to most Beatles fans), and in a similar fashion to the US Magical Mystery Tour example, replaces them with better-regarded songs which also appear on the soundtrack (such as "Eleanor Rigby", "Nowhere Man" and "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds").
 * Almost all modern Beatles fans believe that the original Capitol LPs don't exist because, if they do exist, then Capitol remixed the songs, adding echo and fake stereo, and messed so much with running order that, between 1963 and 1966, there would be more Capitol LPs than original EMI LPs if they existed. This includes fans who have never known the albums even when Canon Discontinuity isn't figured in. There are definitely sleeves to Yesterday... and Today floating around, some with the Butcher Cover, but Yesterday... and Today as an LP is generally denied the dignity of existing because even the band hated the idea of it. The album of Magical Mystery Tour exists because it is better to accept the Capitol LP version than the British EP -- but then, it's not normally treated as a Capitol Beatles album.
 * Speaking of Let It Be, the existence (or not) of the digitally remastered re-release Let It Be... Naked can provoke fist-fights under the right circumstances. For its detractors, it's not the original album and never will be, and it butchers the original songs for the sake of Paul McCartney's ego. (McCartney was the driving force behind the re-release; he never liked the original, especially not the way his songs were produced on it). For its supporters, it removes the inconsequential fluff, spiteful sabotaging, and syrupy over-producing, and it restores the songs to the way they should have been, making the entire album a stronger and superior work in the process.
 * It's not just The Beatles as a group, either; the solo members get this as well:
 * There are a good many fans of The Beatles who outright deny that John Lennon had a subsequent solo career. Perhaps one or two of his albums are acknowledged, but even then they are marred by the fact that he did not include his best singles on them ("Instant Karma!", "Merry X-Mas War is Over", and "Give Peace a Chance" most egregiously). Even his fans are likely to deny albums like Some Time in New York City, Mind Games, and Walls and Bridges. It could probably go without saying that almost everyone has tried to repress the memory of a certain woman standing next to him, shrieking. To many people the phrase Yoko Ono is "nothing but gibberish I can't hear you Lalalalala"
 * There is some uncertainty about how many albums Paul McCartney has recorded since 1976. There are many people who don't think he recorded anything between Tug Of War and Flaming Pie. Some seem to think his recording career ended when Wings did, or didn't exist between then and his latest album. (Interestingly, people taking that position often keep it even when the "latest album" changes.)
 * Less dedicated fans of Queen would probably pretend Hot Space didn't exist, if it weren't for the fact that it contains "Under Pressure," one of the band's biggest hits.
 * It's worth mentioning that David Bowie was meant to guest star on all the songs, not just that one, but he, well, hated them. And this was right before his Canon Discontinuity.
 * Queen themselves ignored the other songs on Hot Space. In their last two major tours with Freddie Mercury, only "Under Pressure" was performed live.
 * Also, Queen and Paul Rodgers never met.
 * Depending on the individual fan, Pink Floyd didn't produce anything a) after Syd Barrett left (whether or not A Saucerful of Secrets counts or not varies), b) before and/or after either The Dark Side of the Moon or The Wall (arguably their most famous works; a few only consider the four albums of that period), or c) after Roger Waters left.
 * Some of the remaining fans (which to be fair are more than you'd expect with the sort of discontinuity the band gets) have gotten confused by the hate, as Floyd tried to turn the clock back to their most productive (and popular) period. (Meddle to Wish You Were Here). On the other hand they'd also be the first to admit that the lyrics had taken a bit of a knock since then.
 * The band members themselves are making a conscious effort to erase Atom Heart Mother from their memories.
 * General consensus in the Hardcore Punk scene is that the Misfits do not exist without Glen Danzig.
 * Many Levellers fans think they released nothing after the "One Way Of Life" compilation until either Green Blade Rising, Letters From The Underground or ever, depending on who you talk to.
 * Many hardcore fans do embrace it as a great exploratory departure album, and the band is quite fond of it, but to the casual fanbase and general listening public, Def Leppard never released an album called Slang. (On the tour to promote the album, the band even found themselves dropping the new songs from the set list and digging back into the 80's library to replace them, thanks to audience rejection of "the new Def Leppard.") The next studio album, Euphoria, saw a return to the slickly produced arena rock sound that made them so big in the first place.
 * More than a few fans of The Corrs dismiss everything post-Talk On Corners -- which means starting without the virtual remix album, Talk On Corners: Special Edition.
 * Daft Punk have released from one to four albums depending on who you talk to. To elaborate: their first album was the French house-style Homework. Their second album, however, was the electropop Discovery, causing some of their house fans to disown them. The pro forma third album, Human After All, is the one most often discarded for sounding rushed, repetitive and incomplete. Whether or not the live album Alive 2007 counts depends on how you view the first three (though review website Pitchfork admitted that Alive 2007 did help to validate the existence of Human After All).
 * This does not count the first live album, Alive 1997, which consists of songs from Homework.
 * Some say there are no Aerosmith albums after 1977.
 * According to others, they went back into business due to Run DMC's involvement. But most certainly the band never participated in the soundtrack for Armageddon...
 * Many fans also like to believe that Aerosmith took a five year break from 1979-1984 and certainly didn't break up and make crappy albums. Also, considering modern evidence (Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, anyone?), the band probably agrees.
 * Not "Probably." Drummer Joey Kramer said about the Rock in a Hard Place "the record doesn't suck. There's some real good stuff on it. But it's not a real Aerosmith record because it's just me, Steven, and Tom - with a fill-in guitar player." That's right, it's not even an Aerosmith album anymore.
 * There's some argument about when Barenaked Ladies broke up. Some say it was after Stunt, some say after Maroon, but almost nobody believes they stayed together after Everything To Everyone -- the release of multiple albums after that notwithstanding.
 * For most of her Latin American fans, ¿Dónde Están Los Ladrones? was Shakira's last work.
 * Even some of her English-speaking fans prefer to think of her solely as an incredible Colombian artist, denying the existence of Laundry Service (citing the narmy lyrics resulting from bizarre forced-rhyme), and question the peroxide job in her foray into the English language market.
 * Some dedicated fans say Nightwish dropped off the face of the earth when Tarja Turunen was kicked out. Even more people deny she released a solo album. Even more deny she covered Alice Cooper's "Poison".
 * Others still insist Nightwish began when Anette Olzon started singing with them.
 * When I was but a little troper, my mother would sing me a version of Puff The Magic Dragon that contained a final verse she herself made up, wherein little Jackie Paper's son goes on and becomes Puff's new friend after his dad grows up (with the implication that Puff will always be a friend of the Paper family). Despite all the Downer Ending evidence to the contrary, I will argue to the grave that this is how the song actually ends.
 * Our mothers are in on it: Peter Yarrow (the first of Peter, Paul, and Mary) recently made a book out of Puff the Magic Dragon, where the last page features Jackie Paper, a grown man, watching from behind a tree as his daughter runs to meet Puff. Coincidentally, that was exactly how my mother described it, too!
 * Either your mother and my mother are in cahoots, or someone actually recorded a version of the song that ends that way. There's a children's book based off it that ends with Jackie Paper's kid visiting Puff, too. Apparently that Downer Ending isn't too popular.
 * There is an official version of the song with an extra verse in which Jackie's daughter befriends Puff. If anything, it makes it more of a Tear Jerker.
 * The version I had on cassette didn't have the final verse and ended on a repeating chorus after "/he ceased his fearless roar." After hearing some of the other versions though, I still think the version I recall from childhood to be the best, possibly because it seems so sad. All a matter of perspective I suppose.
 * Some believe there are no Nine Inch Nails albums after the live CD And All That Could Have Been.
 * Other NIN fans prefer to think they released between one and four albums (and maybe a DVD) in the last three years, depending on whom you ask. There never was a video for "Deep", though..
 * Although it was acclaimed critically and has been embraced by a few fans, country singer-songwriter Alan Jackson's 2006 album Like Red On A Rose, an exploratory easy-listening album that consists almost entirely of slow, bluesy love songs (as well as the only album in his catalog not produced by Keith Stegall), might as well not exist to many fans. Indeed, with his 2008 album Good Time, Alan does appear to be moving back to a more radio-friendly mainstream country sound.
 * Fatboy Slim may have released one, two, three or four albums, depending on whom you ask.
 * In a case of Canon Discontinuity by the artist himself, Noel Gallagher tries to forget Oasis' third album, Be Here Now, which he describes as "a bunch of guys, on coke, in the studio, not giving a fuck." Even if reviewers consider that, beyond the overblown production, there are standout tracks.
 * Liam, on the other hand, likes it. The fans are split down the middle not only with regard to BHN but with every one of their albums except the first two. When a survey was done asking 100 fans which twenty songs should appear on the "best of" compilation album, there were no songs (even obvious choices) that featured on everyone's list. No songs from Be Here Now appeared on Stop the Clocks (the aforementioned "best of" collection) anyway. Not even "Don't Go Away", the one song on the album that was universally praised by critics. (Noel considered including "'D'You Know What I Mean", but felt its length ruined the pacing)
 * And now that the band is over, Beady Eye tries to forget its existence, not playing any Oasis material in concerts (unlike Noel).
 * "The End Is the Beginning Is the End" is the end for a lot of The Smashing Pumpkins fans. And, really, the band itself.
 * At the height of the band's popularity this was true. Now of days, most fans either disown anything after 2000, just Zeitgeist, or after Jimmy left the band. A lot of the fans are actually liking the new material from Oceania, so who knows.
 * Ask any blues fan, and they'll swear up and down that Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters never bothered to stoop so low as to record psychedelic rock albums during the late '60s.
 * Depending on who you ask, Rush disbanded no later than Signals, and have been on a reunion tour since 2002.
 * Some Rush fans are actually looking forward to these rumoured albums Vapor Trails and Snakes & Arrows. The demos sound promising, but they REALLY need to be mixed better before being released to the public..
 * Many Rush fans don't much care for their debut, save for Working Man, and many more pretend that their synthesizer era (arguably Signals through Hold Your Fire) didn't exist. Of course, when a band has eighteen studio albums and a nineteenth on the way, you have to expect some won't be remembered as well as others.
 * Their third album, Caress of Steel, was a pretty substantial failure when it was released, but most fans seem to like it these days.
 * Several classical music fans insist that only the part of Mozart's Requiem written by the composer himself before his Author Existence Failure exists, and that it was never finished by his pupil. There are even musicologists that went as far as to attempt to finish the work themselves, according to The Other Wiki.
 * Depending on which of most old AFI fans you are asking, they never released anything after their first three major albums, they disbanded right before joining any major label, or simply haven't released anything ever since Sing the Sorrow but may be working on something right now.
 * Also, some may remind you that Davey and Jade never considered using synthetizers in their songs, let alone make a side-project containing almost no guitar track.
 * To the Chinese Cultural Department, Guns N' Roses never released Chinese Democracy.
 * Many fans not situated in China would like to take a similar stance, holding that nothing was released following the Use Your Illusion albums. (And nothing was released after 1994 until 2008, except for the one-off song "Oh My God", yet another unpopular song.)
 * Basically when Slash left the group, the band ceased to be.
 * Radiohead's first album Pablo Honey is ignored not only by most fans, but also by the band. It's been aeons since the last time they played a song from it.
 * And the one song ("Creep") they used to play all the time dropped off the setlist for about five years because fans used to come for the song and then leave. Apparently, they've softened up and play it once every couple dozen gigs now.
 * Another disowned debut: The Prodigy's Experience. Since their second album came out and Oldskool Rave went out of fashion, Prodigy fans would deny there was ever a time when Howlett's music was bright, humorous and cartoony.
 * Similarly some fans would rather forget about their 2004 album Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned; and The Prodigy themselves have disowned the 2002 non-album single "Baby's Got a Temper".
 * Gogol Bordello seem to have disowned their first two albums, Voi-La Intruder and Multi Kontra Culti Vs. Irony because they hadn't really "found their sound" until Gypsy Punks (album number three). Which is too bad, 'cause those first two albums are still pretty good.
 * In the late '90s, Garth Brooks recorded a CD in the role of Chris Gaines, the central character of his planned movie, The Lamb. Sales were disappointing (by Brooks' standards; it still went double platinum), the reception was lukewarm, the movie was eventually canceled, and the whole Gaines project forgotten by just about everybody. Never mind that it produced his only top 40 pop hit.
 * Garth's sales were starting to decline as early as 1995, with the generally panned Fresh Horses which failed to produce a hit on the magnitude of "The Dance" or "Friends in Low Places". Sevens was also lukewarm, but at least had a huge hit in "Two Piña Coladas".
 * Metal enthusiasts prefer to think that 1992's Countdown to Extinction was the last album recorded by Megadeth. Speed Metal enthusiasts try to ignore everything after 1990's Rust in Peace. Come 2004's The System has Failed, they didn't know what to think. (It was a return to form, and United Abominations and Endgame are in the same position.)
 * A significant portion of the Megadeth fandom that otherwise enjoy everything else tend to claim that Risk doesn't exist. However, considering the story behind that album...
 * There are some of us who believe that 'Cryptic Writings' was the last 'classic' Megadeth album, ignore Risk, and claim that everything afterward is a comeback album.
 * The first two Japan albums, which, depending on who you ask 'are awful should never have been released', 'have good moments' or are 'the most entertaining things the band did'. Their first album 'Adolescent Sex' is considered to be sobaditsgood on the basis that most of the lyrics are 'dancing' and 'babe', a stark contrast with their later work such as Ghosts. Their second 'Obscure Alternatives' is a transitional album and doesn't flow properly despite this. Deliberately structured for the first side to represent 'rock songs' and the second to be 'experimental', it's considered to showcase the two sides of the band a bit too blatantly.
 * Most fans of The Cars disown the New Cars period with Todd Rundgren singing. Especially after the original lineup, minus late bassist Ben Orr, reunited, toured and recorded the reunion album Move Like This.
 * Kamelot fans subvert this. While most agree that Dominion and Eternity were bad, they generally acknowledge the time before Roy Khan.
 * Linkin Park fans seem to have this in spades, You have a small group of early fans who thought Meteora wasn't heavy enough. Even more fans that felt Minutes to Minute was them selling out and newer fans thinking the older stuff was too heavy. A Thousand Sun's broke the base even more, as they band remained softer but went in the opposite direction of their sell out accusation of MTM and has ATS be a Doing It for the Art Album. With many even newer fans feeling there old music is too immature and unrefined.
 * Little is as entertaining as listening to two Faith No More fans argue about whether the band's first two albums, recorded with singer Chuck Mosley, should count.
 * There are other fans who argue that the final two albums without Jim Martin don't count.
 * Some fans of death metal band Cryptopsy do this with any album recorded without vocalist Lord Worm. Depending on the fan, they might even ignore Once Was Not, the one album recorded when Lord Worm reunited with the band, thus limiting the band's discography to the debut album (Blasphemy Made Flesh) and its follow up (None So Vile).
 * Most fans do acknowledge Once Was Not and the work done with Mike DiSalvo on vocals. But ask them who Matt McGachy is or whether The Unspoken King was any good, you'll just get confused stares. Or punched in the face.
 * According to a lot of My Chemical Romance fans, there is no such thing as The Black Parade.
 * According to a lot of other My Chemical Romance fans, their only two albums are Three Cheers and The Black Parade. That other one doesn't exist.
 * According to a lot of fans, The Black Parade was the band's first album.
 * According to some fans, My Chemical Romance took a long break after Three Cheers, and came back with Danger Days. Bob Bryar? Who is that?
 * Many fans of the band Cannibal Corpse will vehemently deny that George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher ever existed, much less replaced former vocalist Chris Barnes.
 * Every fan of The Tea Party will tell you that their final album, Seven Circles, doesn't exist. The average fan will say that everything after Triptych is a myth, and a slightly smaller sect will tell you that everything after Transmission doesn't exist. Then, you've got the small group who refuses to believe that Transmission ever existed, solely on the basis of its industrial influences, and that The Tea Party only put out two blues rock albums, and called it quits. Strangely, very few fans thinks any of their albums are bad, as a matter of fact, most will tell you that "they're still better than 99% of everything else," up to, and including the much hated Seven Circles.
 * Van Halen only had two frontmen, David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar. Some fans deny the existance of the latter, but no one (including the band, as shown in their compilation albums) wants to admit there was a third singer.
 * U2's fandom is divided on which albums not to acknowledge. All after Joshua Tree, all after Achtung Baby, and (most common) the two between AB and All that You Can't Leave Behind.
 * Regardless of their feelings on their later albums, almost everyone completely ignores Pop.
 * Most Pantera fans refuse to acknowledge that the band originally began as a hair metal group. This is a sentiment with the band itself; all members of the band discount all albums released prior to Cowboys From Hell. They did license a pre-Cowboys track for Donnie Darko, but apparently under the condition that it didn't have the Pantera name attached to it - it's listed in the credits as being performed by the (non-existent) band Dead Green Mummies.
 * On the other hand, there is a much smaller segment of fans who enjoy those early albums (which they will vehemently insist are not glam, dammit, have you even listened to Power Metal?), and maintain that the band broke up after either Power Metal or Cowboys From Hell (depending on who you ask).
 * Yes fans tend to disagree over which albums did or didn't happen. It doesn't help that the band suffers a Broken Base, with "Troopers" preferring their earlier works and "Generators" preferring their later works, but even they have internal conflicts; for example, Troopers will debate Tales from Topographic Oceans.
 * Although the majority of fans (and Rick Wakeman) agree there has been only one lead singer and his name is Jon Anderson, Trevor Horn never made any albums, and the current touring line up is just a tribute band.
 * A substantial number of Christian Death fans consider the band to have ended when Rozz Williams left; and that nothing since Valor Kand took over actually existed. (Although they do retain a bit of shadenfreude over the incident where he was pepper-sprayed on stage.)
 * A small subset of The Sisters of Mercy fans treat everything Andrew Eldritch did after Wayne Hussey left to form Mission UK this way. Others consider that period to be their best, or at least most accessible, work.
 * A significant number of people believe The Sisters of Mercy broke up after Vision Thing. Not in a "We're going to ignore them," way, but genuinely believe the group broke up. Nope. They continued on past Vision Thing (1990) until 1993 when they went on hiatus for 3 years. By 1996, however, they were back together and they've never broken up since.
 * Fans of the post-hardcore band Chiodos are convinced that the band will never be as successful without lead singer Craig Owens.
 * A decent part of their fan base has taken this even further and agrees that Chiodos have actually broken up, rather than parted ways with Owens.
 * Some of us found Owens voice obnoxious but respected the musicianship of the rest of the band and are actually excited.
 * This is known as the Chiodos principal. While its agreed This is better than This, It still pales in comparison to This
 * Subverted with Tori Amos' fanbase. Instead of refusing to acknowledge the albums that they hate, Toriphiles will bash them. (With the possible exception of Y Kant Tori Read, given that it's pretty much Canon Discontinuity.) Although it seems to be played straight with Strange Little Girls, her covers album, even with Tori herself. On her 2009 tour, she only performed material from this album twice.
 * On her very brief 2010 tour, one SLG song made the setlists twice. With only about a dozen shows and 11 albums, many b-sides, side projects, and other material to choose from, it's not that bad a representation. SLG songs were very plentiful in 2007, even songs that had not been done in years. 2003 and 2005 tours were not completely bereft of SLG songs either.
 * Ask a Bon Jovi fan about Alec John Such. See if they know.
 * Following the release of Spiritual Machines in 2001, Raine Maida of Our Lady Peace went into a coma and the rest of the band refused to go on without him. Since then, some other band calling itself OLP released a couple of albums, but fans of Clumsy and Happiness Is Not A Fish That You Can Catch are still waiting for Raine to wake up.
 * Slight correction: Guitarist Mike "emtee" Turner left and producer Arnold Lanni got fired (keyboardist Jamie Edwards also left, but he was always in the background). While the latter two could arguably be forgotten, fans are waiting for emtee to come back from producing and reform the band. This OLP thing is Raine Maida's solo project.
 * Of course, by the same token, there is now an equal-sized (if not larger) fanbase that thinks the band debuted in 2002 with Gravity. It's more than this troper can bear...
 * Albums by Devo have had lukewarm-to-cold critical response following the release of their first album, Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! (Rolling Stone, for example was fairly ambivalent about them at the time; even their own record company, Warner Bros, reportedly did not "understand" Devo). Fan response to their later albums has varied somewhat, though it's become more rare these days to find "real" fans who like anything less than their first five albums, and even the other three albums have warmed up to some (Devo fans are usually too rational-minded to "bash" any given album). However, depending on who you talk to, you may find those who claim one of the following:
 * Q & A was their only noteworthy album.
 * Q & A and Duty Now For The Future represent "real" Devo while the later, poppier synth albums do not.
 * A subset of this faction would also include their early, lo-fi demos as part of the essential Devo experience.
 * Q & A, Duty Now, and Freedom of Choice (which gave us "Whip It") were great; it all went "downhill" beginning with New Traditionalists.
 * New Traditionalists and Oh, No! It's Devo were pretty good as far as synthpop goes; Shout (and the subsequent departure of Alan Myers as drummer) was their decline.
 * Total Devo was a "post-disco" abomination and Smooth Noodle Maps was only slightly better (or sometimes the other way around); the rest was alright.
 * Then there are those who accept their entire output for what it is (often with the exception of some of their film-related material and a few songs off their later albums). You'll even find a few who hold Total Devo or Smooth Noodle Maps among their favorites. Further differing opinions are held on Mark Mothersbaugh's soundtrack work, side-projects such as The Wipeouters, Jihad Jerry, and Dev2.0, and any live albums they have released (not to mention demos and other bootleg sources).
 * Or there are even some who like everything up to and including Dr Detroit, hate Shout, ignore to Total Devo and only like "Post-Post Modern Man" from Smooth Noodle Maps. The new album Something For Everybody has seemingly made most people happy again.
 * Captain Beefheart's two mid-70s albums 'Unconditionally Guaranteed' and 'Bluejeans And Moonbeams' feature the avant-garde singer attempting syrupy love songs and standard blues-rock songs. Whilst they aren't really that bad, many fans completely omit them from the canon because they were so atypical of his usual style, as well as the fact that the first of the two albums caused the breakup of the 'classic' lineup of the band, and the second was recorded with session musicians. He disowned the albums later on, even saying people should take them back to the store and get their money refunded. Despite this, the albums were remastered a few years ago.
 * Many Rainbow fans mourn the day that Dio left the band, because they disbanded after that.
 * Many Marilyn Manson fans refuse to acknowledge the group got back together, and happily ignore any albums released after their 2003-2006 hiatus (Eat Me Drink Me & The High End of Low. Other Manson fans, for that matter, refuse to acknowledge any album after Mechanical Animals (the previous two mentioned, plus Holy Wood and Golden Age of Grotesque).
 * Weezer's first two albums, "Weezer" (the blue one) and "Pinkerton", are for the most part revered as classics. To quote one Pitchfork reviewer, these two albums are "75 minutes of near-perfect power-pop." Quite a few people would like to forget that their next six albums exist.
 * Although many just pick a few singles from those albums, and forget that they were from albums.
 * A subset of Weezer fans have no problem whatsoever with Weezer (the green one) and Maladroit, despite both being extremely short and not as good as the first two records. The four albums after that though...
 * A minority of Starflyer 59 fans insist that the 2004 album I am the Portuguese Blues isn't a proper Starflyer album, for a few reasons: it's not up to the same standards as most Sf59 releases, it was a jarring departure from Sf59's sound at the time, and eight of the ten tracks were originally written for a side project that never saw the light of day.
 * Depending on one's musical tastes, either Smash Mouth's first album, Fush Yu Mang, consists of "Walkin' On The Sun" and nothing else, or else their two follow-up albums don't exist. Their fourth album is pretty much disowned by everyone.
 * About the only two Dream Theater albums that all fans agree exist are Images and Words and Metropolis Part 2: Scenes From a Memory. Images and Words is considered their defining album and Scenes From a Memory is considered their masterpiece, but their other albums all draw large numbers of people trying to ignore them. Train of Thought, Octavarium, and Systematic Chaos are considered too heavy, When Dream and Day Unite sounds too much like it came out of the '80s (it was released in 1989) and they have a different singer (ironically, the current singer is considered the weakest member of the band and is often The Scrappy or the My Friends and Zoidberg), Awake is considered unable to live up to its predecessor, Images and Words, Falling into Infinity is too mainstream sounding, Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence is generally well received, though it has just one song that stands out ("The Glass Prison") and the title track, for a 42 minute long song, isn't as epic as expected, leaving some fans a little disappointed. Their most recent album, Black Clouds and Silver Linings has been well received, but the sheer amount of Narm in "The Count of Tuscany" and "A Nightmare to Remember" (along with Portnoy's rendition of a death metal growl that needs a little work) leads some fans to disown that album as well. Not all fans dismiss all albums but the two mentioned above, which makes it even more difficult to know what songs to avoid mentioning out of fear of flame wars. And to make it even more complicated, not all songs on all their albums have similar sounds, so it's even possible for certain songs to be disowned while the album in general is liked. Things can get a little messy there.
 * Many old-school metalheads will tell you that their only albums were When Dream and Day Unite, Images and Words, and Awake. Sometimes Scenes from a Memory is included, but they'll still tell you they've never heard of anyone named Jordan Rudess.
 * Irish band Altar of Plagues stated in an interview that they disregard the first EP they recorded, the "First Plague" EP. Indeed, if one goes to their My Space page, only their debut album and the other three E Ps they recorded are listed.
 * There are Red Hot Chili Peppers fans who only acknowledge the EMI phase (pre-Blood Sugar Sex Magik) - and still, most (including the band) think the debut album is subpar. Some equally favor the WB period (and sometimes Mother's Milk) but this is often because of the popularity of John Frusciante. Others deny that Dave Navarro was once in the band, and Stadium Arcadium is a really divisive album.
 * Opeth is somewhat of a case here. Most people agree that the band we listen to nowadays started to exist with their third, more prog-death album My Arms Your Hearse.
 * But then you ask their most old-school, hardcore fans and their answer will most likely be the band hasn't released anything after Still Life. Both sides don't seem to come to terms with this.
 * A lot of people will claim Watershed was their last album and Heritage definitely does not exist, at all.
 * The popular-within-their-own-country band The Tragically Hip has a long discography (12 studio albums and counting...) that chronicles the evolution of and changes to their sound over the years. Many fans have gotten on and off the bandwagon along the way. For instance, there are some who prefer the grittier sounds of their first three albums, though most fans would have to include their hit-filled fourth albumFully Completely among the canon (sometimes even to the extent of discounting everything else). After that it gets a little blurry. The next two or three albums get softer but still pack in the hits. Some fans draw the line of continuity after Phantom Power (1998) or In Between Evolution (2004). With most of band starting to release solo work/side projects around those points, it starts becoming personal preference as to what is and is not canon.
 * Which of Led Zeppelin's works can safely be considered canon? Some fans don't even give them all of LZ I-IV. The safest ground for a fanon would be those four albums and the two that followed them, effectively (fittingly?) ending with "Achilles Last Stand" from 1976's Presence. The albums, reunion shows, and Coda'|'s released afterwards, however....
 * Talking Heads, 70s and 80s New Wave group, went through a couple of potentially alienating style changes . Some diehard fans prefer their initial CBGB era sound and refuse to acknowledge the band making it big (selling out?) and chumming around with experimental music producer Brian Eno. By far the larger and more generous fandom appreciated the band and its line-up expansion, as this is the era of their greatest successes like Remain in Light and the Stop Making Sense movie. But the albums that followed are more controversial, and the last two are mostly forgettable save for a few songs. It's worth noting that band tension and solo-career embarking had begun even as they reached the pinnacle of their success together at the beginning of the eighties.
 * According to several fans, Muse's fifth album The Resistance was just a great big self-parody album and that the boys will stop taking the piss and go back to making proper music soon enough. Particularly noteworthy when Muse, until that album, had changed their style between every album without alienating many of their older fans. In fact, The Resistance is an odd one out as it could be regarded as the most predictable, suggesting that a fair few fans dislike it for reasons contrary to what usually fuels dis-continuity. Still, at least a huge quantity of the fanbase is united in their agreement that Muse have never ever had anything to do with the Twighlight films, and that they certainly never created the song "Neutron Star Collision", despite some silly rumours to the contrary.
 * Muse themselves disowned any of the music they wrote before work started on Showbiz and have expressed embarrassment when recalling the gigs they played during their very early teenage years when they just wanted to be Nirvana. The fanbase being what it is, you can find loads of scraps of ancient demos and live videos floating around youtube thanks to a few scavengers with internet connections. They also wish they'd never made the first video for their single Uno, although the second, less embarrassing video seems to be more dis-continuity since the frontman never seems seem to remember it was ever made.
 * Many Green Day fans would like to pretend 21st Century Breakdown doesn't exist. The previous album American Idiot splits the base, and others will tell you that Green Day ceased to exist after Dookie.
 * If you ask a Celtic Frost fan about Cold Lake, they will either punch you in the face and tell you to shut up, or give you a strange look and agree that, yes, most lakes are indeed cold.
 * Remember when Gamma Ray put out an album called Sigh No More? No? Me neither. Some fans extend this to Ralf Scheepers' whole tenure and pretend they debuted with Land of the Free.
 * Ask a metalhead their opinion on Suicide Silence. If you immediately aren't given a look of disgust and spat upon,ask about The Black Crown. You wont be able to wash the bile off you for weeks.
 * The Doors never released two albums without Jim Morrison titled Other Voices and Full Circle. Even the band themselves won't own up to this.
 * Most Elvis Costello fans would prefer to pretend Goodbye, Cruel World doesn't exist. Even the man himself called it his worst album in the liner notes for the CD re-release.
 * Similarly, never mention Under Wraps to a Jethro Tull fan.
 * Fans of REM are divided as to when the band split up. Some claim it was after they switched labels from IRS to Warner Brothers, and thus they didn't produce any albums past Document. Others claim that when drummer Bill Berry left, the rest of the band went as well so New Adventures in Hi-Fi was the last R.E.M. album produced. Many in the latter camp though agree that they recorded two reunion albums without Berry (Accelerate and Collapse into Now) before disbanding for real.
 * The vast majority of Morbid Angel fans are still waiting for the veteran Death Metal band to release their "I" album. Others maintain that they broke up after the initial departure of David Vincent, or possibly even after Covenant.
 * The Bee Gees' "First" LP was actually their fourth - they released two prior albums as a local Australian act, "The Bee Gees Sing and Play 14 Barry Gibb Songs" and "Spicks & Specks." (They also recorded a wealth of material for a third LP, of which an acetate was pressed, but the disc was never released - at least, until all but two of its tracks appeared on an unauthorized German compilation, "Inception/Nostalgia.")
 * Likewise, the group universally ignores their 1981 album "Living Eyes." Due to legal issues surrounding the band at the time, as well as the huge backlash brought on by the end of disco, the album slipped quietly in and out of the marketplace without any attention whatsoever. Ironically, it was the first rock album to appear on CD - but its initial pressing would be its only CD edition.
 * Kraftwerk is insistent that their catalog begins with "Autobahn" - completely ignoring "Tone Float" (released under the band name Organisation, but later amended to Kraftwerk for an unauthorized CD release), "Kraftwerk", "Kraftwerk 2", and "Ralf und Florian." None of these albums have seen an official CD release, despite "Kraftwerk" containing the well-known track 'Ruckzuck.'
 * Brooks and Dunn pretty much disowned their 1999 album Tight Rope, their last album with original producer Don Cook. Most critics thought the album was phoned in and tired sounding; it was also their lowest-selling and did not produce any big hits. Launching it with a tepid cover of John Waite's "Missing You" (an obvious attempt to try and re-make their wildly successful cover of B.W. Stevenson's "My Maria" in 1996) didn't help. Most fans skip straight from If You See Her to Steers & Stripes.
 * After "Slow Motion Daydream", Everclear released a Greatest Hits album and then evaporated into the ether.
 * Lots of Fairport Convention fans ignore everything without Sandy Denny or Richard Thompson.
 * For many fans of The Offspring, the band never began working with Bob Rock, and never released Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace.