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Sparks: Difference between revisions
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[[File:intro_1712.jpg|frame|This trope ain't big enough for the both of us...]]
[[Sparks]] are an American band who formed in 1970 in Los Angeles and are notably still active today. The band officially consists of only brothers Ron (keyboards, songwriting, questionable mustache) and Russell Mael (vocals), but over the years they have accumulated a large amount of ex-members and session musicians. The duo's style is characterized by their whimsically over-the-top songwriting, their funny, witty lyrics, and a quirky stage presence which plays with the contrast between Russell's hyperactive [[Face of the Band]] attitude and Ron's [[The Quiet One|deliberately stiff and taciturn]] stage persona.▼
▲Sparks are an American band who formed in 1970 in Los Angeles and are notably still active today. The band officially consists of only brothers Ron (keyboards, songwriting, questionable mustache) and Russell Mael (vocals), but over the years they have accumulated a large amount of ex-members and session musicians. The duo's style is characterized by their whimsically over-the-top songwriting, their funny, witty lyrics, and a quirky stage presence which plays with the contrast between Russell's hyperactive [[Face of the Band]] attitude and Ron's [[The Quiet One|deliberately stiff and taciturn]] stage persona.
After releasing two albums that were largely ignored in their homeland, the duo decided to try their luck on the other side of the Atlantic and relocated to England. It was there that they reached their popular (and arguably most creative) peak in 1974 with third album ''Kimono My House'', a fusion of glam-rock and dance-pop sensibilities with wry and clever stories, which spawned a surprise number two hit single with their [[Signature Song]] "This Town Ain't Big Enough For the Both Of Us". They followed it up with ''Propaganda'' the same year and ''Indiscreet'' the next, which were essentially a continuation of the ''Kimono'' sound (to continued success), after which they returned to the United States and fell into obscurity starting with ''Big Beat''. During the next few decades they would go on to make over a dozen albums in which they would flirt with many different genres, including disco with ''No. 1 In Heaven'' and an uninspired [[New Wave]]/synthpop period in the '80s which is generally agreed upon as awful (''Angst In My Pants, Pulling Rabbits Out of a Hat, Interior Design'').
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Despite being criminally overlooked during much of their career, the duo are very highly regarded ([[Morrissey]], [[They Might Be Giants (band)|They Might Be Giants]], [[Nirvana]], [[Bjork]], [[Ween]], [[Sonic Youth]], [[The Ramones]], [[Duran Duran]], [[Depeche Mode]], [[Def Leppard]], [[New Order]], [[Faith No More]], [[The Pixies]] and [[Franz Ferdinand]] are some of their most notable admirers) and their music was crucial to the development of [[Punk Rock]], [[New Wave]] and [[Synth Pop]].
{{Discography
* ''Sparks / Halfnelson'' (1971)
* ''A Woofer in Tweeter's Clothing'' (1972)
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* ''Exotic Creatures Of The Deep'' (2008)
* ''The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman'' (2009)
{{creatortropes}}
* [[A Day in the Limelight]]: The narrator of "When Do I Get To Sing "My Way"" is desperately waiting for his.
* [[Ambiguous Gender]]: Russell in the early days. The operatic falsetto didn't help.
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