seemingly soldout to get to the next level. A lot of times, their earlier albums and music were better, but they followed the same formula to have some huge selling albums and blow up on the music scene/MTV. I am not sure if this is just my theory and is wrong or others think this way as well.

Take INXS for example. Earlier albums like The Swing and Listen like Thieves were great and then the blow up with Kick, an album full of pop music and a few rehashed songs. Everyone loved them after Kick, but pure fans didn't like that album and wanted more of their original stuff.

REM was kind of the same with Out of Time blowing up. However, that album, for me, was clearly its best, despite earlier great work.

U2 just kept making great music and elevated to megastardom and maintained it.