Why Flight of the Conchords and not JoCo?

edited July 2009 in JoCo Fame
This "Top 10 Flight of the Conchords Songs" page made me wonder -- what did those guys have to get where they are that JoCo doesn't? Their songs are clever, but not overly so. And spoken lines make up a bigger part of their songs than good melodies. It just seems to me that there's nothing those guys are doing that JoCo isn't doing better, and yet they're on HBO and he's not.

Comments

  • They're pretty good comedians.

    And one of them was a Hobbit in LoTR. :P
  • Because one of them looks like a Thunderbird doll made of plasticine, and that makes him good for TV.

    I'm sure there are many good singers out there, some even better than JoCo, and they can't all be on TV (that said, isn't Code Monkey used as a theme song for a show?) I guess it's just a case of being in the right place at the right time. Maybe if whoever decided to make a TV show featuring FoTC had heard of JoCo, they'd have chosen him instead... or maybe not, since perhaps JoCo's songs don't fit whatever theme they had in mind. Or maybe it was them who approached people about it, and JoCo hasn't done that. I know almost nothing about the TV show or how they got it though, I just have their album, so this is all even worse guesswork than anything you could think of. Anyway, because they have this TV show (however that came about) and apparently a lot of people still watch TV, that naturally makes them super famous.

    Okay, I just read the first paragraph of their wikipedia page; apparently they had a radio series first (hmm, I'll have to see if I get that, I have much more time for radio shows than TV shows.) Well, JoCo could probably do that, I mean Paul and Storm do (did?) a segment on the Bob and Tom show.
  • I don't mind, like JoCo said, he's fine with his level of fame. And we all like it right? A good size group of people who all feel comfortable together? And I love Flight of the Conchords too, but JoCo is better.
  • This may not be 100% accurate: Flight of the Conchords have been around since '01 if not longer (but they have much less material than does JoCo it seems). They started out small. They slowly built a fanbase, toured a bunch. Went around pitching their show idea, which resulted in a BBC radio show first, then got adapted into a full-blown TV show that earned them Emmy nominations and really threw them into the mainstream audience, who embraced them. That happened in what, 2007? That's 6 years since starting.

    JoCo really started his journey to becoming a famous artist with Thing a Week, so it's been 4 years now. He's gotten very little attention from the mainstream media. I think if he wants to break into the mainstream somehow, he needs a new project, some major advertising, music videos, probably sign with a label. But he seems perfectly content not being a superstar. Which is perfectly fine by me.

    Also, he may not be accepted by the mainstream. Arguably JoCo and FOTC have quite a different target audience (I saw a large young female presence in the FOTC audience at their Toronto concert, which isn't usually the case at JoCo shows), although there is some overlap (like me and my friends). FOTC's product is consistently comedy, parodying various genres of music and delivering a laugh at least twice a minute. JoCo's songs may have funny elements to them, but I can only think of a few songs that are deliberately comedy music and most of them are cleverly written ballads about various topics. I think JoCo's music would probably bore the average person not willing to pay close attention to the lyrics and really get engrossed in the song.

    I do think FotC have some really well-written songs they're just different. Their accents also make them stand out to a Western audience (probably helps with attracting the young female audience too).

    Anyways, those are my thoughts on the subject.
  • Their accents also make them stand out to a Western audience
    That may be true, but JoCo has a funny accent too. I think it is called American. :)
  • Yeah, and FoTC don't have accents, what are you talking about? :)
  • I think the biggest difference, that is the one that produced the most dramatic difference, is that FoTC got HBO behind them, as well as a record label.
  • If what Encubed said is right, then it's obvious why they're on HBO and JoCo isn't. They had an idea for a show and pitched it to people. JoCo doesn't (as far as I know) and didn't.
  • And one of them was a Hobbit in LoTR. :P

    He was an elf actually.

    Yeah, I'm that dorky.
  • Right right, I can picture the scene where he's standing behind Agent Smith now.

    I don't know why I was thinking Hobbit.
    Must be the hair.
  • @ManFriday I was thinking the same thing, but didn't want to de-lurk to comment. Thanks for taking the dork-bullet for all of us. ;)
  • And one of them was a Hobbit in LoTR. :P



    He was an elf actually.

    Yeah, I'm that dorky.
    Thank you! I was so about to post that!

    FotC are fantastic, they are comedians who happen to use songs as their medium. JoCo is a songwriter who happens to be funny in a lot of his songs. Quite different :) I love them both!
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