The Road to Fame for Mid 90’s Misunderstood Masterpieces:

The undocumented effect of Napster on the rise of Weezer’s Pinkerton and Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

Let’s examine a peculiar phenomenon. Shortly after Weezer released Pinkerton in 1996, Rolling Stone readers ranked it the third worst album of the year. However, despite its initial poor reception, Pinkerton quickly climbed the ranks of critical reception and Rolling Stone named it the 16th greatest album of all time in 2002. The album went on to peak on the Billboard charts even later in 2008. Something similar happened to Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. Released in 1998, the album was only well-known in small communities of music fans and was largely shared simply by word of mouth. However, the album went on to become a cult classic praised by critics and indie rock fans alike and charted on Billboard for its vinyl reissue in 2012. But what changed in music or pop culture that allowed these initially critically panned or unknown releases to reach stardom a decade later?

Many developments affected music consumption in the early 2000s; in hindsight, the rise in popularity of the internet, and of digital music listening services, stand out as the most prominent. Napster pioneered file sharing in the late 90s, the iPod and iTunes made music more accessible than it ever had been in the early 2000s, and YouTube and MySpace popularized social music sharing later in the same decade. However, with bands such as Arcade Fire and Franz Ferdinand praising Neutral Milk Hotel in 2005 and Jimmy Eat World and Dashboard Confessional citing Weezer as a large influence around the same time, it seems unlikely that YouTube and MySpace, later advents, are responsible for the rise in popularity of Pinkerton and In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. Furthermore, Rolling Stone claiming Pinkerton as one of the best albums ever in 2002 makes iTunes and the iPod seem relatively unimpactful, as they were released around the same time as this ranking.

That leaves us with Napster, the groundbreaking peer to peer file sharing service that forever changed the music industry. Surviving only from 1999 to 2001, this revolutionary company had its moment in the sun at the same time that both albums in question were popularized, making it hard to believe that it did not have some sort of impact on their rise to stardom; insular music communities loved these two albums and Napster made it possible for them to share the music digitally and spread it quickly. However, there is no hard evidence linking the surface of these two albums to Napster. It appears that the company’s monumental but brief history combined with a lack of attention to this significant moment in music’s history have left behind few traces of data concerning this trend. It is hard to imagine there not being a connection of some kind between the rise of Pinkerton and In the Aeroplane Over the Sea and Napster, but the specifics of their intersection are largely unknown. For the rest of this paper, I am going to illuminate this absence and demonstrate why there is likely a connection even though there is little known about it.

Napster grew extremely quickly. Just nine months after it was released in June of 1999, the music sharing service had garnered 20 million users. Months later, it reached even more people, totaling over 60 million users. The service became popular so quickly because of its undeniably appealing platform. Users could download songs from anyone else on the database for free. With tens of millions of users, a seemingly unlimited free selection of songs was at the world’s fingertips. Furthermore, people could download just one or two songs from an album as opposed to being forced to buy the whole product. This allowed people to expand their musical taste as they could easily sample what all of their friends were listen to. It is easy to imagine how a service such as Napster, which essentially streamlined word of mouth music sharing, would directly impact the rise of albums like In the Aeroplane Over the Sea that had mostly been passed around in small circles of audiophiles.

However, Napster had a brief moment in the sun, and its rapid downfall, combined with its underground/unregulated nature, are likely the main reasons that there is little data on its influence on the popularity of specific albums. By making music more accessible than ever, Napster also violated some basic laws. In the same year that it was released, 1999, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) filed a lawsuit claiming Napster infringed upon the copyrights of the music on the platform. Many musicians were not happy that their music was being downloaded for free, and Metallica and Dr. Dre sued Napster shortly after RIAA. After much legal back and forth, Napster was ultimately crushed and shut down in 2001. It was allowed to continue as a paid service when it gained the rights to the music, but the groundbreaking product, free peer to peer file sharing, was stifled. Because Napster only existed in this initial form for two years and was caught up in legal battles for more than half of them, it makes sense why there is no extensive data surrounding the analytics of the music that was shared on the platform. However, knowing the timeline that Napster made its splash helps us look for other events and numbers to highlight the effect that the service likely had on Pinkerton and In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.

It is now necessary to attempt to pinpoint exactly when attitudes towards these albums changed. Pinkerton vastly underperformed with both fans and critics and charted at 19th on the Billboard hot 100 in 1996. Its initial poor reception is a given. The harder part of proving the causation or at least correlation is showing when attitudes started to change towards the album. This is difficult because a change in public perception for an album is not frequently documented, and even if it is, the archives are rarely saved. However, there is still some evidence that points towards Napster. As already established, Rolling Stone trashed Pinkerton in 1996 and revised their review, giving it endless praise in 2002. This correlates with Napster. The music service was popularized in 2000, giving Pinkerton two years to spread and be consumed by other music fans before Rolling Stone (and likely other critics) officially changed their tune. Weezer also got back together after a three-year hiatus in 2000, so it would make sense that talk of the band and the album might resurface. This correlates perfectly with the rise of Napster, which could have helped to propel the album.

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is a bit of a different story; its initial issue was not that it was hated, but rather unknown. Its initial release was set to sell about 7,000 physical copies. Rolling Stone gave it three out of five stars and other critics gave similar lukewarm reviews. The change in attitude for this album simply meant it became more popular. So when exactly did In the Aeroplane Over the Sea become a cult classic? To answer this, we have to put together different pieces of evidence to form the entire picture. Like Weezer, Neutral Milk Hotel took a three-year break from performing after releasing their album. However, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea was released in 1998, a year later than Pinkerton. This makes it unlikely that a reunion correlated with Napster, as it occurred in 2001 when Napster essentially died. Furthermore, a reunion does more to generate buzz for a well-known band like Weezer than it does for a less popular act.

So we have to look elsewhere. And there is some evidence. In 2003, Pitchfork ranked In the Aeroplane Over the Sea as the fourth best album of the 90s. This came after a review of 187 words five years prior. Also in 2003, Creative Loafing wrote a cover story on the elusiveness of Jeff Mangum (Neutral Milk Hotel’s singer and main contributor). These dates show that the album clearly climbed the ranks in 5 years. It can be argued that iTunes and the iPod influenced its surge in popularity. They were both released in 2001 and would have certainly had time to propagate the album. The same can be argued for Pinkerton, though they only existed for a year before we have proof of a change in critical reception.

Though these may have been factors, Napster’s platform makes it more logically likely to have influenced the rise of an unknown album. People would only download music that they knew on an iPod, but Napster allowed people to receive new music from many friends and acquaintances. Buzz for Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea would more likely have been generated via Napster and continued with Apple’s products. To go a step further, it can be argued that Napster’s construction formed the first social media; music fans would gather, swap songs, and discuss online. One could seamlessly go from a conversation on AIM (AOL Instant Messenger, a popular computer-based communication, peaked around the time of Napster) to Napster to download a song a friend recommended. The social element defined the program as much as anything else.

While there is little direct evidence linking Napster to the rise in popularity of Pinkerton and In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, the numerous correlating dates make it hard to deny that there is a connection. Much of this scarcity of evidence is because of Napster’s short lifespan, but perhaps there is some to be dug up and no one has done a proper investigation. After all, streaming developed quickly after Napster, stealing everyone’s attention because of its huge impact on the music industry.

In a way, streaming services and the internet are continuing Napster’s legacy today. Spotify and Apple Music are forcing Billboard to change their parameters for measuring the success of an album. They make music more accessible than it ever has been and sharing with friends is a frequently used feature. Both Pinkerton and In The Aeroplane over the Sea prove this, along with the fact that the internet has propelled both pop musicians and weirdos to stardom. On the internet it is easier for odd, niche bands and music creators to find a dedicated audience, incentivizing more artists to experiment. Many different types of music can spread extremely quickly, elevating artists in a similar manner to Napster. While a solid argument can be made that the internet also elevates untalented musicians to fame via meme status, this is not mutually exclusive with brilliant, innovative musicians finding audiences. As long as the latter continues and I have access to an endless amount of experimentation at my fingertips, I will be happy with how the internet has affected my music listening.