As a self-proclaimed prankster, I have to admit I love it when musicians release their crossover tunes onto easy-listening stations, knowing full well that their CD is nothing like that one song.  Unwitting grandmothers and soccer moms hear it and think, “What a pleasant melody,” so they head to Target to pick it up, and image their shock at the remainder of the album.  (I wanted to go into a whole thing about grandmothers looking for LP’s and cassette tapes, but I thought it was mean and stopped myself.)

So what better way to express the level of shock value than by rating them with surprised grandmothers?

The latest culprit: Shinedown, with their album The Sound of Madness

• The Crossover: Second Chance
• The Reality: The Sound of Madness
• Surprised Grandmother:
  

  "Well I never..."

A few other groups have done it in the past, like Rise Against and their album Siren Song of the Counter Culture.

• The Crossover: Swing Life Away
• The Reality: To Them These Streets Belong
• Surprised Grandmother:
  

  "That's music?"

Green Day committed the act late in the game, on their CD Nimrod.

• The Crossover: Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)
• The Reality: King for a Day
• Surprised Grandmother:
  

  "What silly boys..."

Oh, and what can I say about Extra co-host, Mark McGrath’s, “humble” beginnings in Sugar Ray.  For the record (clever pun!), their first CD, Lemonade and Brownies (juvenile pun!) looked like this:

It was their second album, Floored, that pulled the bait-and-switch.

• The Crossover: Fly
• The Reality: RPM
• Surprised Grandmother:
  

  "Turn that racket off!"

(SIDENOTE: Both of the above videos were integral to launching McG’s future career as a feature film director.  So every time you see Mark McGrath mugging on Extra, you can thank him for making Lemonade=Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle and Brownies=Terminator Salavation possible.  And McGrath <> McG?  Do I smell a conspiracy?  Nope.  Just turds.)