page_title: Pinkerton (album)
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Pinkerton (album) / Background
caption_attribution_description: Rivers Cuomo at Don Mueang International Airport, Thailand.
context_page_description: Pinkerton is the second studio album by American rock band Weezer, released on September 24, 1996 by DGC Records. After abandoning plans for a rock opera entitled Songs from the Black Hole, Weezer recorded the album between songwriter Rivers Cuomo's terms at Harvard University, where he wrote most of the songs.
  To better capture their live sound, Weezer self-produced Pinkerton, creating a darker, more abrasive album than their self-titled 1994 debut. Cuomo's lyrics express disillusionment with the rock lifestyle; the album is named after the character BF Pinkerton from Giacomo Puccini's 1904 opera Madama Butterfly, whom Cuomo described as an "asshole American sailor similar to a touring rock star". Like the opera, the album contains references to Japanese culture.
  Pinkerton produced the singles "El Scorcho", "The Good Life", and "Pink Triangle", and debuted at number nineteen on the US Billboard 200. It received mixed reviews and did not meet sales expectations. Embarrassed by the reaction, Cuomo returned to more traditional pop songwriting and less personal lyrics for Weezer's subsequent albums.
context_section_description: In 1994, after the multi-platinum success of Weezer's self-titled debut album, Weezer took a break from touring for the Christmas holidays. In his home state of Connecticut, songwriter Rivers Cuomo began preparing material for Weezer's next album using an 8-track recorder. His original concept was a science fiction rock opera, Songs from the Black Hole, that expressed his mixed feelings about success. Weezer developed Songs from the Black Hole through intermittent recording sessions throughout 1995.
  In March 1995, Cuomo, who was born with one leg shorter than the other, had extensive leg surgery to lengthen his right leg, followed by painful physiotherapy sessions. This affected his songwriting, as he would spend long periods hospitalized, unable to walk without the use of a cane, and under the influence of painkillers. In the same period, Cuomo applied to study classical composition at Harvard University with an application letter describing his disillusionment with the rock lifestyle, writing:
  Fans ask me all the time what it is like to be a rock star. I can tell that they are dreaming, as I dreamed, when I was a kid, of someday ruling the world with a rock band. I tell them the same thing I would tell any young rock-star-to-be ... You will get lonely. You will meet two hundred people every night, but each conversation will generally last approximately thirty seconds, and consist of you trying to convince them that no, you do not want their underwear. Then you will be alone again, in your motel room. Or you will be on your bus, in your little space, trying to kill the nine hours it takes to get to the next city, whichever city it is. This is the life of a rock star.
  Cuomo felt frustrated by the "limitations of rock". Every night after performing with Weezer, he would listen to Giacomo Puccini's 1904 opera Madama Butterfly; the "depth of emotion and sadness and tragedy" inspired him to go further with his music. By May 1996, Cuomo's songwriting had become "darker, more visceral and exposed, less playful", and the Songs from the Black Hole concept was abandoned. Weezer's second album would instead feature songs written while Cuomo was at Harvard, chronicling his loneliness and frustration, or what Cuomo referred to as his "dark side".
caption: Frontman Rivers Cuomo (pictured in 1997) cites struggles with music success as an inspiration on the writing of Pinkerton.
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