Artists whose commercial potential you got 100% wrong

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Judge Judy, Jul 21, 2013.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. wayved

    wayved Guest

    I cant believe people are talking **** about Jandek...or maybe i can....
     
  2. belushipower

    belushipower Forum Resident

    She'd already had four or five hits before Like A Virgin came along!
     
    sunspot42 likes this.
  3. Jack White

    Jack White Senior Member

    Location:
    Canada
    This was the first I had noticed her. Not the style of music I would have been interested in or paying attention to. It was still early in her career. I think she had a debut album the year before with several tracks released as singles. I believe this video would have been issued prior to the release of her second album. Thought she was a flash in the pan and wouldn't have any longevity.
     
  4. eddiel

    eddiel Senior Member

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    I thought they would be do better in the US as well. I recall reading that they were more popular on the west coast and I think Texas. I can't where I read that but I thought that was oddly specific.
     
  5. R. Totale

    R. Totale The Voice of Reason

    You know, I could have predicted Cyndi's quick pop world rise and fall - but I didn't anticipate what's apparently happened, where she's become a kind of Judy Garland/Liza Minnelli type icon for a younger generation of gay men.
     
  6. guidedbyvoices

    guidedbyvoices Old Dan's Records

    Location:
    Alpine, TX
    Terence Trent Darby's first album though is really pretty great and if you YouTube his early tv performances, he had a great voice and was a great dancer. He was more than just 'that one tune' but he definitely lost something after that. Maybe it was his ego or moving away from being rooted in 60s r&b towards a contemporary prince style that Didnt work.


    There are lots of artists that I thought would explode but Didnt. Gbv in 2000 seemed on the verge of it but it never took off. I thought they'd have a Flaming Lips type trajectory but I think the prolificness didn't make it easy. In the early 90s a Dallas band called Pop Poppins were great and fit that slightly spacey 90s modern rock mold with great songs and a solid live band, but Tripping Daisy > polyphonic spree ended up the band that took the lead in that Dallas scene.

    I still think Sarah Jaffe should be huge. Her vocals were used on a Pixar short before Monsters U, and she's got really great songs and even better live. But so far she just hasn't popped into that next level
     
  7. mschrist

    mschrist Forum Resident

    Location:
    Madison, WI
    I think that was my reaction, too, seeing the video to "Poker Face": thinking that this sounded just like every other generic dance track from the '90s, and assuming that it was just something to fill the void in a relatively dull time for pop music. I remember even being a little surprised when she got a write-up in the New Yorker (which she shared with Kid Cudi).

    I remember the first time I caught the "Wannabe" video, airing on MuchMusic (which my college had instead of MTV), and thinking "what the heck was THAT?!?!". After six years of grunge and gloom and hunger-dunger-dang, to see five women in silly outfits rapping magnetic-poetry lyrics about friendship? Even if I didn't like it, it was so immediately weird that I was rooting for it to go big in the U.S. anyway.
     
    Last edited: Aug 15, 2013
    Maggie and candyflip69 like this.
  8. manicpopthrill

    manicpopthrill Forum Resident

    Location:
    ICT, Kansas
    Let's not forget that although his commercial prospects never really rebounded, D'Arby went on to do some very good work beyond the disaster of NFNF.
     
  9. mschrist

    mschrist Forum Resident

    Location:
    Madison, WI
    More generally, I don't trust my own instincts to even try to predict anymore, at least not for individual bands anyway (as opposed to more broadly defined trends). I seem to have a knack for getting into semi-popular bands (the sort that get good press and reviews, which is what leads me to check them out in the first place) that stay semi-popular. I haven't a clue why the National aren't all over adult-album-alternative radio, and I don't know why Mumford and Sons go multi-platinum while Fleet Foxes can't even go gold. I don't know why Vampire Weekend do go gold and sell more than most other semi-popular bands, or why the Black Keys are playing arenas making music that sounds like it comes from beneath the earth; I really like both acts and I buy their records, but I don't have any sense what they in particular are doing to move records.
     
  10. sixelsix

    sixelsix Forum Resident

    Location:
    memphis, tn, usa
    I may have told this story here before, but I don't think so.

    In about May 2004 the band I was in at the time went to Europe. One of the shows we did was an outdoor festival in Rotterdam with I don't know how many other bands. We were to play one of the four tents they had set up around the grounds (I want to say each held at least 1000 people); before we played I went into the tent with the audience to see the band that immediately preceded us. Good lord, I thought they were awful - sounded like an anemic version of several different 80s British groups (Echo & The Bunnymen and The Chamleons came to mind that day) without any of their own personality. Don't think I'd ever heard that much chorus pedal on a guitar before. And the singer SUCKED. Indifferent stage persona, off-key, annoying voice. Took in about five minutes at most, then left to prepare for our set. About three months later, my then-g/f, now wife and I were watching the O.C. (don't ask), and there they were in a club sequence, lip-synching to a track which wasn't all that much different (or better) than what I witnessed in Rotterdam.

    The band: The Killers.
     
    irong, nbakid2000 and candyflip69 like this.
  11. Mr Bass

    Mr Bass Chevelle Ma Belle

    Location:
    Mid Atlantic
    Limp Bizkit. Not only because of the music but also the band name. Never would have guessed they would be Grammy nominees. Multiple times no less, with millions of album sales.
     
  12. acdc7369

    acdc7369 Forum Resident

    Location:
    United States
    It would have been but Punk came along
     
  13. acdc7369

    acdc7369 Forum Resident

    Location:
    United States
    Fred Durst is an absolute genius when it comes to the business side of music. I have great admiration for him for being able to take such a mediocre band to the top.
     
    Mr Bass likes this.
  14. MidnightRocks

    MidnightRocks Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ireland
    Around 2010 I thought My Chemical Romance were going to become a huge mainstream band, they seemed to be getting an enormous push from the record company. I thought their music around then was trying to appeal more to massess too. They split up this year.
     
  15. Say It Right

    Say It Right Not for the Hearing Impaired

    Location:
    Niagara Falls
    This is more from the benefit of hindsight, but it seemed like Alison Moyet should've been primed for stardom. That is, in the US. She already had Yaz under her belt and a duet at Live Aid. "Invisible" was the perfect first single. She remained very popular in the UK. Hate to say it, but part of it was probably the label's inability to market her as a sex symbol, because of her physique at the time. If this was a factor, at least now people are more open with Adele.
     
    sunspot42 likes this.
  16. Jack White

    Jack White Senior Member

    Location:
    Canada
    I never understood why Be Bop Deluxe didn't have 10 or 12 hit singles in North America during the '70s.
     
  17. JannL

    JannL Forum Resident

    This thread made me go back to Kurt Nilsen's album Push Push. He won the World American Idol, I just happened to see the finale and was captivated by his voice.. I went on YouTube and his performances on the show were great. He put out I think some albums with covers and then original music and seems to be gravitating to country. But I bought this album, Push Push, and his next album was country. I thought he would break into the U.S. but he didn't. He's from Norway. Maybe it was because he wasn't the best looking guy in the world or maybe just too hard to break into the music scene here.

    Silence -

    Duet with Willie Nelson - Lost Highway - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FIv3AuGe3E
     
  18. Chris DeVoe

    Chris DeVoe RIP Vickie Mapes Williams (aka Equipoise)

    Back in the day, my wife and I used to tape a lot of eMpTyVee (and Night Tracks and Radio 1990 and Night Flight and whatever). I recall when we first saw the video for Girls Just Want to Have Fun. We thought we were lucky to catch that showing as:

    1. It was a really cool video
    2. It was a great pop song
    3. There was no chance it would ever be played again
     
    sunspot42 likes this.
  19. Say It Right

    Say It Right Not for the Hearing Impaired

    Location:
    Niagara Falls
    Lisa Stansfield came out with a solid-selling debut, Affection. "All Around the World" was a big single. "You Can't Deny It" got plenty of airplay, along with one or two other tunes from the album. What happened? Real Love came out 2 years after. "Change" and "All Woman" should have been much bigger hits. The album was neither sophomore jinx nor did it lift her profile. It must be said that she continued to do well in the UK and Europe, but wider stardom evaded her in the States. By all indications, Affection was the start of her being pretty big through the 90's. It didn't quite work out that way.
     
    sunspot42 likes this.
  20. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    I think Real Love is a much better record than Affection, but yeah, she completely stalled out in the US.

    Part of it might have been the mastering of Real Love - it sounds atrocious. No low end and a tinny midrange. So bad I attempted to remaster it myself - still sounds a bit effed up, but a huge improvement (scary, since I don't know what I'm doing). I'm assuming it sounded atrocious in the clubs.

    I think she also hyper-glammed up her image and people didn't even realize it was the same chick who'd hit with "All Around The World", so her audience didn't follow her.
     
  21. nbakid2000

    nbakid2000 On Indie's Cutting Edge

    Location:
    Springfield, MO
    These songs were played in clubs? These are like slow[er] soul/r&b songs, something like Sade. Definitely not "club" material.
     
  22. nbakid2000

    nbakid2000 On Indie's Cutting Edge

    Location:
    Springfield, MO
    As a massive Killers fan I love this story. I've read multiple places online (and seen some various videos) that Brandon Flowers' stage presence has dramatically improved throughout the years as compared to when they were first starting out. I saw them live and he was energetic, on target, and had pretty flawless performance.
     
  23. erniebert

    erniebert Shoe-string audiophile

    Location:
    Toronto area
    I chuckled at Metallica when I saw their photo in the "Up and Coming" section of Hit Parader.
     
  24. Scott S.

    Scott S. lead singer for the best indie band on earth

    Location:
    Walmartville PA
    I thought the Raspberries were gonna be bigger.
     
    sunspot42 and ginchopolis like this.
  25. OldSoul

    OldSoul Don't you hear the wind blowin'?

    Location:
    NYC
    Based off of her SNL performance (musically and visually), I never expected Lana Del Rey to go anywhere.
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine