Bands/Artists who were huge and now mostly forgotten

Are you sure about all this? I recall Monster getting a ton of promo and media exposure back in the day. Being the critical darlings that they were Monster automatically got rave reviews from critics and sold very well. It seemed that what killed the band's momentum was the luckwarm response to "E-bow the Letter" from New Adventures in Hi-Fi. That song gained almost zero traction with radio/VH-1 not due to Monster, but due to New Adventures in Hi-Fi not capturing the imaginations of the public.

 

I also remember New Adventures In Hi-Fi not being received well. I think people were getting sick of Stipe’s antics. Then their drummer also had his operation that derailed the band for a period, while mainstream rock was changing rapidly.

 

This is exactly how I remember it going.

By all accounts I recall Monster being very well received. The media in particular were fired up that REM was touring an album for the first time in years. "What's the Frequency Kenneth?", "Crush With Eyeliner" and "Bang and Blame" all received heavy rotation on VH-1.... "E-bow the Letter" and Hi-Fi... not so much.

 

Ok - in that context - I get it. Cheers.

 

You act like what I said is negative

I’m not attacking his merits, etc.

The question is about acts that were big and compared to their popularity have greatly diminished.

I know he was huge through the 90s, but that was nearly 20 years ago.

Since he started having his low profile, I hear more about who he’s dating than his music (with the exception of Jack and Diane)...

 

Mike Bloomfield

 

Peter Frampton
Culture Club
Milli Vanilli
MC Hammer
Iron Butterfly
Grand Funk Railroad
Racey
Leif Garrett
Bay City Rollers
Dave Clark Five
Tom Robinson Band

 

I think that rock musicians often "lasted longer", at least in memories, then pop. Or at least it looks like it... ))

 

They were indeed. Three consecutive Number Ones and the 'Frankie Says...' t-shirts were literally everywhere. I think Paul Morley had a lot to do with the huge publicity.

 

Big in Australia too.

 

Yes, ELP, teenage fanclub

 

Yes after all this years can pack large venues and still selling remasters (and even new stuff) by a truckload.

 

Out Of Time and Automatic were hard acts to follow. Monster I thought was a step below those but still very good and the show I saw in 1995 remains one of the best rock shows I've seen. New Adventures I thought was too long and lacked standout songs, but the real trouble started with Bill Berry's departure followed by the even gloomier and weirder Up.

 

I don't hate it now, but I was about 16 when the song was a hit and that opening synth riff sounded especially shrill and pompous after hearing it 20 times per day. The opening riff seemed to me like an announcement over a loudspeaker proclaiming "Stand at attention! I am being played YET AGAIN!!" There was a lot of music I didn't like in my teens that I have over the years developed a level of respect for, especially if there is good musicianship and craft that went into it.

 

And that's fine, but it's LITERALLY the opposite of the point of this thread.
"Here's an artist that was HUGE 35 years ago.... and they're still pretty popular now!! But they shouldn't be!! And eventually, probably.... They won't be!!!"

 

Hip-hop has always had a complicated relationship with its past. You basically hear nothing from the 80s era beyond a few "joke" hits like "Bust A Move" and so on. Public Enemy is completely forgotten. N.W.A. is not (thanks to the movie).... although they can't exactly get mainstream airplay anyway.

Snoop is doing alright. He has several hits from the early 90s (both solo and with Dre) that are still staples today. And he remains one of the more recognizable people in hip-hop.... Not bad for a guy nearly 50. Who else can say that? Jay-Z? Even his more talented contemporaries like Q-Tip or Scarface have basically disappeared. (And in fairness, 50 in hip-hop is like 200 in rock'n'roll terms.)

 

Janet Jackson may not be forgotten as a name, but most of her hits are forgotten by recent generations. Almost every time her songs are played o n those REACT youtube series, teens and college kids have no clue about her songs.

And yes, sad to see many young people not even recognize PE and Fight the Power - probably one of the biggest rap anthems in history.

 

Heep's profile went down when they fired David Byron in 76, but they never went away. Their new album is fantastic. URIAH HEEP – Interview – New Album and New Tour !

 

Did Ike Turner or Phil Spector write one?
If so they would be in the running!

 

It would help if we could finally just get "I'm A Man" in stereo...

 

The Police, apparently. . .

 

Bay City Rollers where huge down under briefly but now i question if they really existed?

 

nah. Their popularity hasn't diminished with time.

 

I think Grand Funk (Railroad) is a really good answer, at least from the US perspective. They released, I think, six Platinum and/or multi-Platinum albums in the first half of the seventies, and had two US #1 hits... But I think if you polled most music-fans today, aged 45 or younger, almost nobody has heard of them (or heard their number one hits). They were ultra-unfashionable and hated by critics, which of course means they're under-represented in the literature of music, which doesn't help. They also peaked in that odd period (roughly 1971 to 1974) which makes them post-60s -- so they're not associated with the Woodstock generation -- but pre-punk and new wave.


Maybe she's not a fair answer (I don't really know if she's "mostly forgotten"), but I was stunned recently when looking at Linda Ronstadt's career discography. Holy cow, was she ever BIG in the United States!! She's had something like 12 platinum albums, including about 6 million US sales of her two albums in 1977 and 1978 alone. But I don't think she's heard from much today....

 

I believe that is because she can no longer sing due to health issues.