I don't know the figures, but I read that Leonard Cohen was a much bigger deal in Europe than in the US.
Alabama. America*. Atlanta Rhythm Section. Boston. Chicago. Kansas. Ohio Players. * in many respects British, of course
To be fair, Beggar's Opera and Home weren't even big in the UK. Family blew their first US appearance when Roger Chapman got into a fist-fight with Bill Graham, apparently.
Even in the rest of Europe those are fairly unknown. I am french and have never heard of them... And France surely has a music sales market approx. the same size as uk.
...were never popular in the USA, but they had significant impact and commercial success in the UK during the early 1980's, with 5 albums in the Top 20.
Most Britpop bands: Blur Pulp Supergrass Suede The Verve All reached small success but nothing as big as Oasis and Radiohead for instance.
Perhaps we should add his name if he's little known over the pond. It's Robbie Williams - and think yourselves lucky, Americans. Now forget his name immediately.
Britpop in the 90's was huge on college radio in the US, but that's already a pretty minuscule audience.
The two ultimate examples of this phenomenon in the 1960s were The Rascals and Paul Revere & The Radiers. Both veritable hit-machines in the U.S, but not a single charting record in the UK. As a matter of fact, over there, "How Can I Be Sure" is regarded as originally being a minor hit for Dusty Springfield in 1970 that was remade into a #1 blockbuster by David Cassidy three years later.
I love in the OP how if the American bands/musicians don't do well in the UK, they can "barely sell out a Theatre" but if a UK band/Musician doesn't do well here it's because American music fans don't "fully understand them". Yes folks, Brits are smart and 'Muricans are dumb.
I believe it was able to be configured into different seating capacities for different types of events: boxing fights, music performances, etc.
I always thought Hall and Oates were very big here in the UK. Ok they seemed to fade fairly rapidly - but I still like them !
I really like them too and they had some success, but nothing compared to America where they were massive. That was the point of the post, to name acts where there was a disparity. Their biggest album in the UK reached number 8, their second biggest reached number 24. In America they had about 8 platinum or multi-platinum albums and a whole load of gold albums. In America they had 6 number one singles and a total of 29 singles on the Top 40. Here they had 6 Top 40 hits, the biggest of which was number 6. After that, the rest rank: 8, 15, 21, 32, 33.
So a band could play The Felt Forum and say they've played the MSG? Or imagine turning up to play the MSG and being shown the Felt Forum.
Van Halen.. Not that they are total unknowns, but I never realized how popular they were / are in the US until I joined this forum. The last time they played Europe they were the opening act for Bon Jovi.