Bands that were huge and then disliked*

The likes of Iron Maiden, GNR and many heavy metal bands in the mid 90’s, they were about as popular as a fart in a spacesuit.

Thanks to Kurt Cobain.

 

GNR probably suffered the least from grunge besides Metallica. People forget how huge November Rain was on MTV at the time, we're talking Thriller and Vogue level big. Axl's ego and the band essentially self imploding is what did them in.

 

True but by 1993 they were overexposed by the time of The Spaghetti Incident album they were very unfashionable.

 

With whom?

 

The music buying public.

 

Grand Funk were your meat and potatoes, down to earth, honest basic rock band. Some solid albums (the red one).
The problem with them IMHO were their lack of a true masterpiece, unfashionable image, and the preachy and patronizing lyrics. Always seemed that Mark Farmer was giving you lessons or yelling at you, like a father or teacher. No please

 

"Spaghetti" was a half-assed collection of covers produced essentially just to get product on the shelves.

It still went to #4 in the US and sold more than a million copies.

If that's "unfashionable", a lot of bands would kill to be that "unfashionable"!

 

Absolutely not as America developed blues, R&B, soul, funk, and, most importantly for this conversation, rock music. It all originated here first. Now, that said, I probably like more British music than I do American. But that's a stupid comment by Stuart Adamson (RIP).

 

They were seen as an embarrassment, I lived through it. They had been overexposed to the public though the Illusion tour, grunge made them obsolete very quickly. Effectively ending the band.

 

I lived through it too. if grunge had made them "obsolete", "Spaghetti" wouldn't have sold - the album came out in late 1993, well after the "grunge revolution" had swept aside a lot of the 80s bands.

Maybe - just maybe - we have different perspectives based on the fact you're in the UK and I'm in the US?

 

Guns N Poses peaked with their first album

 

Guns N Roses like most glam metal, were unfashionable by the mid 1990s. I was there.

I would disagree on Iron Maiden, though. They had already started to slip popularity-wise around 1990. Nothing to do with Cobain or grunge, more to do with the popularity of Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer. Bruce leaving was the final nail, at least in the USA.

 

not to mention Jazz.

 

Sure - "AfD" is still the main reason they can tour stadiums. Creatively and commercially, it's the king.

But it's not like they faded into obscurity after "AfD". The "UYI" albums were very successful in their own right - and I'd argue that without those, they wouldn't be able to play stadiums circa 2019.

Yeah, "AfD" is the main reason, but GnR needs a broader catalog to sell 50,000 tickets per show. Without "UYI", I think they'd be in much smaller venues...

 

I was there too but I don't recall G&R ever being "fashionable".

 

And bluegrass, and psychedelia, and folk rock and surf and Go Go and funk and Cajun etc. etc.

 

It was drugs and egos that ended the band, not overexposure.

 

Maiden always had a die hard fan base that really wasn't affected by trends or anything else. I'd equate them to Rush in that regard. Whatever the band did, the fans were receptive except the Blaze Bailey years where they definitely faltered and that period may well have coincided with the grunge period. I'm not sure.

 

Yeah, they did have a solid base, but I remember Seventh Son was not considered a classic on release, and they kind of slipped with casual fans after that. I don't think that any of that was related to Grunge.

 

Yeah, that's where I bailed with them. Good point.

 

Really?

Top 200 Albums | Billboard 200 chart
Official Albums Chart Top 75 | Official Charts Company

https://www.riaa.com/gold-platinum/...rd=&type=&category=&adv=SEARCH#search_section

 

I can't speak for England but on this side, nah, never happened. Grunge had no impact on that band what so ever. I was there and they were co-existing along side grunge bands. Their last tour ended a just under a year before Kurt died and by the time Kurt died, IMO, grunge was on it's last legs anyway. Had G n R not had their interpersonal issues, they'd have continued recording together.

By the time I got to England in August 1994, grunge felt like it had happened a decade earlier. Then, Oasis took over.

 

Grunge was already over when The X Factor came out in 95.

 

As others have pointed out Iron Maiden, by the time grunge hit, were already out of flavour, at least in North American and Europe. Grunge didn't do much of anything other than cement that out of flavourness.

GNR was not impacted by grunge at all. When grunge was peaking GnR were still huge.

I do agree that, GnR were in a shambles at that point, but that had more to do with interpersonal issues than with grunge. I think if they had overcome that, and been able to manager their drinking and drug taking, they'd have to continued recording together for a while longer and done alright.

 

True, but like I said, I think the slide started pre-grunge. I do not recall much excitement over the release of the album in 1990, and that was before grunge. Seventh Son was the last album I bought by them when new, up until when Bruce came back.