Do you think that the Style Council should have been more successful in the USA?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Sgt. Abbey Road, Mar 13, 2021.

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  1. Sgt. Abbey Road

    Sgt. Abbey Road Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Graz, Austria
    I am of the opinion that the Style Council were one of the best bands of the 80s. I think that they should have been more successful in the USA. What’s your opinion?
     
  2. Daryl M

    Daryl M Senior Member

    Location:
    London, Ontario
    Their videos certainly got played up here in Canada on Much Music. I was a big fan. I
    liked them even more than the Jam. Apparently they even toured North America at one
    point. But Weller, he's a strange (but talented) cat....
     
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  3. Black Cat Surfboards

    Black Cat Surfboards Forum Resident

    Location:
    Delaware, USA
    While talented and catchy, that style of music was way more popular in Britain and Europe than it was in the US. Plus Paul Weller and the Jam were HUGE in Britain and mainstream. In 1985 very few people in the US ever heard of Paul Weller. I like them, but don't really think they should have been any more popular in the US with the style of music they were playing.
     
  4. Dandelion1967

    Dandelion1967 My Favourite Parks Are Car Parks

    Shout To the Top should have been a massive hit in America.

     
  5. NorthNY Mark

    NorthNY Mark Forum Resident

    Location:
    Canton, NY, USA
    I don't know that they necessarily should have been, in that part of what I like so much about them is how not-American they sound. Their overtly cosmopolitan sophistication is not something that usually goes over well here. It's for the same reason that so many other huge acts in the UK and Europe like Roxy Music or Kate Bush only have cult followings (though reasonably large ones by "cult following" standards) here in the US.
     
  6. Jeepster39

    Jeepster39 Forum Resident

    They certainly could have scored more than one hit in the US. What mystifies me is that Weller’s solo stuff never made any impact on the US charts.
     
  7. Mr. Bewlay

    Mr. Bewlay It Is The Business Of The Future To Be Dangerous.

    Location:
    Denver CO
    I don't think there was a big market for what they were doing in the US at that time. My wife was aware of them, but she ran with a pretty arty crowd.
     
  8. Black Cat Surfboards

    Black Cat Surfboards Forum Resident

    Location:
    Delaware, USA
    With strings and a distinctly 60's sound? I love the song, but don't see any reason why that would ever have been huge in the US in 1984. Why would it when its SO unlike anything popular or trendy in the US in the mid 80s. I hear that song and think Britain, France, Spain, Italy. Not US
     
  9. extravaganza

    extravaganza Senior Member

    Location:
    San Diego, CA USA
    I was a big fan at the time (early days at least) and even got to see them live I but didn’t really expect them to trouble the US charts much.
     
  10. danasgoodstuff

    danasgoodstuff Forum Resident

    Location:
    Portland, OR
    Hard to imagine anyone/thing more UK-specific, so no.
     
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  11. PsychGuy

    PsychGuy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Albuquerque
    A handful of great songs. Too much so-so material/filler on the albums. I like the band and I can't sit through those records. U.S. liked acts with solid albums. Early Elvis C. U2, Sade debut, that sort of thing.

    I don't think Weller has a great filter. Cool artist, though.
     
  12. Seabass

    Seabass Old Git

    Location:
    Devon, England
    A shout out for Weller’s Stanley Road for those not familiar with it. Containing this gem

     
  13. Two Sheds

    Two Sheds Sha La La La Lee

    Yes. I was a big fan, and I even saw them play in New York in 1984.

    'Heavens Above' should have been a big hit over here.

     
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  14. Roland Stone

    Roland Stone Offending Member

    I'll out this impolite theory bluntly: Americans have a higher standard for soulful pop singing, since we already have "real" R&B.

    Mick Hucknall, Boy George or Lisa Stansfield? Okay, they can sing. About 100 other English crooner types with thinner voices and two keyboard players? Better have an awesome video or a cool hook . . .
     
  15. CHIP72

    CHIP72 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Silver Spring, MD
    I never cared for the Style Council, but The Jam should have been more successful in the U.S., at least at a level of popularity similar to The Clash.
     
  16. Grahamstuartcanada

    Grahamstuartcanada We play two kinds of music “new” and “wave”

    I feel the same the Jam seemed more accessible than Style council.
    I feel SC veered to the adult contemporary jazz lite that wasn't an easy sell amongst my friends. While it was easy to get behind latter period Jam- probably my fave jam would be bitterest pill, beat surrender stuff- SC just kind of bugged me- I was disappointed in the direction PW went
     
  17. Veronica Mars

    Veronica Mars Forum Resident

    Location:
    California
    I think The Clash was more of a collective vision where The Jam was mostly Wellers.
     
  18. Odradek

    Odradek Forum Resident

    Location:
    Helsinki, Finland
    Yes. The Style Council was a continuation by other means of the 1960s British Mod mindset that yearned across the English Channel to the continent, to France, Italy etc., where everything was supposedly more stylish and hip and aesthetic and life consisted of Gauloises and espressos.

    Transplanted to the US this was bound to be culturally incomprehensible to most potential listeners. It strikes me that the Style Council only having one significant hit in the US ("My Ever Changing Moods") is a perfect analogue to the Small Faces only having one significant hit in the US.
     
  19. danasgoodstuff

    danasgoodstuff Forum Resident

    Location:
    Portland, OR
    Americans don't dig Lambrettas, that's basically it. I once had an elaborately worked out fantasy about Brit bands saving their motorcycle industry... then I realized they were mostly scooter people.
     
  20. Seabass

    Seabass Old Git

    Location:
    Devon, England

    David McCullough - Brighton Mods
     
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  21. Malinky

    Malinky Almost a Gentleman.

    Location:
    U.K.
    The Jam........edgy punk riffed upbeat songs about the dangers of the city.
    The Style Council.......slow orchestrated jazz and blue eyed soul influenced (Hall and Oates), and as `Veronica Mars` :laughup: say`s above, all the cutting edge excitement of Cliff Richard.
    Paul Weller........An amazing solo artist, I have every album, can be hit and miss, especially in the earlier solo stuff, but overall an amazing songwriter and performer.
    I always feel that he `shot himself in the foot` with the Style Council, where he completely lost his base following, and never quite recovered enough to attain the acclaim that would lead to American success.

     
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  22. Davido

    Davido ...assign someone to butter your muffin?

    Location:
    Austin
    Weller doesn't tour enough in the U.S., especially in the South or Midwest. On the rare occasions he comes to America, it's often N.Y. and L.A., or San Francisco. He would have more fans here outside of the areas where folks are musically sophisticated... but he's got his routine down and does well for himself. At least I can hear the albums!
     
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  23. Brian Barker

    Brian Barker "No matter where you go, there you are"

    If Shout To The Top would have been released a couple of years earlier, or about 4 years later, I think it woulda/coulda been a decent pop chart success, as it was though it hit at the wrong time, too late for the new wave explosion and MTV and too early for the larger alternative take over that began in the late 80's (and 120 minutes).
     
  24. Liam Brown

    Liam Brown Forum Resident

    Weller is someone I want to like but I can't really get past the sound of his voice most of the time.
     
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  25. walrus

    walrus Staring into nothing

    Location:
    Nashville
    Like the Jam, too quirky and British to click here.

    Of course the label also messed with all their releases during their 83-85 run, which didn’t help, but also wasn’t really the reason they didn’t happen.

    As a British music obsessive stuck on the wrong continent, I’ll never really understand why these things happen. I mean, similarly Van Halen never got really huge in Europe despite dozens of similar bands being big there.
     
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