Groups that North Americans see different to the rest of the world

Dusty is never mentioned here unless it's someone who's big fan of hers, she's a forgotten singer. If not for the Pet Shop Boys I might have never discovered her. Yes people have heard of I Only Want To Be With You or Son Of A Preacher Man but the general populace can't name the singer and usually can't name another song. Paul Young is only known for Everytime You Go away. I do realize he had one other top ten Oh Girl, and the top 20 Tear Your Playhouse Down but again like Dusty most don't know him When I saw him at the tiniest venue in Vancouver with Midge Ure, after Midge's set most of the place emptied when Paul came on. Everytime I said I was seeing Paul Young in concert to family or co-workers nobody had a clue who he was.

 

I think this is more generational demographics than geography. I'm pushing 60 and couldn't name a Dusty song besides Preacher Man, and that's solely due to Pulp Fiction. I still have no clue who Paul Young is outside his presence in the $1 CD bin.

 

OMG this thread is so judgy and snobby, so many people dissing artists. Springsteen came from a Blue collar family, go read his book, they got by but they were not rich, I'm not the biggest Springsteen fan but I love his music and artistry. They might not be your cup of tea but IMO Duran Duran are an absolutely fantastic band that have survived decades playing and making great music, they have a lot of non female fans. You don't like "boybands" fine, but millions of of people bought records and tickets to see the Backstreets Boy, Westlife, Take That etc... Why do people have to diss others for their likes, taste, I'll never understand it.

 

I think you've proved my point

 

Is that permitted?

 

Sadly, including getting ripped off and dying broke and forgotten.

 

Soda Stereo was an enormously successful Latin American rock band from the 1980s and 90s. They basically paved the way for “rock en espanol” and inspired everything that followed on the continent.

Musically, they’re all over the map. The first Soda album has that punk-reggae sound of The Police, following albums sound more like Durna Duran, The Cure and Depeche Mode. Their 3rd LP Signos is especially excellent.

With their 5th LP Cancion Animal in 1990, Soda moved in the direction of alternative rock, a much more Zeppelin guitar-based sound. It’s probbaly their best-known album. In 1992, they created Dynamo, a geunge-era rock album that sounds very much like My Bloody Valentine or 90s Depeche Mode.

During this time, frontman Gustavo Cerati began to stretch his wings creatively. He released a solo album called Amor Amarillo which is very alt-rock and poppy hooks (the LP reissue comes on yellow vinyl which is cool). In 1992, around the same time as Dynamo, Cerati released an album with Soda collaborator Daniel Melero that leaned heavily on techno dance beats and some really catchy pop hooks.

In 1995, Soda returned with their final studio album Sueno Stereo, which fit the mid-90s groove with polished production and a strong classic rock groove (one track totally rips off The Rolling Stones. But it also festures a lot of electronica that showed where Cerati was evolving. The band later recorded an appearance at MTV Unplugged before finally disbanding.

Cerati did some techno and DJ music for the next four years, pretty obscure stuff that’s good but not memorable to longtime fans. In 1999, he returned to pop with the spectacular Bocanada, which fused electronica, trip-hop and pop better than nearly anybody. It’s almost certainly his most beloved solo album.

In 2001, Cerati did the “rock orchestra” thing with 11 Episodos Synfonicos. If you’re a fan of that, here ya go. I found a CD copy here in Chicago for $1, which is a steal. In addition, he also created a soundtrack album called +Bien for an Argentina movie of the same name (he also starred). Over the course of the decade, Cerati also continued to create electronica music with other collaborators. The CDs are now hard to find but everything is currently on Youtube.

In 2002, Cerati released Siempre Es Hoy, a clear return to guitar-based rock, but still infused with lots of trippy electronica sounds, samples and loops. It’s a long and eclectic album and contains many sides that grow on you over time. As always, the LP is the best version as you can focus on any given side for a while.

2006 saw the release of Ahi Vamos, a blast-out-the-windows rock album that strips everything down to the basics. If you’re a Foo Fighters fan, you’ll love this one. This album kicks. There was also a concert DVD where Cerati’s band plays the entire album on stage, plus a few of his older hits.

Spda Stereo returned with a huge tour in 2007, along with accompanying concert CD and DVD. They sound terrific and seemed to be havin a lot of fun. That’s where the Soda band photo that I posted comes from. If only they oculd have returned with a new album...oh, well.

In 2009, Cerati released Fuerza Natural, his funal studio album. This one continues the rock sound of Ahi Vamos, but with much more of a Beatles pop sound, if that makes any sense. It sounds like a 2009 Beatles album. There are also a number of acoustic folk songs that suggest some new interests in Cerati’s music.

Cerati suffered a stroke while on tour in 2010, and he went into a coma from which he never recovered. He died four later in 2014.

Last year, Soda Stereo returned with a collaboration with Circue Du Soleil that featured many of their classic hits. An album was also released on CD and LP.

That covers all the basics. There’s more to the discography but you now have the essential titles.

 

That seems to be as good a reason as any to not live in North America.
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I've read that Jackie McLean is more beloved in Japan, is it the intensity or what?

 

Wow - thanks ever so much for taking the time to post such extensive information!

I think I shall be listening to some Soda Stereo very soon. They really do seem like a fascinating band!

 

Just go on Youtube and check ‘em out. You can find all the albums and music videos. Cerati is the greatest rock star that Americans don’t know, so now’s the time to change that.

 

Cheers!

 

I think it has little more to do with where your musical interests are , if you have only a slight interest in female singers of the 60's and 70's you will have come across Dusty at some time , her Dusty in Memphis album from 1969 is generally considered a classic of the pop/soul genre .
As regards Paul Young , more or less the same , should you have any interest in 80's pop music from the UK , there is no way you could have missed him - pretty good singer with a very distinctive voice.

 

I'm pushing 40 so Dusty was before my time but I Only Wanna Be With You and Wishing And Hoping are two big hits even I know.

With Paul Young I'm sure you know Every Time You Go Away, really big hit in the 80s

 

Au contraire, IMO.

Many of us find this place to actually be "The Macca-ist Hagiography -- He-Walks-on-Water -- Forum"


Many, many posts over the years sharing this opionion in this regard.
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In a way, I think both of these statements are true. This fabled "provincialism" , though, is not provincialism, but a sort of cultural blind spot.

To put it simply, for the [western] world at large, American culture is big, loud, fascinating and ubiquitous, so the Rest of the World gets to know a lot about it and American perspectives on it. Conversely, America doesn't get the same input about what is "happening" everywhere else.

I will try to further explain by way of anecdote.

In the early 90's some of my friends took me to a Debbie Harry concert. I didn't know much about her, just her songs that had been played a lot on the radio, and of course there's loads of Blondie songs that are very well known.

My friends explained that Debbie was doing a low key tour of small venues and will play mainly obscure songs that you probably won't have heard of. Indeed, I only recognised "I Want That Man" but it didn't matter, it was a great show. All those things people say about her being one of the most natural performers, I would say, are true. Debbie obviously loves performing, was in excellent voice and is right at home even (especially?) if it's a dusty old concert hall with a smallish crowd.

Some people, however, I got told, are not happy with the obscure songs. "Play some old stuff!" shouted a rude man behind me. Debbie played "Heart of Glass" and a couple of other standards, with noticeable resentment. She was clearly fed up with playing the same old same old.

But I thought about this afterwards. She's fed up with playing the same songs and has a crowd with a lot of folk who want her to play something more recognisable. Couldn't she have lessened the boredom by choosing songs that where only hits in Britain/Europe? There's quite a few to choose from. Also it was a solo show. So where was "French Kissing in the USA". Wikipedia will tell you this song reached number 8 in the UK charts. It won't tell you how popular it was though. Up there with the most played songs of 1986, like Livin' on a Prayer, The Final Countdown & suchlike.

Perhaps Debbie really hated French Kissin in the USA. Or maybe she was doing what seemingly many US acts do. Did Talking Heads ever talk up their most popular song Road to Nowhere? Kiss ever make a feature of their smash hit Crazy Crazy Nights? Or did they all turn up and play their American hit list with no awareness of the perception of what their most popular work is outside America, no matter how much they are told about this.

So there's my contribution. Blondie, a band with about twice as many hit songs as Americans think they had. This band contains Debbie Harry, a somewhat successful solo artiste in her own right - a fact lost on many Americans, including, apparently, Debbie herself.

 

They seemed to be in every issue of Trouser Press magazine, but I never heard them on the radio.

 

If you are talking mainstream rock radio in Philly in the early 1980's, you are exactly right. Sad !.

 

I keep reading non-Americans saying this on this forum, but as an American that watched MTV a lot in 1984, I didn't see the video until some time in the 1990s. So, I highly doubt the often repeated narrative.

 

You nailed it for me. Up until the last couple of years, I could safely ignore Queen. They could be just another band I didn't like all that much. Now they are everywhere. I actually had two recent dates baffled as to how (not why!) I didn't like Queen. And I feel like I've gone from the vague sense that Queen was a fly in the sundae of rock to distinct contempt.

It's not too different from locally based jam and blues bands who seems virtually required to cover the Allman Brothers. I used to be able to change the station to avoid the Allmans, but frigging everybody here has to do "Whipping Post" (which at least seems to have a melody in places, unlike that other go-to "One Way Out"). At least I really enjoy the Grateful Dead, that other jam staple.

It is hard to just vaguely dislike something that has become that popular.

 

This is because MTV pulled it. You were unlikely to have any opportunity to see it in 1984.

 

Yeah, I admit I'm starting to get really sick of Queen. I was never more than a "greatest hits" fan anyway, but I'm starting to burn out on those - it just feels like the band's everywhere right now, and I don't like them enough to survive the onslaught!

 

Yes! Aerosmith toured the UK in 1976 in support of “Rocks”, playing some surprisingly respectable venues. They even made an appearance at the 1977 Reading Festival.

This did little to boost their vogue over here, as none of their albums would chart for another 10 years, and they wouldn’t tour Britain for another 12.

 

Power Metal groups, in general, are more well known in Europe than in the U.S. Many European Power Metal groups are not known in the U.S., except for a few with name recognition (Helloween, Blind Guardian, and a few others.) And the U.S. Power Metal groups have a bigger following in Europe than they do in the U.S. That is why most of them tour in Europe mostly than in the U.S. and when they do tour the U.S., always at small clubs and bars with a lesser number of tour dates.

Same for Thrash bands, except for the Big 4 and a few others.

 

Why would you wish that?