Why Are Some Artists (and Some Songs) "Criminally Ignored"?

Another sign of Big Ears is the ability to return to music you didn't 'get' when you were younger so you can reevaluate.

 

I'm afraid it's the reason above all reasons.

 

Rather a lot of the acts mentioned so far were not criminally ignored or are not criminally ignored or both. Also the thread asks why and not just who.

 

Big Star played like 20 gigs in their entire existence, Nick Drake about 2. Also Alex Chilton's experiences with the Box Tops seemed to have left him with a desire to avoid acclaim and stardom at any costs. Nick Drake seems to have been temperamentally unsuited to the music business, along with his other personal problems.

 

Because everyone just isn't as talented as Justin Bieber.

 

Not true, one could argue it's the exact opposite, most people wouldn't know the cream of anything if it hit them in the face.

 

https://www.jsad.com/doi/10.15288/jsa.1977.38.1428



https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/lifestyle/country-music-alcohol/



Why Drinking is King in Country Music, Even for Sober Artists – Variety



Does Country Music Drink More Than Other Genres?



Country Music's Complicated Relationship With Alcohol | The Fix



The Prevalence of Alcohol in Music - Alcohol Rehab Guide



Is Country Music Causing Alcoholism? - Addiction Campuses



Country Music and Alcohol



https://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/dec/02/does-country-have-a-drinking-problem



https://www.huffpost.com/entry/country-music-and-the-rise-of-the-binge_b_5697278



https://www.ranker.com/list/country-singers-alcoholism/ranker-music



https://www.rollingstone.com/music/...ntry-music-was-drunk-all-year-in-2014-231511/



https://iowahighwayends.net/blog/2018/06/country-music-has-an-alcohol-problem/



https://sites.dwrl.utexas.edu/countrymusic/2016/04/17/does-country-get-just-a-little-too-drunk/

 

Because they are criminals?

 

Any time people complain because they're not hearing enough of their favorite artist, they blame it on some machiavellian plot...and then don't take the effort to do their own homework. It is simply not in their makeup to consider...perhaps the rest of the world is just not interested in their tastes.

But, WHY, they crow. WHY can the public not see the superior musical experience that is MY favorite artist? WHY does "the man" suppress music that clearly, would change peoples' minds if ONLY they were given a chance to be heard? There MUST be an ulterior motive at work. And, my favorite: "they used to play it 'all the time', now it's disappeared...even while that talentless so-and-so gets played endlessly"...

What people miss out on - and this has been the same ever since there has just been one radio station in every town you could trust as "yours" - is that, just because a song was marketed to a radio programmer or an audience back in the day, does not make that song relevant to the playlist needs of today's audience. A radio playlist, or any other platform, isn't based on historical accuracy, but current interest. And even though that playlist comes free to you, it costs that originating source lots of money, and as such it cannot afford to consider anything other than the whims of a fickle public who has several other choices at their fingertips.

So what may have been a good choice for the station you used to listen to for "all the hits", may not resonate with a station aimed at a different audience 35 years later touting "only the best classic rock".

I've been on great stations, and I've been on bad stations, and failed stations, and successful stations, and I can tell you with the utmost sincerity that, it's not about the music; it's about getting the right people, to respond to what they consider to be, "their music".

 

Yes, this in a nutshell.

Like anything, people have the power themselves to champion their personal favorites and disregard the ones they dislike. I've stated on here before that every artist has the equal opportunity to be brought up here and discussed. That's the great thing! Interest in any of them will speak for itself and take care of itself.

People like to pick on others love of the Beatles, for example, but if so many were indeed not interested in the group, then the topics and interest would naturally, well, not exist.

I mean I take responsibility myself for understanding that the world doesn't revolve around my idea of "an ignored artist". And I understand that I have the power to share interest in an artist simply by starting a new topic and seeing what happens.

There are numerous threads I have started on artists or topics that "I" feel would be interesting, and some have just sat there with little to no interest.

Which is how it should be. It's up to me to understand that the people have spoken and may simply not share in that interest as much. What I don't do is blame the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, McCartney, Lennon, Bowie, or those who clearly value them, just because they are drawing more interest than my own personal favorites.

 

Individuality of music choices is a lot easier nowadays, than it was in the day when your only radio station, was your own tastemaking resource. "Your favorite artist" being ignored while you had to put up with endless airings of the Starland Vocal Band, became a sort of cause celebre for you, when your only recourse for you, was to badger the deejay on the request line.

You kept being told over the air, that your calls controlled the reality of the reflection of your local public's taste: call-in, make us see how badly you want to hear "____". But you try and try, and somehow "Afternoon Delight" keeps coming up every other hour, while you wait for "____".

The thing is, here we're in an age with individuality out the yin-yang in your musical choices, yet still people are more upset with what everybody else "seems" to be perfectly satisfied with (on the basis that somewhere, there's still a poster on FaceBook extolling the good old days when "Afternoon Delight" was big). So whether it's the 1970s and you and your peers shared one radio playlist, and today when you can go to your own phone and bring up the same bro-country songs your local country station plays ad nauseum ("nauseum" being the key here)...there is still resentment.

 

Always wished Nelson would do a reunion tour with BeBop Deluxe. I imagine they would do well in the UK and Europe but not sure there are enough fans left here in the US who remember them to make it financially feasible. Also, I guess he is permanently retired from touring due to hearing issues?

 

Nino Ferrer
Catherine Howe

 

Bill's always been forward looking and loathe to recreate the past, thus a Be Bop Deluxe reunion isn't in the cards. The closest he came was when drummer Simon Fox appeared at one of Bill's annual Nelsonica gatherings a while back.

 

The problem with Love was that they didn't want to play by the music industry's rules. They for instance weren't very interested in doing promotional stuff, rejected touring outside L.A., and then there were the many lineup changes and drugs issues which sort of sabotaged the band's trajectory. According to Elektra boss Jac Holzman, Arthur Lee had as much talent as The Doors but he simply didn't have right mindset and focus as his labelmates to jump through all the necessary hoops. In that respect was Arthur sometimes his own worst enemy.

As for Funkadelic, they were basically the same set of musicians as Parliament, who actually had a lot of success in the late '70s complete with Top 40 hits, sold out arena tours and gold albums. Funkadelic/Parliament are nowadays also considered one of the most important R&B legacy acts, on a par with James Brown and Sly & The Family Stone.

 

Yeah, I can respect that train of thought as it is hard to recapture the magic of the past.

All the same, I would have loved to have seen a reunion as BeBop Deluxe is a favorite and one band I never had the pleasure of seeing live.

 

Always thought Savoy Brown never got the love and respect they deserved.

Part of the problem may have been Kim Simmons changed the band members every few years back in the 60's- 80's so there was no continuity to the music. Also their music was not the type that produced hit singles which drove popularity in many cases back when terrestrial radio was king.

Still it is amazing how good the 60's through mid 70's albums, up through Jack the Toad for me, by that band are. IMHO of course YMMV.

 

Don't have them anymore but I totally dug Mink Deville 's debut and the equally fine ' Return To Magenta '
All I have if Willy now is a single best-of CD which is quite good but lacking some of those album's tracks.

 

Not certain that he made "a lot of money". For most of his career, Bill has been terrible at the business side of the business, both in his days with Be Bop Deluxe and afterwards. Though from what I gather, in recent years he finally settled the financial mess he (i.e. Be Bop Deluxe) had with EMI and made a deal with Cherry Red Records to re-issue both BBD and solo material- and both have been profitable for him (although I doubt if either has been very lucrative). He's in his 70s now, and I don't know how active he still is. (I haven't been closely following him for the past decade or 15 years.)

 

I don't really care too much if an artist is well-known or obscure. As long as I enjoy the music then that's what matters.

 

Regarding Nick Drake - His material did not and does not generally possess wide appeal and Drake purposely wanted it that way. Some (much?) of it is monotonously dreary and depressing - I believe it's been described as "doomed romanticism". He was loathe to perform live and rarely did (when he did, it was not successful). He refused almost all activities to promote his music - no print interviews, no tv appearances. He was shy to the point of being reclusive, and most likely suffered from serious mental health issues for far longer than anybody suspected. He was probably happiest secluded in his room, composing songs by himself and then recording them with the minimal accoutrements as possible.

 

First it was because people were content with Best Of or Greatest Hits packages, now it's stream playlists

 

Crap is underrated, also highly subjective.

 

In the case of Nick Drake, his inability to interact live was a big factor. Plus not quite in the album track era of radio. Still the mediocre reviews from critics is a puzzler.