Countdown 100: Bands that got megahyped that failed spectacularly...

86. Campag Velocet.

85. Sigue Sigue Sputnik

84. Spelt Like This.
83. The Roaring Boys.

(Not Sigue Sigue Sputnik though, a number two hit, followed by a bunch of stuff that did OK, as well as could be expected)

xpost, funnily enough!

92. Puddle Of Mud

― Les centimètres énigmatiques (snoball), Thursday, September 23, 2010 9:56 AM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

only 5 million copies? FAIL

82. Ultrasound.

3 Sigue Sigue Sputnik Love Missile F1-11 Single Mar 1986
20 Sigue Sigue Sputnik Twenty-First Century Boy Single Jun 1986
10 Sigue Sigue Sputnik Flaunt It Album Aug 1986
31 Sigue Sigue Sputnik Success Single Nov 1988

81. Fischerspooner

80. Fischer-Z

79. Animal Collective

79. Jimmy the Hoover

78. Advertising

The EMI band that was going to save them after the Sex Pistols debacle.

83. The Roaring Boys.

Wow, had forgotten that lot!

78. Advertising

Tot Taylor, right?

77. King Trigger

76. Doctors of Madness

75 a) Orlando; b) Plastic Fantastic; c) Dex Dexter; d) and so forth

Minty!

There's almost like a whole subgenre of just-before-punk British flop bands from 1975-1977, when the record companies had no idea what they were doing anymore. About 5 of them have already been mentioned. Almost all the Pub Rock bands for a start

73 RPLA
The RPLA Debacle

72. Canibus

71. Mick Jagger solo

78, yep.

The biz being so london-centric, a whole host of pub rock bands got signed because they worked well in a pub, but outside of that, no-one cared. none got megahyped though, aside from the Brinz, as mentioned. Oh, Dr Feelgood did, but hey: Success or what?

70. Theaudience

I didn't realise Deaf School got megahyped - they were a brilliant band!

69. Lone Star.

68. S*M*A*S*H

67 Blue Rondo a la Turk

66 Animal Nightlife

65 King

64. Funkapolitan

63. Ultrasound

63 already 82.

63. FMB

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/lottery-win-inspires-failed-band-to-reform-514521.html

62. Campag Velocet

^ been done

62. Slade (in the USA)

61 : Tiny Dancers

the sheer extravagence on the promos etc (and weren;t they famously one of the last big ££ signings prior to the big EMI shakeup), but did anyone buy the album ?

60. Northern Uproar

59. These Animal Men

do american mags not hype up anything?

I'm trying to remember the last actually hyped American band that had zero success; even The Click 5 had like one hit song.

I don't know if Christiana DeBarge was actually megahyped but she performed on So You Think You Can Dance once and then was never heard from again

even big n rich sell records right?

they sell FUCKTONS of records!

58. Andrew WK

^ yeah!

Not sure I understand the meaning of the word "megahyped" in re: half these bands

57. Dave Matthews Band (in the UK)

but dmb were never hyped in the uk. Probably never even written about. Noone outside of ilm has probably heard them in the uk!

I remember a huge poster campaign! 'Who is Dave Matthews?'

56. clap your hands and say yeah

55. kula shaker

Andrew WK was fairly successful. WTF

yeah those idiots probably think they're actually enjoying being in their band

FISCHERSPOONER

^otm

yeah moka imho yr thing is interesting and might yield some good groans and lols, but different enough to have its own thread. equivalent or overlapping with bands that got megahyped and it was enough to give them a moment of success but the public didn't really buy it and they disappeared back whence they came - your duncan sheiks and jimmy rays, and their indie equivalents (where mgmt miiiiiight qualify but idk then we're just doing one-album wonders... they have fans and still put out music).

kelly clarkson is ludicrous though.

Not trolling on Kelly Clarkson it’s been years since I heard about her didn’t know she was still huge in the US.

Color me underwhelmed...from Justin to this!??

But yeah my examples are on the wrong thread was thinking of diminishing returns rather than undelivered promises.

Kinda happens with most artists

I've not listened to it in donkeys years but I remember quite liking the Terris debut EP. Live they were very good too, in an intense way. The debut album was fucking awful, though.

I've literally never heard of Voxtrot before today.

I've literally never heard of Voxtrot before today.

me neither.
i am going to have to try and find that terris album this weekend aren't i.
pretty sure i found a skinny promo cd-r in the bins around the time they were being hyped, but not sure i ever actually listened to it.

I'd say the fact that they didn't get on too well with each other was the main reason they split.

― Gholdfish Killah (Turrican)

maybe. they got back together some years back. they do pretty well as a cult prog band appealing to the cardiacs set - they were just never going to be the Monsters of Britpop the NME thought they were after hearing "Kurt Russell".

Jimmie Ray..... my god, flashbacks

What was that guy all about

who wants to know

Metz seems kind of unfair to list here. They have a niche and they fill it.

I'm guessing the new freebie NME doesn't have the space to hype obvious chancers any more, I kind of miss that now it's gone.

I'd always assumed The Vines were an answer to this question but fuck me their debut sold 1.5m copies. How big do you need to be to do that these days?

ha, the Vines were my first thought when I saw this thread title, too.

Would someone like Jay Electronica count? He got a ton of hype and co-signs back in 2007 but then has released 2 solo songs and about a dozen guest verses since then.

Jay Electronica is a great pick for the niche level of hype he got

Jimmy Ray was hyped? Moreso than those other 90s one-hit-wonder acts like Marcy Playground or the “This is the story of a girl who cried a river and drowned the whole world” band?

Obie Trice
Lupe Fiasco

Did anyone care about Obie once?

Normani (after all that hype her debut album only got up to #91 on the album charts. oof.)

Canadian version, circa the turn of the millennium:

- J. Englishman
- his sister Esthero
- Robin Fucking Black
- Jordy Birch's Fun Machine

I knew I was forgetting one:

- Adam Cohen

Lauryn Hill

I joke I joke

The concept of this thread is a bit confusing to me. Usually when an artist is getting megahyped is at the peak of their fame - which is accompanied by a massive hit single or album -, and failing miserably implies not following it up with a great single or album. So this makes every one hit wonder and artist that failed to get a successful follow-up album eligible for this thread. And that makes pretty much 99 out of 100 artists eligible.

Some artists do fail upwards where their follow up albums/singles are huge financial failures but are adored by critics or viceversa.

Mika hosted Eurovision in 2022

Isn't MIKA's mega year and then subsequent dropoff pretty consistent with other BBC Sound Of/BRITs Critics Choice Award types? Makes me think of Emeli Sande, James Bay, La Roux (who I don't think held either of those titles and is obviously the best of this bunch but)

MIKA had no fewer than six songs I must have heard a hundred times in 2007 and early 2008 though. Man he was big.

And yeah I haven't contributed to this thread til now because I feel like it can be interpreted from so many different ways or at least enough that I feel the list is endless beyond endless.

Actually I do want to mention Jonathan Wilkes. Such was Robbie's cultural cachet at the time that his mate could get a deal with Virgin amid a lot of forced publicity but the first - and only - single failed and it was curtains for him.

https://www.nme.com/news/music/jonathan-wilkes-1374575

ROBBIE WILLIAMS‘ flatmate JONATHAN WILKES has reportedly been dropped by his record label after failing to breach the Top 20 with his debut single ‘JUST ANOTHER DAY’ earlier this year.

The singer, whose career was launched with a flurry of publicity around his friendship with Williams and an intensive promotional campaign which included a Los Angeles video shoot and US junkets for journalists, may yet attempt to pursue a pop career in Europe, according to The Sun newspaper.

The single only reached Number 23 in the UK charts in March. Today’s (July 30) Sun, quotes an insider at record label Virgin, whose offshoot Innocent Wilkes was signed to, as saying that bad timing was to blame for his lack of success.

This might qualify for the other thread actually.

Wilkes then went on to host You've Been Framed! for under a year before the show got rid of having a visible host or set altogether.

“We were very disappointed with Jonathan’s chart position and it was just no longer right for us to continue our relationship with him. The timing was not right for him but it has been an amicable end of the contract,” they said.