Acts that sold well but didn't really have a following

Kind of the flipside to this thread

Bands whose fans were their own subculture

What bands or artists had plenty of hits, often featured high on things like festival bills etc but somehow you never hear people talk about in terms of fandom?

This thread inspired by me thinking about the Lightning Seeds apropos of nothing

There are so many American radio rock bands like this. I mean, who would say out loud where other people could hear them, "Yeah, I'm a big 3 Doors Down fan"?

Hang out with normal people instead of music nerds and you'd find plenty who'd say that!

Maroon 5?

I know these bands have actual fans and play to big audiences, but it’s hard to think of anyone being excited about them.

I also think of like PM Dawn, who sold well but were openly disrespected by the hip hop community.

Thinking about Space (the UK Britpop one, not the better French space disco one) who had a run of EIGHT top 20 singles (well one got to number 21 but close) yet I never met anyone considered themself to be a fan - though I met plenty of people who had bought one or more of their singles.

I've met a few Lightning Seeds fans over the years.

For a 1970s-era example I shall nominate Bad Company. Sold 40 million albums (!) but I can't imagine them being more than a band that several million people quite liked, rather than loved. Although there was apparently some guy who was covered in Wishbone Ash tattoos, so maybe there are Bad Company mega-fans too, living their lives in a parasocial relationship with Mick Ralphs or whoever.

Maroon 5 feels like a good answer, their super bowl halftime show felt like a scales falling from the eyes event, just a mass appalled realization that this was what was considered a superstar group.

OK Go maybe fits here too.

Are there still Sha Na Na super fans other than Andy Daly’s Hot Dog character?

Also feels like UK charts were full of this stuff in the 2010s. Are there really Jess Glynn fans out there? Jessie J fans? Rita Ora fans?

foghat

I'm sure I counted myself as a Space fan back in the day of their first album when I was a teenager, went to see them live and enthused about 'Neighbourhood'. My friends and I loved the album. But no, no one really bangs on about them in fond terms or goes around wearing their t shirts and stuff.

PM Dawn literally had a lyric that went "I wanted her to be a big PM Dawn fan / But I had to put her back with the rest / That's the way

Oops

..."that's the way it goes / I guess".

They couldn't even get one fan

I thought Maroon 5 have fans, non? Isn't Adam Levine considered a bit of a mainstream heartthrob?

I have met Maroon 5 fans, I don't get it but they are out there.

Weren't there Jesse J fans on this here board? (i.e. The Lex).

wouldn't really count astonishment at someone's ridiculousness the same as being a fan.

will say though, Jessie J is HUGE in China now, she saw an opportunity there and she took it.

Now and again I meet a hardcore fan of someone who I'd never think of as having hardcore fans, eg someone at work being really into Delta Goodrem, so I draw back from thinking there are any big acts without proper fans/followings.

Then again I imagine Lightning Seeds fans existing, but just quietly saying to people they know that Ian Broudie is actually a genius, and maybe that feels distinct from active visible subcultures/internet brigades.

Not sure what my point is but yes I would like to see 'juggalos, but for the lightning seeds'.

It is telling that the Lightning Seeds sold loads of records in the 90s but these days only seem to be playing smaller concert halls. I saw them open for Squeeze in 2010 and people clapped politely but no one was particularly arsed they were there

They weren't even a live band until Jollification, so wonder if that has anything to do with it

Supergrass. You never meet any hardcore Supergrass fans do you?

I knew a guy who had a Supergrass cardboard promo in his apartment when

Not sure where when came from

My wife is a Supergrass fan

Back in the day I remember them being described as "everybody's second favorite band".

"Reality Used To Be A Friend of Mine" still a theme song of mine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AtHRBFIzBA

Some of us Prince fans liked 'em too, just seemed logical.

But in the 60s, The Grass Roots and everybody else (with any hits, at least) had an fan club: so some kind of following, of whatever size, duration, intensity.
Pamela Des Barres (Miss Pamela of the GTOs) got into rockland Hollywood by running the Captain Beefheart Fan Club in middle school, as she specifies in I'm With The Band---so yes even he, being some kind of optimistic about hits, like any others. (And who wouldn't want a fan club?)

Supergrass absolutely had and have a following.

the number of Gaz Coombes threads on ILM alone proves this

the "pm dawn fan" line is from their first hit, obv not some kind of statement on the type of 'following' they inspired (or didn't)

Did Status Quo have an actual following?

yes, I remember when they did a guiness world record most gigs in a day thing, it was about 1990, they used a helicopter to get between them or sth, there were a gang of hardcore Quo fans aged 10-12 who were trying to follow them

Seriously? Of course they did!

I'm not from the UK nor alive in the 70s, so Status Quo is very much a blind spot and a mystery to me.

They did Picture of Matchstick Men, right?

They had seriously hardcore fans - and no doubt still have.

yeah I feel like this thread is gonna be condemned to being "acts whose fans I don't know of because our demographics don't mix"

Quo had multiple hits in the 1990s with shit medleys of rock & roll hits over the same chugging boogie rhythm

I seem to recall Steve Malkmus being a very outspoken fan of Status Quo

Status Quo fans were known as the Quo Army. They also had their own fan chant! I'd say that was a following.

think it's easier to think fondly of Quo if you (as an American) know them as a decent psych-rock one hit wonder and not (as a britisher) as a band with more hits than the beatles across four decades, most of which are both samey and shit. when they used to turn up for totp with another 5-minute medleys my heart would sink.

Like Steven Malkmus, I will defend them up till about 1976. After that forget it.

I only know them for the song they did with Scooter

I saw a tabloid headline some years ago with one Quo saying "I hardly think about the other Quo", who had recently passed away. Not quite as sad as Ray Davies spending most of his set when I saw him slagging off Dave (though can't say I was surprised), but kinda sad.

I'm not a Quo fan but most of their 70s hits were OK and some were great.

Yeah, early 70s Quo albs are great, more varied than their reputation suggests and sometimes surprisingly heavy. Fans of AC/DC or Thin Lizzy would definitely have a good time with recs like Quo from 74. Even now they're touring reasonably sized venues - and seem to be very popular in Germany

https://www.statusquo.co.uk/tour

Supergrass were the favourite band of Nicky Graham (RIP) of Big Brother UK stardom
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXOV2zeN61o

There are so many American radio rock bands like this. I mean, who would say out loud where other people could hear them, "Yeah, I'm a big 3 Doors Down fan"?

― Tahuti Watches L&O:SVU Reruns Without His Ape (unperson), Saturday, February 10, 2024 12:40 PM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Hang out with normal people instead of music nerds and you'd find plenty who'd say that!

― the most powerful man in cornish politics (Matt #2), Saturday, February 10, 2024 12:46 PM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Saw someone in a Three Doors Down t-shirt last month, and it's rare that I see anyone wearing a band shirt (other than those that are being endlessly printed and available everywhere, like Def Leppard and Nirvana)

Are there still Sha Na Na super fans other than Andy Daly’s Hot Dog character?

― B. Amato (Boring, Maryland)

probably not, but even when i was a fan i never really knew any of the members except bowzer, whose career has gone full will smith since he started appearing in the "super mario bros" series of games

I feel like P!nk fits the bill. I mean I know she has fans, but they don't have a name like the other pop girls'fanbases. It seems like she's always a bit under the radar for someone of her stature.

someone hasn't been to australia

P!nk was playing stadiums on her last US tour.

She's a good fit for that stage where you think they aren't popular anymore but are actually way more popular than they were when they had "buzz"

Stereo MC’s took even longer than Elastica and Utah Saints to release a sophomore album

Elastica took five years to put out their second album
Utah Saints took seven years to put out their second album

Stereo MCs put out their second album the year after their first

correct, I know a few very big Pink fans - both of whom I wouldn't have expected. they're just under the radar.

I'm not sure P!nk is bigger than ever - seems like every album since Funhouse has done a bit worse than the one before it - but the fact that her albums reliably hit 1 or 2 on the charts and she is such a massive live draw is evidence that she very much does have a strong following.

One of the interesting features of both P!nk and Taylor Swift is that both started with debut albums that in retrospect seem like genre-exercises that now don't much feature in most people's conceptions of them as artists.

(both are excellent albums in my opinion - in P!nk's case I'm not sure she ever bettered it)

Surely Stereo MCs had many proper fans in the early 90s, they just killed their momentum by taking 9 years to follow up their big album. Seems it managed number 17, got no memory of their return though

Any lifelong Napoleon XIV fans?

pink is definitely past her peak popularity but she's still playing stadiums & at her peak she was doing 60-date tours of australia which was completely ridiculous, suburban mums adore her here

Pink probably past peak popularity.

yeah I'm also surprised how big she is, has she had a big hit since Lets Get the Party Started? A song I have not heard in about 25 years? am I that out of it? she seems like a very cool person though I'm happy she's been so successful

At one point Pink filled the role that someone has filled since Alannis at least-- female pop singer who sometimes curses and makes angry songs. Right now it's several people, but mainly Olivia Rodrigo.

I know about her Australian success, but here in North America it feels different. She has lots of hits and plays arenas and her live shows have a good reputation.
But we're talking about followings, and it seems like everybody likes her but she's no one's favorite.

I don't think that's the case.

Like how can you be playing Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia with $80+ tickets 7 years after your last top 40 single if you don't have a following?

i assume "so what" wasn't quite as utterly inescapable for years in america as it was here but it looks like it still went to #1

yeah I'm also surprised how big she is, has she had a big hit since Lets Get the Party Started? A song I have not heard in about 25 years? am I that out of it? she seems like a very cool person though I'm happy she's been so successful

― frogbs,

She's had about 7000 hits since then, though she peaked about a decade ago. Her live shows are legendary.

"Get the Party Started" for her is like "Shake It Off" for Taylor Swift, the one song that non-fans can recall or that ever registered with them.

oh wow you're not kidding

Like how can you be playing Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia with $80+ tickets 7 years after your last top 40 single if you don't have a following?

Great live act with mainstream appeal. They should give her the Super Bowl half time slot. How have Maroon 5 and Katy Perry done it, but not her ?

Yeah and I mean while everybody hates maroon 5 and Katy Perry, everybody pretty much likes pink afaict

I feel like P!nk must have a pretty big following in the UK

I feel like P!nk fits the bill. I mean I know she has fans, but they don't have a name like the other pop girls'fanbases. It seems like she's always a bit under the radar for someone of her stature.

― LeRooLeRoo

my ex-girlfriend is a _huge_ p!nk fan

she's also 40, i mean, i don't think 25 year olds are flocking to her concerts

It feels a bit like asking whether Black-Eyed Peas had a 'following' at the height of their commercial power. I guess it's a pretty loaded term.

i saw an odesza concert video recently (very corny) and it looks like they have a massive following.

Pink has a massive audience of middle-aged moms. I can't imagine any group of music fans less likely to draw — or be seen as worthy of — the attention of music journalists.

ime middle aged white women f'kn love p!nk - exclusively as a live act. i'm talking people who aren't even really music fans; sometimes they drive without even the freakin radio on! just a different mentality about how they engage with pop culture. but man! they love her!

xpost unperson - YES EXACTLY.

I HATE MUSIC BUT I LOVE P!NK

lol no PK not like that... i hesitate to say "casual music fan" because they love some folks enough to go see them live consistently.

but for fans like us, seeing live and wearing the shirt isn't the main engagement - it's really important to us, but we're about more than that with our engagement. not saying one is more/less valid than the other; just a big difference between them.

i have to end this with: the level of appreciation and knowledge about the music that's come from some p!nk fans who i've encountered is really remarkable and admirable. they were on that different tier of fandom but their enthusiasm was just as apparent as any obsessive record nerd.

I wouldn't consider myself a P!nk fan but if I look at a list of her singles I can sing the chorus to almost all of them. Feel like she's a staple "background music in semi-public settings" choice (or what in my head I consider "gym music").

Some of this reminds me of when I saw the James Last documentary. I had never heard of him (I definitely knew Pink) but he seems to be huge with people who aren't music nuts

That got me to thinking about Wet Wet Wet. They fell between so many stools - nestled in between Brother Beyond and Crowded House, which admittedly is a very large gap. They wrote their own material, so they weren't idiots, and their cover of "Love is All Around" was massive. Their albums consistently charted higher than their singles, which is odd for a pop band. Usually it's the other way around.

But then they split up and seemed to just evaporate. They've since reformed, with unspectacular results, especially compared to e.g. Take That. But even in their heyday I never had a feeling that they had a fanbase. They were slightly too mature to appeal to kids, nowhere near mature enough to appeal to fans of e.g. Level 42, and there was always a suspicion they were aimed at teenage girls, and yet they seemed to want to be the modern heirs of, I dunno, the Four Tops or whatever.

Oh Marti Pellow definitely had a huge fantasy in his time. A big heartthrob for people of a certain age

Yeah, I've met quite a few people who were big WWW fans.

My nomination is Hot Chocolate. Many years of hit singles, but I'm not sure there was ever much of a fanbase - it felt like their hits mostly became hits based on their individual merits.

Their frontman became a cop

Cop Chocolate

Wet Wet Wet were gigantic for over a decade but there was just no market for new music from them once they returned

Marti now appears to be solo and the others are now touring in a McBusted-type coalition with Go West

Errol Brown was never a policeman!

Tory, yes. Cop, no.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0VOJ0Z3vY0

my memory of the 70s includes a bunch of relatives who loved Hot Chocolate, Errol Brown is pretty much the definition of a human trademark

people loved Wet Wet Wet in their big hit years too

also i don't have deep knowledge of her whole career but there's a bunch of P!nk songs I love and i've done "Try" at karaoke way too often

most of this thread is "acts that individual posters have at best tangential knowledge of" tbf

And he sang Imagine at a Tory conference in the 1980s, never forget.

Who? Marti Pellow?

Not long after I moved to Glasgow, someone said to me that 'they're very loyal to their artists up here', and they were right, WWW/MP can still easily fill decent size venues up here even now (that's when Marti isn't doing panto/musical theatre). See also: Fairground Attraction/Eddi Reader, Texas.

Hot Chocolate cop:

Original guitarist Franklyn De Allie (born 1944) later became a police officer, and died in Warwick, Bermuda in 2018.[17]

And xps Errol Brown was the tory.

Any Scottish band that has some success remains a big deal to the Daily Record/Sunday Mail until the end