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

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

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

That really worked, didn't it?

^ a million selling album is a failure?

John Mayer is consistently regarded as the hit singer over here, except his hit total is one album on the chart here for 1 week.

Check: Dreamworks roster circa 2000. Cupcakes (industry hype), Palo Alto (Rick Rubin producing)...

Kula Shaker did alright!

54. Joe Lean and the Jing Fucking Jang Fucking Jong.

^ thanx for nothing there, mike

^ had erased them from my memory till then

In the interests of useful info rather than self-plugging, here's a piece I co-wrote five years ago where the likes of Orlando, Birdland and Brinsley Schwarz explained what went wrong. We got curt refusals from Gay Dad and Terris.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2005/jan/28/2

I have a promo copy of Joe Lean's unreleased debut. It will be worth literally pennies one day.

Oh man, World of Twist :(

Any band that gets megahyped in the US is already popular. Milli Vanilli is probably the closest I can think of to a group that turned hype into spectacular failure.

Proteges and familiar relations of successful artists/industry-folks have that big push and fail in the U.S. all the time.

I have a promo copy of Joe Lean's unreleased debut. It will be worth literally pennies one day.

I have an ultra-collectible six-track promo CD of the self-same lost masterpiece! Unfortunately, it is unplayable on any CD player which I possess.

where the likes of Orlando, Birdland and Brinsley Schwarz explained what went wrong.

Birdland were successful! They brought me and my wife together.

so in the US, hype from indie mags doesn't count as hype? cuz that's just what most of the UK examples are.

32 Birdland Sleep With Me Single Feb 1990

Well, the hype I was originally alluding to was the "big spend on advertising"...

Can you buy good coverage from the UK indie mags?

Answers on a postcard...

there must have been loads of hype for garage and jungle acts too

Scene-specific dance acts have their own criteria for success though.

In dance music, Alex Reece was a big flop but so was every "crossover" drum'n'bass act really. Even Goldie and Reprazent lost momentum very quickly.

Also on Dreamworks: Chicks

53. Credit To The Nation

Hype from "indie mags" means something completely different, and a much much lower level of attention, in the USA.

has ms dynamite ever been seen again?

I see her in the shops buying sweets for her kids sometimes.

And Lady Sovereign's the one selling her the sweets

Lisa Mafia on Sov's days off.

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?