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

Oh man, there was this band called Zeno who apparently had a "million pound deal" (whatever that actually means) with EMI around 1986. They made it to the front cover of Kerrang, the album flopped and everyone had forgotten about them 2 weeks later. The main guy was Uli Jon Roth's brother btw, didn't help much though. Here's what they sounded like :

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

Would Pink Lady qualify for this thread?

was that Jonathan Fire Eater album ever any good?

I thought so. Better than the Walkmen, which might be damning them with faint praise.

In fairness, though, 99% of bands are better than the Walkmen...

O-Town

Atanas

(this will make sense only to the Detroiters out there)

I'm surprised no one mentioned Terence Trent D'Arby. He was mega successful during his first album run, then went bat shit crazy afterwards. Even changed his name to something horrible.

i thought of mentioning him, but then i thought maybe his was more a case of self-hyping? also iirc i think there is big ilx love for him, and given the way ppl reacted when i tried to suggest los lobos, listing terence might have resulted in death threats

Saigon
The Replacements (Don't Tell a Soul era--Remember the "Last Best Band of the 80s" ads?)

Would Pink Lady qualify for this thread?

I'm not really comfortable listing them given how popular they were in their native Japan.

xxxxpost to pfunkboy,

Did Kix have a long lasting successful career?

First there was a late period rock radio, pre-MTV domination moment where "Body Talk" got some airplay. Then I worked with a guy who was ex-army and possibly east coast origin that unironically loved Kix. By that I mean in his Mustang, he had multiple Kix tapes. A few years later, they had one of their biggest hits,and, unrelated I started reading a prominent writer upping their stuff.

I don't know. It was cool to read about someone hyping a band I liked but barely knew, and that band had big fans, and the big moment was really good.

(barely related) - When Johnny Cougar acts like a tired old man, I want to tell him "Shit dude, you are rich. We bought your records and those suits ripped you off. You are better off than Kix, but Kix rocked too. They got paid and still exist in some form. Just like the Johnny Cougar band. Why are you dragging me."

So Kix, were small time famous, and got full label push once or twice, but they earned it with fan base, and people that like them after the fact, just kind of get off on rockin out etc.

very similar to Kula Shaker.

Cherie

And here's more on Carly Hennessy

Ryan Adams?

he didn't "fail spectacularly" but he was heavily hyped as the hope of cornball mainstream rock - call him the Lone Justice of the early 2000s

I'm surprised no one mentioned Terence Trent D'Arby. He was mega successful during his first album run,

.. and you have just answered yr own surprise, as TTD didn't ..

.. oh I suppose he did 'fail' megaspectacularly, but then he did succeed megaspec as well...

I kinda wonder if there will be anymore attempts to hype artists like Ryan Adams or Lone Justice- plucked from a scene with a little bit of following and momentum, then hairsprayed into a mainstream package. Either could have dawdled in the roots rock scene for as a modest career, but they ended up with neither credibility nor huge sales. Seems like big labels either wait for acts to develop everything on their own, or an act is cultivated in-house from the start now.

but Terence Trent D'Arby was really only a failure in the USA (and he was a failure after the "wishing well" record) ... i understand he was pretty big in some European countries right?!?

lone justice were kinda dull, and ryan adams is kind of a douche. that might have had as much to do w/ why neither act really became huge.

Ryan Adams also didn't help his cause by releasing like 27 albums a year.

Who are Relient K and why does MTV seem to be pimping them so much?

http://posterscene.com/images/items/full/vandyke1.jpg

I had always heard that Bob Marley's initial attempts to break America (circa Catch a Fire and Burnin') were huge hype failures for Island Records, but the only real hint I could find was this original Rolling Stone review of Live!, which was released a couple years later and has the same attitude. "Whom does Island expect to buy records like this?" Ha!

"every time i plant a seed, he said 'kill them before they grow'" indeed!

VH1 and CMT are full successful acts that are dull and douchey, though. Just not ones that own X albums.

Ryan Adams may not have ended up a mainstream rock saviour, but he sells out 2,000 seat venues here in ATX to an absolutely rabid fanbase. I'd hardly say that's a failure.

whats that 'how we lost £35,509.50 on the album of the year' thing?

$ sorry

voxtrot!!

http://vandykeparks.com/miscfiles/musician852.html

Tangentially related plus I wanted to vent about this wasteman article from yesterday, opinion4u-based URL onwards: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/flavour-of-the-week-will-our-obsession-with-newness-finish-fledgling-bands-careers-before-they-have-even-started-2086665.html

really glad to be lectured about supposedly ever-decreasing hype cycles by a dude who immediately goes on to proudly relate how his job consists of looking at the same MP3 blogs as every other cunt out there and selecting the exact same buzzbands to briefly highlight

Some to add:

Nymphs - In early 90s, some were convinced that they were gonna be huge, or at least Janes Addiction-style huge. Flop.

Hothouse Flowers - To an extent, anyhow. The first album was a classic case of shipped gold and returned platinum, with the record label insistent that they were going to be the next U2 while the public was all "Whooo??" I guess they found a dedicated audience that was smaller than anticipated so they probably don't count.

Transvision Vamp - These guys were gonna be huge. So far as I can remember the album flopped bigtime.

haha Nymphs fucked up when Inger Lorre took a piss on the desk of the MD of their record label.

Man I remember them in Kerrang & Raw all the time, not even thought about them in 15 years.

transvision vamp were huge in australia

(and also kinda underrated these days - the first album belongs alongside the primitives and darling buds as great buzzsaw pop records)

I somehow have two Transvision Vamp albums but remember nothing of them now other than the singles.

i remember wendy james

first album was successful enough generally, wasn't it? then they fell off so hard that the third album was ONLY released in Australia, where it also flopped

haha Nymphs fucked up when Inger Lorre took a piss on the desk of the MD of their record label.

These days the only way they could fuck up by doing that is by not shooting video of it and then posting it on YouTube!

Bis? Iirc they hit their high point in terms of visibility before they released anything (their TOTP performance).

Also, while we're repping failed "next U2s of the 80s": In Tua Nua.

before they released anything (their TOTP performance).

not really true, they had 3 singles out by that point, including the secret vampire soundtrack 45 which is what they were on TOTP in support of

oh man i missed the end of the countdown so i missed out on adding:

Big Pig
Saigon Kick
Enuff Z'nuff

Transvision Vamp - These guys were gonna be huge. So far as I can remember the album flopped bigtime.

They did have a number of hits. Plus they are also one of the most important influences on more recent teenybopper punkpop.

re Bis: and a split on a Spanish label iirc?

quite a few of the recent examples saw dece success in non UK/US markets tho. bis were colossal in japan for a while, big pig had a top 5 album and a handful of hit singles in Aus (though the album probably didn't do much better than 100k overall)

the acuarela one wasn't a split but they did a split on guided missile (or was it slampt) too i think

last bit xpost obv

whoops no, got confused: first single was on an actual spanish label, split (4-ways!) was on a UK label with a we no speak americano name

x-post too! split was on Ché

ah yes

"buy Intendo CD from CDNow"

solitary links that effortlessly sum up the late '90s

Rubber Rodeo

I'm always suprised US ppl even mention Big Pig - they were known of outide of Oz? What next, Boom Crash Opera, big in Hungaria?