Artists/bands that were once quite popular, yet nowadays are mostly ignored in canonical history books

There aren't really many of those, they understandably tend to focus on jazz. Only singers you may have heard of from the era are Enrico Caruso, Bert Williams and Al Jolson, who was around from 1910 or so.

Obviously people who were around in the early '90s still remember East 17

Are the names Billy Murray, Eddie Morton, Ada Jones, Billy Williams or Harry Lauder familiar?

Sorry, should've qualified that as "Europeans". I don't think East 17 made any impression on the other side of the pond?

Xpost

Are the names Billy Murray, Eddie Morton, Ada Jones, Billy Williams or Harry Lauder familiar?

I feel like genres/scenes that have fallen into obscurity as a whole is a somewhat different phenomenon than individual bands becoming forgotten, even if others in the same genre are still remembered.

yeah, maybe that's right. But I feel this is already the not-too-far-off fate of most jazz too. I went to see the new Miles Davis documentary at the cinema last week, think I may have been the only person under 60 there.

Big & Rich

Wings and Stone Temple Pilots seem like interesting answers upthread. I still hear both regularly on rock radio but idk if they get written about much in canonical history books. Neither is obscure, certainly.

Arrested Development? Midnight Oil (in North America)?

Tbh, canonical histories were never meant to reflect contemporary popularity. Selectivity is the whole point of canonization (unless you are asking about history books that are themselves canonical). My answers are more like "artists who were popular and critically feted and are now comparatively ignored in both popular and critical outlets".

Bruce Hornsby once seemed like a pretty big deal.

i just googled Ben Folds because i couldn't remember what he was called

unless you are asking about history books that are themselves canonical

Basically what I meant are history books that are supposed to be fairly comprehensive histories of a certain era/scene, yet they ignore certain artists despite them being popular in that scene/era. I'm not talking about "rock canon" or "jazz canon" type of books, which of course are already quite selective in who they choose to celebrate.

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/bruce-hornsby-absolute-zero/

And yeah, Arrested Development is a good pick. Midnight Oil I've never even heard of.

(xpost)

When that Woodstock anniversary hit earlier this year a lot of people poited out what a big (and now mostly forgotten) act Canned Heat was at the time

went to see Violent Femmes open up for Ben Folds (was trying to be open minded and stay for him but then third song was a new comedy song called "Moscow Mitch" and I was like peace out) but anyway he still draws a surprisingly big crowd

tbf me forgetting stuff is no evidence of absence from the public consciousness :D

A housemate had a canned heat best-of cd around the year 2000, it sounded not bad, have realised since that many of their songs are almost note-for-note remakes of old blues records though.

Folds hasn't disappeared at all: https://www.kennedy-center.org/Artist/A56261

I guess the entire once-popular sub-genre of late 60s blues rock has been ground down to a few remembered artists/songs over the decades

I'm pretty sure I still hear "Beds are burning" by Midnight Oil from time to time. I guess they have become a one hit wonder retrospectively (as far as I can remember they were a pretty big deal at the time, though their popularity was before I started paying attention to music).

A very faithful cover of Going up the Country by Canned Heat was used for this UK tv ad a couple of years ago:

http://adturds.co.uk/2018/05/21/robinsons-refreshd-advert-straw-donkeys/robinsons-robinsons-added-a-cover-video-fbdown-net/

Yeah, that was #1 in Canada and is among the first popular songs I can remember being aware of just because it was ubiquitous. "Blue Sky Mine" was top 10 too and I might prefer it. I can't recall hearing either without putting them on myself in a long time but I could be wrong. xp

Canned Heat's "On the Road Again" got regular classic rock play on our local station when I was growing up but not sure about now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=sYy716zmXcM

Billy Squier had some great arena rock songs in the early 80s that still get tons of airplay on classic rock stations. But now he is more well known for the Rock Me Tonight video, widely regarded as the worst music video ever made.

Surely "The Stroke" is better known?

Samantha Fox?

surely "Fix Up Look Sharp" is better known?

Someone mentioned the Waterboys 11 years ago--I just saw a CW show with teens dancing to "This is the Sea"

surely "Fix Up Look Sharp" is better known?

This is not well-known in North America. "99 Problems" otoh

The The - quite popular + VERY critically acclaimed - nowadays i'm not sure many people listen and the press certainly aren't interested.

same for Lloyd Cole? but maybe thats uk specific

When The The played at Heartland festival last year there was a full crowd, and people travelled from far away. I think they're a cult act, but the cult seems aware.

"Beaten Generation" is the only The The song I saw on MTV

Same (well, MuchMusic but). Scanning Wikipedia, it seems like they were a lot bigger in other countries.

Still regularly hear This Is The Day

Paul Revere & the Raiders

Do the Fat Boys get much coverage in history books?

they feature heavily in Piskor's Hop Hop Family Tree

I always think of Cream when these conversations come up. Sure, every boomer still loves Clapton, but it's weird to look back on how huge they were and what a footnote they seem like now.

They're still a classic rock staple, surely? "Sunshine of Your Love" still a guitar lesson favourite ime. I don't know how you could tell the history of heavy rock without touching on them in any case.

What about Grand Funk Railroad. They must have been the hugest rock band in America 1970-1975, but it seems when they're spoken of at all these days it's in relation to their successful approach to marketing, or they're identified as the band with which the proles reclaimed rock from the intellectuals, but you never really hear about how their music fits in.

Do the Fat Boys get much coverage in history books?

weren't they always considered to be a bit of a gimmick?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXKmsvRXE4A

It seems there are quite a few bands who still get played on radio, but critics have little to say about them these days

Maybe. Going by their chart history at Billboard, the Fat Boys had five top 100 albums in the US, including Crushin', which peaked at #8 and stayed on the Hot 200 for 49 weeks; two top 40 singles; and 14 songs that made the hip-hop/R&B chart.

2xp

Pretty much everybody involved in the entire genre of early-to-mid-80s R&B that wasn’t Prince or MJ. We’re talking pre-rap era here. This would be your D-Train, The Jets, The Whispers, Dazz Band, DeBarge, Billy Ocean, Atlantic Starr, Alexander O’Neal, LeVert. Hell I bet even Rick James would’ve faded into obscurity if he hadn’t gotten lucky and had “Super Freak” sampled by MC Hammer.

I feel like Kid Creole and the Coconuts are way way underrated by history. Perhaps they're seen more as a novelty act?