Really interesting post. From the other direction: The Outfield sounded about as American as a band could manage, "Your Love" was everywhere over there yet they were a London trio barely anyone at home had heard of. My dad worked with them, which makes me one of the few people in Britain who'd have recognised the name. And the Blur inversion is lovely: a band who defined a British decade, reduced in the States to "Song 2," (or as most of my American friends call it, 'the woo hoo song') the one track that sounds least like them. The Atlantic does odd things to a back catalogue.
Yes, one could (and maybe I should) write a completely separate look at how Britpop pretty much was ignored nearly entirely in the US (not so much the fans, but the music press, radio stations, etc.)
Yes! When I moved from the US to the UK, I was shocked to find so many names in music and entertainment that I didn't know, and how different the musical tastes were.
I think you've put your finger of a big difference with sentimentality. And like the Japanese Brits love things that are 'twee,' and they've always put the quirky on a pedestal, two things that are often looked down upon in US culture.
Some of the bands and artists you name are ones I only discovered when I arrived there. Another one was Take That (and Robbie Williams as a solo act), who had had only one hit in the US but were absolutely huge there. I'm now a big fan myself but find none of my US friends and family know who they are.
Eurovision and euro-pop, Americans would wonder "Is this a joke? C'mon, get real!"
No, not at all. They were put together by a manager who originally planned to break them on the gay scene, so they cut their teeth playing gay clubs (even though a couple of the band members were too young to go to such clubs). They then played an under-18s night by accident and discovered that teenage girls loved them.
A school-assembly tour and lots of teen magazine and kid’s TV appearances followed, until they eventually had a hit.
Once they had got rolling they were absolutely massive. Their sound was a mix of dance-pop and northern soul/New Jack Swing until Back For Good, a classic ballad and their only US hit.
They broke up in 1996, reunited as a four-piece with a very Coldplay-influenced soft rock-pop sound, and had another run of massive U.K. hits (though not so much in the rest of Europe), then Robbie Williams re-joined and they had a massive hit with a more electro-pop influenced album that was huge in the U.K. and across Europe.
Robbie only stayed for one album and tour, another member also left, and they have continued as a trio since. It has been quite a while since they have had a hit single but they are on a U.K. stadium tour right now.
I didn't know their background having arrived in the mid-noughties, so I'm glad to learn all that. I could understand why they were huge in the UK, never got why they didn't have more hits in the US. But then so many Americans didn't know Oasis either (and still don't), which is also a head-scratcher.
Take That’s timing just did not work for the US market - they inspired Lou Pearlman to form the Backstreet Boys and N’Sync but the American boyband phase happened during their hiatus.
I understand that they were one of the boy bands put together in the wake of New Kids on the Block's success, built around the charismatic and talented Gary Barlow, who was already performing in clubs and writing songs. Howard, Jason, Mark, and Robbie were then recruited (I think through ads). They wanted guys who could sing and dance, and Jason had already been dancing on TV. Robbie was the 'bad boy' and eventually went solo to great success in the UK and internationally but not in the US despite moving to LA and marrying an American.
I suspect the group grew out of their boy band era and had to regroup and come back as an 'adult' band, but they were certainly beloved by the UK public the almost two decades I lived there.
There's an equivalent list to be made for movies. When I inform British acquaintances that no one in the US has even heard of _Shallow Grave_ or _The Dam Busters_, I get nothing but shock and disbelief.
Yeah, Slade seemed like they were a big deal here for a year or so. But that was mostly just one album, yet they had 14 other albums that were mostly ignored.
I wasn’t there, obviously, so I don’t know for sure how they were received but it looks that they were consistently in the Top 20 for singles, and Top 5 for albums, between 71-75. There definitely was a drop off in popularity starting in 1976.
Great article.. I always wondered why The Jam, The Undertones and a lot of the New Wave bands never made it over in the US. Conversely, when I went back to the UK from Australia, it was interesting to see how many great Aussie and NZ bands, Cold Chisel, Hoodoo Gurus, Icehouse, Split Enz, Midnight Oil and the like, never made a lasting impression outside that country.
How about the entire '60s decade of Brit-Girl pop? Cilla Black, Dusty Springfield, Lulu, Petula Clark, Susan Maugham, etc. I discovered them through their Bacharach covers but none had more than a couple of cross-over hits in the States. An entire neglected genre in my opinion.
Petula was pretty big in the US in the mid-late 60's, heard many of her songs on the radio in Boston. My familiar had the album that contained Downtown.
Many songs? Maybe Downtown and It's a Sign of the Times. Outside of the US she was a huge international star. Same with Dusty until Dusty in Memphis. Son of a Preacher man? Ugggh.
How about the entire '60s decade of Brit-Girl pop? Cilla Black, Dusty Springfield, Lulu, Petula Clark, Susan Maugham, etc. I discovered them through their Bacharach covers but none had more than a couple of cross-over hits in the States. An entire neglected genre in my opinion.
Yes the great Status Quo don't mean much over here but they were big in South America. My wife & I saw them at BB Kings in NYC and we were the only non latinos there, Mexican flags and Football jerseys were abundant.
Donny is on "Crazy Horses" playing keyboards.
Nowt wrong with David Essex's "Rock On" - a cool song.
Sweet influencing Slade? You're having a laugh mate - 2 totally different bands.
I don’t think I said that Sweet actually influenced Slade, rather that they helped contribute to the growth/spread of glam, which helped open the door for other bands. Of course I may be wrong …
Talking of: I think Slade were the first band to marry meat & potatoes working class "rock" and Beatles chord voicings, way before Oasis. Famously John Lennon heard Noddy sing and said "that fella's got a helluva voice." And listen to B sides and deep album cuts like "Set me free" and you will see why I describe Sweet as "the glam band that really wanted to be Deep Purple!"
Growing up in the Boston area I heard Montego Bay and Double Barrel on AM radio. Telegram Sam too, but didn't hear Metal Guru until much later on San Francisco's KFOG's wonderful 10@10 show where Dave Morey would play ten songs from a given year. I caught up on a lot that I missed at the time that way.
As an American who avidly follows British and Euro pop/rock from the 50s to now, this has always been a perplexing problem. Why big there and not here? A lot of it was/is logistics--the expense of touring the USA is a major hurdle. Distribution of physical product and publicity expenses are another. Fortunately I've lived in urban areas where these artists leaked in via my non-American friends trading their CDs and LPs at used record stores, so I've had plenty of happy discoveries. My library included Horace Andy, Family, The Move, Cliff Richard, Small Faces, and other global exotica.
Really interesting post. From the other direction: The Outfield sounded about as American as a band could manage, "Your Love" was everywhere over there yet they were a London trio barely anyone at home had heard of. My dad worked with them, which makes me one of the few people in Britain who'd have recognised the name. And the Blur inversion is lovely: a band who defined a British decade, reduced in the States to "Song 2," (or as most of my American friends call it, 'the woo hoo song') the one track that sounds least like them. The Atlantic does odd things to a back catalogue.
Britpop generally. Pulp!
Yes, one could (and maybe I should) write a completely separate look at how Britpop pretty much was ignored nearly entirely in the US (not so much the fans, but the music press, radio stations, etc.)
Definitely!
Yes, absolutely! Supergrass too.
Yes! When I moved from the US to the UK, I was shocked to find so many names in music and entertainment that I didn't know, and how different the musical tastes were.
I think you've put your finger of a big difference with sentimentality. And like the Japanese Brits love things that are 'twee,' and they've always put the quirky on a pedestal, two things that are often looked down upon in US culture.
Some of the bands and artists you name are ones I only discovered when I arrived there. Another one was Take That (and Robbie Williams as a solo act), who had had only one hit in the US but were absolutely huge there. I'm now a big fan myself but find none of my US friends and family know who they are.
Eurovision and euro-pop, Americans would wonder "Is this a joke? C'mon, get real!"
Didn’t Take That originally spring forth from one of the TV shows?
No, not at all. They were put together by a manager who originally planned to break them on the gay scene, so they cut their teeth playing gay clubs (even though a couple of the band members were too young to go to such clubs). They then played an under-18s night by accident and discovered that teenage girls loved them.
A school-assembly tour and lots of teen magazine and kid’s TV appearances followed, until they eventually had a hit.
Once they had got rolling they were absolutely massive. Their sound was a mix of dance-pop and northern soul/New Jack Swing until Back For Good, a classic ballad and their only US hit.
They broke up in 1996, reunited as a four-piece with a very Coldplay-influenced soft rock-pop sound, and had another run of massive U.K. hits (though not so much in the rest of Europe), then Robbie Williams re-joined and they had a massive hit with a more electro-pop influenced album that was huge in the U.K. and across Europe.
Robbie only stayed for one album and tour, another member also left, and they have continued as a trio since. It has been quite a while since they have had a hit single but they are on a U.K. stadium tour right now.
I didn't know their background having arrived in the mid-noughties, so I'm glad to learn all that. I could understand why they were huge in the UK, never got why they didn't have more hits in the US. But then so many Americans didn't know Oasis either (and still don't), which is also a head-scratcher.
Take That’s timing just did not work for the US market - they inspired Lou Pearlman to form the Backstreet Boys and N’Sync but the American boyband phase happened during their hiatus.
I understand that they were one of the boy bands put together in the wake of New Kids on the Block's success, built around the charismatic and talented Gary Barlow, who was already performing in clubs and writing songs. Howard, Jason, Mark, and Robbie were then recruited (I think through ads). They wanted guys who could sing and dance, and Jason had already been dancing on TV. Robbie was the 'bad boy' and eventually went solo to great success in the UK and internationally but not in the US despite moving to LA and marrying an American.
I suspect the group grew out of their boy band era and had to regroup and come back as an 'adult' band, but they were certainly beloved by the UK public the almost two decades I lived there.
There's an equivalent list to be made for movies. When I inform British acquaintances that no one in the US has even heard of _Shallow Grave_ or _The Dam Busters_, I get nothing but shock and disbelief.
Yes! I’d add Brassed Off! And the original Fever Pitch. Also Billy Liar, Georgy Girl and all the Alec Guinness comedies.
Nice guest post!
I have a few thoughts:
1. I LOVED Slade's "Run Runaway" when it hit our shores, and (I might be mistaken here) "My Oh My" was released after "Run Runaway" in the U.S.
2. Easy answer to why Ottawan didn't hit here in the States. They made it big in 1980, by which point America was OVER disco. And it is VERY disco...
Yeah, Slade seemed like they were a big deal here for a year or so. But that was mostly just one album, yet they had 14 other albums that were mostly ignored.
I wasn’t there, obviously, so I don’t know for sure how they were received but it looks that they were consistently in the Top 20 for singles, and Top 5 for albums, between 71-75. There definitely was a drop off in popularity starting in 1976.
Great article.. I always wondered why The Jam, The Undertones and a lot of the New Wave bands never made it over in the US. Conversely, when I went back to the UK from Australia, it was interesting to see how many great Aussie and NZ bands, Cold Chisel, Hoodoo Gurus, Icehouse, Split Enz, Midnight Oil and the like, never made a lasting impression outside that country.
How about the entire '60s decade of Brit-Girl pop? Cilla Black, Dusty Springfield, Lulu, Petula Clark, Susan Maugham, etc. I discovered them through their Bacharach covers but none had more than a couple of cross-over hits in the States. An entire neglected genre in my opinion.
Yes, there was a lot that didn't cross over in the 60s, particularly the great artists you mention.
Yes, there was a lot that didn't cross over in the 60s, particularly the great artists you mention.
Yes, very much so! Well observed.
Petula was pretty big in the US in the mid-late 60's, heard many of her songs on the radio in Boston. My familiar had the album that contained Downtown.
Many songs? Maybe Downtown and It's a Sign of the Times. Outside of the US she was a huge international star. Same with Dusty until Dusty in Memphis. Son of a Preacher man? Ugggh.
How about the entire '60s decade of Brit-Girl pop? Cilla Black, Dusty Springfield, Lulu, Petula Clark, Susan Maugham, etc. I discovered them through their Bacharach covers but none had more than a couple of cross-over hits in the States. An entire neglected genre in my opinion.
Nice article John.
Couple of things.
Yes the great Status Quo don't mean much over here but they were big in South America. My wife & I saw them at BB Kings in NYC and we were the only non latinos there, Mexican flags and Football jerseys were abundant.
Donny is on "Crazy Horses" playing keyboards.
Nowt wrong with David Essex's "Rock On" - a cool song.
Sweet influencing Slade? You're having a laugh mate - 2 totally different bands.
I don’t think I said that Sweet actually influenced Slade, rather that they helped contribute to the growth/spread of glam, which helped open the door for other bands. Of course I may be wrong …
Fair enough. Loved them both when I was a nipper! :)
Talking of: I think Slade were the first band to marry meat & potatoes working class "rock" and Beatles chord voicings, way before Oasis. Famously John Lennon heard Noddy sing and said "that fella's got a helluva voice." And listen to B sides and deep album cuts like "Set me free" and you will see why I describe Sweet as "the glam band that really wanted to be Deep Purple!"
Great piece Mr.J
Growing up in the Boston area I heard Montego Bay and Double Barrel on AM radio. Telegram Sam too, but didn't hear Metal Guru until much later on San Francisco's KFOG's wonderful 10@10 show where Dave Morey would play ten songs from a given year. I caught up on a lot that I missed at the time that way.
As an American who avidly follows British and Euro pop/rock from the 50s to now, this has always been a perplexing problem. Why big there and not here? A lot of it was/is logistics--the expense of touring the USA is a major hurdle. Distribution of physical product and publicity expenses are another. Fortunately I've lived in urban areas where these artists leaked in via my non-American friends trading their CDs and LPs at used record stores, so I've had plenty of happy discoveries. My library included Horace Andy, Family, The Move, Cliff Richard, Small Faces, and other global exotica.