Artists/Bands that had limited success

Artists/Bands that had limited success Apr 1, 2018 23:49:01 GMT 10

Post by SharksFan99 on Apr 1, 2018 23:49:01 GMT 10

Sometimes, for various reasons, an artist's success is only confined to a few years or an even smaller amount of time, despite generating a lot of hype, releasing successful singles and receiving extensive coverage in the media. What are some artists/bands that you can think of, which only experienced a short, but successful career in the mainstream?

Bardot:

Between 2000 and 2002, Bardot were one of the most popular groups in Australia. The girl group formed on the weality-TV series, Popstars, which was achieving high watings, due to the program being a fresh concept to audiences. As a result of Popstars' success, Bardot received a lot of media attention; so much so that there were national reports on the members daily and the group's in-store signings attracted thousands of fans. They even had their own clothing range, which continues to be sold in stores today (despite the group disbanding in 2002).

Bardot's debut single, "Poison", topped the charts in Australia and New Zealand, as well as peaking within the Top-5 in Singapore. It also charted in the UK, however it only peaked at #45. "Poison" wasn't released in the UK until March 2001 and despite the group relocating to the UK to try and achieve success in the country, it did not improve the single's performance on the UK Chart. In their native Australia, the single was certified Platinum and it finished as the 6th highest-selling single for the year 2000. Bardot's follow-up singles all charted within the ARIA Top-20. Ultimately, their success was cut short, as the group decided to disband in April 2002.

Scandal'us:

Like Bardot, Scandal'us also achieved their fame by winning a season of Popstars. Although they were never as successful or influential as Bardot, the group were relatively successful in their own right, despite having a career that only spanned 12 months. Their debut single ("Me, Myself and I") topped the ARIA Chart and resulted in the band winning an ARIA Award. The second single off Startin' Somethin', "Make Me Crazy", peaked at #30 and stayed on the charts for 5 weeks.

Scandal'us disbanded in 2002, because they were unable to find a new record label. Tamara Jaber experienced a short, yet moderately successful solo career just three years later, with the release of "Ooh Aah" (which is often panned as being one of the worst songs of all time) and "Hard For Me".

Ratcat:

Considering their role in introducing alternative-rock to Australian audiences back in Late 1990/Early 1991, you would have expected Ratcat to have had a long and prosperous career in the mainstream, right? Well, the band essentially fell out of the spotlight mewely two years after the release of "That Ain't Bad", which topped the charts along with the second single off Blind Love, "Don't Go Now". Along with the success of the singles, their debut EP and album also topped the charts.

The Tingles EP was only expected to sell 5,000 copies, but it constantly went out of print and ultimately sold over 100,000 copies. Ratcat became a household name overnight and Simon Day (the lead singer) became the interest of thousands of teenage girls across the country. Although the band didn't disband until 1997, their mainstream success was mainly confined to just 1991 and 1992, at a stretch. I actually think the success of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and the emergence of Seattle-based Grunge, is the primarily reason as to why Ratcat soon became an afterthought.

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Artists/Bands that had limited success Apr 2, 2018 4:01:11 GMT 10

Post by #Infinity on Apr 2, 2018 4:01:11 GMT 10

Rachel Stevens (2003-2005)

She had two songs that almost hit #1 in the UK, plus several others that did quite well. Both of her solo albums were great, especially Come and Get It, but perhaps due to the fact that Stevens was not a celebrity's celebrity, failing to actively generate much hype beyond her good looks, her solo career came to an end after just a couple of years. Since then, she has appeared a few times on reality television and started a family.

It's really unfortunate that Come and Get It was a career-killing album, because it's easily my favourite pop record of all time, second possibly only to Prince's Purple Rain. I do hope Rachel Stevens decides to start doing music for herself again like Louise did, but at the same time, it would have to come from the heart; I wouldn't want her performing if she didn't want to, and it very much seems like her current commitments are her daughters and husband. I will say she's been a bit more low-key than usual on social media for the past few months, so I hope everything's okay in her life.

Nik Kershaw (1984-1985)

Though he never made it big in the US, Nik Kershaw was a huge deal in the UK in 1984 and most of 1985. He was distinct in that despite his anthemic pop sound, his lyrics were playfully sarcastic, reflective of how he was basically the class clown of the new wave movement. This all seemed to work for him great when "Wouldn't It Be Good" emerged a massive hit during the first half of 1984, but then after an uninterrupted stream of successful hits, he finally released a song that didn't do that well with "When a Heart Beats" late in 1985. Despite being featured on Now 6 over the more popular "Don Quixote", it peaked only at #27. After that, Kershaw never saw any more of his songs even reach the top 40; his third album from 1986, Radio Musicola, was a commercial flop, and his fourth album, released before the end of the decade, didn't even chart.

In a sort of way, Nik Kershaw's career is the '80s equivalent to Rachel Stevens in that he went solo in the autumn of the year ending in 3 ("I Won't Let the Sun Go Down on Me", his leadoff single, wasn't very successful upon its initial release; it only did much better after it was rereleased in the wake of "Wouldn't It Be Good's" popularity) and scored numerous solid hits in his native UK before things suddenly and nearly inexplicably ran out of commercial steam in the year ending in 5. Also, both artists are among my favourite solo performers ever and deserved far longer careers than they got to enjoy. Unlike Rachel Stevens, Nik Kershaw still records and performs music today, but his only notable work after his two years in the spotlight is co-writing and producing a few songs for Let Loose, a boyband that was briefly popular in the mid-'90s.

Debbie Gibson (1987-1990)

Debbie Gibson was unique in that unlike the majority of teen pop singers, she actually wrote and composed all of her own music, including the entirety of her debut, released exactly five years before the day I was born and just shy of when she turned 17. Out of the Blue is a surprisingly excellent album, and it managed to produce 5 huge hit singles. Her followup, Electric Youth, was nowhere near as good as its predecessor, but it still exhibited a growing sense of creativity and still churned out some pretty big hit singles, including the #1 hit "Lost in Your Eyes". Then came Anything Is Possible, which was not only released the same month that Milli Vanilli had their Grammy revoked for deceiving the public, thus tarnishing the reputation of pop music in America, but it tried to up Gibson's ambitions even further, only to backfire drastically. In addition to being extremely long, much of it was contrived, stiff, and awkward, unsuccessfully trying to utilize Gibson's pixie voice to a more elaborate, house and hip hop-oriented collection of songs that sound like they were left off Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814 or Neneh Cherry's Raw Like Sushi. The title track only reached #26 here and fell off the charts very quickly, and despite doing well in Japan (Anything Is Possible is actually her most successful album there), Gibson has otherwise been completely absent from the mainstream pop scene since, despite her sound actually evolving with the times. Considering just how enormous she was in the late '80s, it's shocking how quickly Gibson's career fell apart, whereas even some of her other teen pop contemporaries, like Taylor Dayne and Rick Astley, were still able to have real hits as late as 1993.

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