Artists everyone forgets were insanely successful at one point

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

I was watching the recent Moby documentary a week or so back. It's easy to forget now since he usually only comes up when he says something dumb and/or creepy but he had a legit argument for being one of the biggest stars during the late '90s/early '00s. I had forgotten that there was a time when he could have David Bowie and OutKast OPEN UP FOR HIM and no one would be like "Well, that seems really weird that they're opening up for Moby."

Discuss once huge artists that have been left in the clearance bins of our collective memory (as well as actual clearance bins)

 

[Valeyard]

Assholes liked Moby.

Akon was all over the place for a few years. Underrated piece of shit, that one.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Also this and Classic Rock That Fuckin' Sucks thread are only places I can point out that Grand Funk Railroad sold out Shea Stadium faster than The Beatles.

 

[Fall of Epic]

Arctic Monkeys were super popular for a few months in late '04 and then the world seemingly forgot about them.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

I think they're still an arena/stadium level act everywhere besides the U.S.


I guess I'm glad us millennials can have our own version of Oasis?

Edit---Looking at their Setlist.fm page, they headlined the first night of Lollapalooza in 2018 so apparently not everyone forgot about them, @Fall of Epic !

 

[Valeyard]

Don't compare the Arctic Monkeys to Oasis. That's just mean. Death Cab was Oasis.

 

[Mickey Massuco]

Death cab wasn’t close to being that big.

Coldplay were talked about like a modern day Beatles and were probably the biggest act in the world at one point. Most young people wouldn’t even know who they are and the band has no real place in the public consciousness and that blows my fucking mind.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Coldplay just did a song with BTS (biggest act on the planet) and they tour stadiums. I think they're still pretty relevant and honestly, at risk of further angering the board, fairly underrated.

 

[Incandenza]

Hootie and the Blowfish were one of the biggest bands in the US for a few years in the mid 90s and now are just some throwbacks for the nostalgia touring circuit

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

Ja Rule had hit after hit and then became a total joke, all in the matter of a couple years.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Two moments that kind of show when Ja Rule went from a lovable goofy PG-13 gangsta rap jokes are 1. when he did that duet with Mary J Blige and cried in the music video. Him “singing” with J Lo and Ashanti was dumb but J Lo is not a vocal dynamo and his terrible vocals kind of worked with Ashanti cause they had a older brother/little sister dynamic. Us trying to except Ja’s Cookie Monster vocals alongside one of the best R&B vocalists of our times? GTFOH.

2nd was him getting absolutely bodied by 50 Cent. As someone who was the right age for this type of dumb music, it felt like “Oh 50 Cent is like Ja Rule but real and he doesn’t impose his shitty singing on us as much!”

Honorable mention the song he did that sampled “Africa” 15-20 years before people realized that song is actually cool again with a cinematic music video starring Patrick Swayze as the heel. Actually nvm. This rules.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

People forget just how massive Shania Twain was in the mid-90s even compared to her contemporaries of the time. The Woman In Me sold 20 Million worldwide in 1995 then Come On Over sold 40 Million Worldwide in 1997! "The album (Come On Over) was a blockbuster success, becoming the biggest-selling studio album of all time by a female artist, the biggest-selling country music album, the biggest-selling album by a Canadian act, and the ninth biggest-selling album in music history."

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Hootie and the Blowfish were one of the biggest bands in the US for a few years in the mid 90s and now are just some throwbacks for the nostalgia touring circuit

Fact that Darius Rucker is a a huge country star makes it even weirder. It's not like he went away, he just completely changed formats. Idk if there's any precedent for that. Maybe Jerry Lee Lewis coming back as a country star in the late '60s/early '70s.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Fifty Years Ago, He Was America’s Most Famous Writer. Why Haven’t You Ever Heard of Him?

He sold 60 million books and 100 million records. Then he disappeared.

slate.com

This article about how Rod McKuen was one of the best selling poets of all time and sold millions of albums but no one gaf now really is type of thing I was looking for when I started this article.

He'll always have his guest appearance on The Critic though.