Bands More Popular Outside of Their Home Country

I see Depeche Mode as a prime example of this. Are there any others?

Fun Lovin' Criminals, to be sure.

Remember when.

http://www.merrickmusic.com/images/BushBand.jpg

Phoenix

the japanese love themselves some MR. BIG

It seems Kings of Leon have kind of caught up here in the States, but I was shocked when they were mega-stars in the UK while floundering here.

http://www.bmusic.com.au/links/whatsnew/newsletters/archives/images/afos_2.jpg

Seem to remember The Tea Party being pretty big in Australia. Not sure if more than in Canada, but it did seem odd.

Manowar.

Anvil

King Crimson

every American jazz musician?

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f308/lysiemichele/david-hasselhoff-07.jpg

every American jazz musician?

LOL

http://blogs.e-rockford.com/askgeo/files/2010/01/2cheaptrick_jk.jpg

Yes?

Where is Depeche Mode more popular than they are in Britain?

Slim Whitman

Yes?

Where is Depeche Mode more popular than they are in Britain?

Continental Europe and for awhile the U.S.

The Ventures

Did Fleetwood Mac only sounded like an American rock band or were they also more popular in the states than in the uk?

Also Daft Punk. It seems to me like the french stop paying attention to their artists the minute they become popular in other countries.

Dandy Warhols are apparently big-ish in the UK

I can also attest that many pop stars that noone really cares for here in Mexico are incredibly popular in Japan. Japanese dig all the musical crap from western civilizations.

Jennifer Love Hewitt

momus

Bjork
MBV

only for reason's of Ireland & Iceland's population. WHAZZAAMFL;DKAJL;KFJDLJ;LAS

Dean Reed

Boredoms

Sparks?

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f308/lysiemichele/david-hasselhoff-07.jpg

Depeche Mode have long been huge in the UK, so while they might be huger in some other places, I don't think they really count.

Charlie Winston means nothing in the UK but is huge in France, apparently.

Supposedly Abba are way more popular in the Czech Republic than they are in Sweden.

Depeche Mode have long been huge in the UK, so while they might be huger in some other places, I don't think they really count.

I don't think they are that huge in the UK. Also, they seem to be taken a lot more seriously outside the UK.

Eddie Cochran

Correct, they are way huge and taken more seriously in Eastern Europe. They play stadiums out there. There's even a bar in Estonia or somewhere that plays nothing but Depeche Mode records. So yes, they do count.

Also, Bush.

the cannanes

Gene Vincent

That bar is in Tallin, yeah. Kids don't listen to Depeche Mode in the UK. They do east of Berlin.

Foghat, Savoy Brown, Chicken Shack, Ten Years After

Van der Graaf Generator were always more popular in continental Europe, especially Italy, than in the UK.

Faust

DM huge enough in the UK that their UK gig the other week was the O2 - there's nowhere bigger you can play in winter in the UK ...

It's London, so gig probably full of Russians, Portugese, Brazilians etc

was gonna say - they played the O2 here (Dublin) before Christmas (up to 14,000 capacity). Was visiting my sister-in-law who lives in the area that night and the tram was full of DM fans on their way to the gig, more than half of whom seemed to be Eastern European.

I retire gracefully. I burn no candles for DM. Was just looking at the album sales stats - change seemed to be before the last album, which still reached No 2 in the UK but won no certification.

Scissor Sisters

Pixies when they were together, though they seem to have a big US following now.

There was a funny story in the LA Times several years ago about the opening of a Madame Toussaud's attraction in L.A. where, due to some serious miscommunication, the museum was accidentally stocked with a number of the same celebrities as the London brach... which meant people like Jordan, some football players, and the Fun Lovin' Criminials.

Come on, Fun Lovin' Criminals aren't that popular in the UK

app. Archive are still doing big business in france.

so much so that all the mailouts are in french with no english equivalents.

Beach Boys in the UK?

Love in the UK.

Beefheart in the UK.

Zappa in Eastern Europe, there aren't any statues of him in the US are there?

Seems like most of the NYC punk/new wave groups were, at least initially, more popular in the UK than the US — Ramones, Blondie, Television, et al.

Bob Marley?

And Depeche Mode sold 85,000 tickets at the Rose Bowl in 1988. I don't know if there were any other acts on the bill, but it wasn't a one-day festival type thing.

Dead C

The Beach Boys seem bigger in the UK because they are so popular there among critics. You can trace the Beach Boys' current influence in the U.S. more to the UK press I think.

Olivia Newton John?

doubt it

on that note, kylie?

how are you going to measure it? Gold Logie and highest selling single of the 80s here, against higher sales in a larger population in the UK? Her last album went #1 and platinum here on 70k, #4 and platinum in the UK on 400k, but double platinum in Columbia on just 20k.

Bob Marley?

I don't think so... IIRC his support for a Jamaican prime minister candidate back in the 70s helped to seal the deal for the guy, so he must've been pretty big there. Dunno what the situation is now though.

Scott Walker!!!!!!!!!!

Add Dodgy to that list.

No, they never had a top 20 hit here, while they had 5 in the UK, including #4 for "Good Enough". :)

As for Norway, UK band Broken Home also did quite well here in 1982. I believe they were never even close to anything in their own market.

I can't really speak for the popularity in Norway, but Cohen is pretty much a god in his home country.

Cohen is highly respected all over the world, but no other country is close to giving him a hitlist career like this one:
http://lista.vg.no/artist_info.php?ArtistOp=show&artistId=2586

"I'm Your Man" spent 16 weeks at the very top of the Norwegian album list:
http://lista.vg.no/album_info.php?AlbumOp=show&albumId=5940&albumtype=album&albumtype_id=1

I would have never guessed Cohen was more popular anywhere other than Canada but that does appear to be the case: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Cohen_discography

Disturbing.

All 80s UK metal bands, who played theatres at home, and enormodomes in the States; had hits at home and smashes in the States. Especially Def Leppard.

The Fixx
Love and Rockets

Swans.

― Tied Up In Geir (Geir Hongro), Wednesday, 7 April 2010 19:37 (Yesterday)

― Tied Up In Geir (Geir Hongro), Wednesday, 7 April 2010 19:38 (Yesterday)

― Tied Up In Geir (Geir Hongro), Wednesday, 7 April 2010 19:41 (Yesterday)

Jon English,

how on earth are you measuring this?

― one of the jones boys (sic), Wednesday, 7 April 2010 09:05 (Yesterday)

keep reading this thread title as Bands More Popular Outside of The Home Counties

Savage Republic (the reformed 80s L.A. tribal punk group) were in their first decade and remain far more popular in Greece than on their home turf.

Princess Superstar

The Cramps

Wang Chung

Oh... and.... Every single 80s Italo Disco act which didn't perform their songs in Italian.

Wang Chung

― Tied Up In Geir (Geir Hongro), Thursday, 8 April 2010 13:25 (14 minutes ago)

Oh... and.... Every single 80s Italo Disco act which didn't perform their songs in Italian.

― Tied Up In Geir (Geir Hongro), Thursday, 8 April 2010 13:32 (7 minutes ago)

Jon English,

how on earth are you measuring this?

― one of the jones boys (sic), Wednesday, 7 April 2010 09:05 (Yesterday)

You want me to answer that, it seems?

Well, Jon English had a slight hit with "Six Ribbons" from "Against The Wind", which may also have topped the charts in Oz alongside Norway from all I know. But in Norway, he'd continue having huge hit albums and hit singles for the next year or so.

So two hit albums in Norway in, what, 1979? somehow makes him bigger there than having multiple #1s in Australia from 1974, winning the Best Male ARIA in 1976, the Countdown Best Male in 1978, four consecutive Best Entertainer "Mo"s in the 80s, being constantly employed on TV from 1975 to 1982 or so, touring the country back to back from 1982 to 1988 in Big River and Pirates, having his own sitcom from 1991 to 1993, being constantly on stage in either G&S or his own shows from 1993 to 2003, and the 90s telly version of his Pirates becoming the highest-selling musical theatre VHS and DVD of all time.

Again, how does the measurement work?

I'd never heard of this guy till this thread!

You're not missing out tbh.

Jon English, secret rock star.

So two hit albums in Norway in, what, 1979? somehow makes him bigger there than having multiple #1s in Australia from 1974, winning the Best Male ARIA in 1976, the Countdown Best Male in 1978, four consecutive Best Entertainer "Mo"s in the 80s, being constantly employed on TV from 1975 to 1982 or so, touring the country back to back from 1982 to 1988 in Big River and Pirates, having his own sitcom from 1991 to 1993, being constantly on stage in either G&S or his own shows from 1993 to 2003, and the 90s telly version of his Pirates becoming the highest-selling musical theatre VHS and DVD of all time.

Again, how does the measurement work?

In Norway, he is (was) a rock star. In Oz, he is an actor.

The Gun Club were bigger in the UK, the Netherlands and later on, in Japan, than they were in the U.S.

dead moon!

thin lizzy. i think.

― Zeno, Tuesday, April 6, 2010 9:23 PM (2 days ago)

um, there is a statue of phil lynott off grafton street in dublin. doubt they have a profile anywhere that is higher than it is in ireland.

In Norway, he is (was) a rock star. In Oz, he is an actor.

In Norway, he had a slight hit with "Six Ribbons" from "Against The Wind". In Australia, he'd had #1s up to SEVEN YEARS BEFORE, won the Best Male ARIA five years before, the Best Male Countdown Award three years before, and HAS CONTINUED RECORDING AND PERFORMING AS A MUSICIAN* IN AUSTRALIA FOR THIRTY YEARS AFTER his "slight hit" in Norway. Seriously, what's the metric?

*both stage and "rock"

OK, sounds like he is more of a music name in Oz than I thought. He had more than just that one hit in Norway, though. "Get Your Love Right" was huge even.

Clancy Brothers?
Rolf Harris?

Lumidee

I thought Lumidee had just one hit single (that "Uh Oh" tune)? Was it not popular in the US?

Tragically . . . The Sound

Placebo are far more popular in France than in the UK.

Oddly enough, so were Shed Seven!!!!!!!!

And for a time in the late 80's, The Jesus And Mary Chain were Les Gods Du Monde En France, compared to UK anyway!!!! Tu Le Monde from France wot I parlyed avec thought they were jolly brillibobs!

Not bad for a bunch for a bunch of spotty moptops from East Kilbride!!!!!!!

Swervedriver (or so I hear--more popular in the U.S. and I think even Australia than in the U.K.)

I thought Lumidee had just one hit single (that "Uh Oh" tune)? Was it not popular in the US?

Lumidee made it to #3 in the US but had 2 #1 singles in Belgium

Afric Simone

Xinlisupreme are pretty unknown in Japan... almost all their records are only available as imports there from UK/US labels.

Gene Pitney
Scatman John

I was just minding my own business browsing a thread I hadn't looked at before, thinking I might mention The Runaways or something. Now I must go and scrub my optic nerve & brain with steel wool & bleach to see if I can get rid of that Hasselhoff image. And I was going to go out tonight too.

Thanks to 69 for mentioning Dead Moon. Freakin amazing band! Pierced Arrows is good too, but I'm not sure why they felt they had to stop being Dead Moon to do it.

RIP Jon English.