Who is the most-famous least-popular musician of all time?

Who has the highest inverse ratio of fame:musical popularity?

Someone who is far more well-known as a celebrity than they are for their music... omitting people who have relatively unpopular musical careers, but were already famous for something else (like Juliette Lewis or reality show stars who release a shitty single or something).

I can only think of Pete Doherty off-hand - at least in North American, most people who know who he is probably couldn't name a song.

people whose music is popular in one country but are merely famous w/o the popularity in another country prob shouldn't count either

kenny g?

Maybe John Lydon? My mom and grandparents would know who he is, but I'm sure they've never knowingly heard a note of the Sex Pistols or PiL.

kenny g is a fucking legend, at least in china. he is definitely heard everywhere, especially in schools, where his music (including the legendary hit "going home") is often played as an indicator that everyone should go the hell home already

John Cage?

i was thinking boy george, at least for the younger folk.

Pete Best

Jessica Simpson?

Iggy Pop or Ozzy Osborne

nah, boy george is chill - love the first two culture club records.

OH - Enya?

i was thinking boy george, at least for the younger folk.

Mick Jagger? How many young people know more than a couple of Stones songs?

some "one hit wonder" for sure

^^^ Crazy Frog

Pete Yorn

thinking Iggy might be the right answer here.

GG Allin

Iggy Pop and John Cage are good answers.

phillip glass

Gary Glitter

Tiny Tim. Everybody knows who he is but nobody owns any of his records

Jessica Simpson is OTM I don't know a single one of her songs

who is he?
xpost

I don't think Jessica Simpson counts b/c she is far more well known as a reality show personality & actress than for her music.

she had a bunch of hits before the reality tv and movies though

Yoko Ono

good call, Yoko's probably the one

Bob Geldof

In the UK, Peter Andre

Tiny Tim? He's famous for having a high voice and playing ukelele, punch line to many jokes from the 60s-80s, probably not recently. Yoko Ono is a good call but she's pretty much the definition of "famous for something else". Bob Geldof is pretty otm

Jessica Simpson was the requisite "Third artist" that would get lumped in with Britney and Christina when listing the popular female teen pop artists of that era.

britney spears (seriously!)

P Diddy

Billy Idol from about 1993 on

Billy Ray Cyrus

i feel like this thread is straddling 2 different definitions "famous but unpopular musicians" -- people who are successful recording artists who have sold a lot of records but are divisive and have many vocal detractors, and people who are famous and in the music industry but don't have hits that are familiar to many people, who might dislike their music but are mostly unaware or indifferent.

the thread starter seemed to be going for the latter definition and most people ITT are going with the former.

think there's quite a few who have initial success specifically in music and then become 'personalities' or whatever and don't have any hits for 20 years.

kinda think Kiss is moving in this direction? do they have any songs that are widely known at this point? I never hear them on classic rock radio even

Yoko Ono is a good call but she's pretty much the definition of "famous for something else".

But that seems to be what the OP is looking for: Someone who is far more well-known as a celebrity than they are for their music. Brio was making an exemption for people who were already famous for something other than music before they attempted music, which is not the case with Yoko Ono. She and John Cage seem like the best answers to me so far. Philip Glass almost seems like the opposite: millions of people have probably heard his music on a film score without knowing who he is.

Don't they still play "Rock and Roll All Nite"?

yoko is definitely the answer. ppl who don't know a thing about the last 60 years of music have probably heard yoko ono jokes.

doland trump

I don't ever hear "Rock and Roll All Nite" on the radio but yeah, that's the best answer.

Ottawa's Chez 106 played "Rock and Roll All Nite" this morning: http://www.chez106.com/on-air/playlists-charts/#

xposts!

ppl who don't know a thing about the last 60 years of music have probably heard yoko ono jokes.

Yeah, "woman who broke up the Beatles" is probably more widely known than "guy who wrote a piece with nothing in it".

Ted Nugent

Charles Manson

I was also going to say Jessica Simpson. I think she was first famous for being a musician and that was even the ostensible reason for her getting the reality show.
I would put Yoko Ono in the category of "already famous for something" else by which the OP excludes others. She became famous for her involvement with John Lennon, not for being a musician.

isn't "So What" THE archetypical post-war jazz recording that everyone knows?

(other than Vince Guaraldi)

I don't know "So What"

it's settled then

lock thread

kenny g is a fucking legend, at least in china. he is definitely heard everywhere, especially in schools, where his music (including the legendary hit "going home") is often played as an indicator that everyone should go the hell home already

― Z S, Thursday, November 15, 2012 6:22 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I don't know why, but this unexpectedly made me laugh really hard. I mean, I accept your authority on the matter. It just sounded funny.

west africa too. kenny g's name rings out across the continents.

michael bolton is a fucking legend, at least in my house

Elton John
Janet Jackson
Bobby Brown

what

Bobby Brown maybe but those other two, come on who can't rattle off a half dozen EJ's or JJ's

anyone under 20

Can't tell whether people are being serious anymore.

I think Lil Wayne is the currently best-known, most-disliked US musician, who is not famous for anything else besides being a musician.

he's disliked?

for a while there he was disliked by young people/youtube commenters who make strawmen out of big pop stars, although I think that mantle has moved on to Nicki Minaj for rappers nowadays

for what it's worth I didn't mean "least-popular" as "most-disliked" - (though there's probably overlap), what I meant was people who were unpopular in terms of sales/radio play/youtube hits etc. - people whose music was not popular.

so zappa and ono work - sure lots of people dislike their music, but they're also just not very popular in terms of record sales, etc. relative to their fame.

whereas kenny g and michael bolton and lil wayne don't work as far as I'm concerned, because they were or are really popular artists - they have a big fan base, they sold a lot of records.

maybe splitting hairs here.

if you're under 20 you've probably at least heard The Lion King soundtrack dogg

Zappa's the first thing I thought of when opening the thread. Frank himself liked to tell the story about the time a shopkeeper looked as his wife's credit card and asked her if she was married to "Frank Zappa, the comedian?"

Getting into Randy Newman recently, I'm finding alot of people know who he is and ask "You like Randy Newman? Him?"

I think Kenny G and Michael Bolton are good answers, for Europeans at least. I remember learning their names at quite an early age, because their music was always mocked in MAD Magazine and American TV shows, but the first time I heard an actual Kenny G song was two or three years ago, and I've still never heard anything by Bolton.

So yeah, they might have huge fanbases in the US, but certainly not here.

Reckon people like Michael Bolton could still turn up and sell out an arena show without too much trouble, maybe even a stadium.

Yoko is the best answer to this question, no contest.

Tiny Tim. Everybody knows who he is but nobody owns any of his records

Uh, I've got three of his albums on vinyl, two more on CD and 3CD boxset!

I'd still question whether Yoko is known primarily as a musician. Or was I really the only one who for the longest time thought she was a conceptual/visual artist who only ended being recorded because her husband was a famous musician? It was only a few years ago that I learned she has a long, independent music career too, besides the art career. The Simpsons gag (used above as an example of her fame), for example, is about her conceptual art, not about her music.

(x-post)

Or was I really the only one who for the longest time thought

Posts very much in character

Reckon people like Michael Bolton could still turn up and sell out an arena show without too much trouble, maybe even a stadium.

Yoko is the best answer to this question, no contest.

― Matt DC, Wednesday, November 21, 2012 8:01 AM (28 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it looks like most of his recent/upcoming live dates are at casinos, Hard Rock Live clubs, or places with names that end in "performing arts center"

Dave Matthews Band : Name Your Reasons Why They Are So Bad & Hated.

Gary Glitter is a good call these days, but the guy was actually hugely popular in the mid 70s.

Kraftwerk, in the US.

John Tesh

loving yr display name Geir :D

News announcer

So yeah, they might have huge fanbases in the US, but certainly not here.

According to Wikipedia, Bolton has had five top 10 albums in Norway, including his greatest hits compilation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Bolton_discography

Also, is "Rock and Roll Part 2" not a staple at sports arenas anymore?

I never had the sense that Kraftwerk's name was widely known outside music geeks in North America.

xp It still is, but I think relatively few people know it's Gary Glitter. Or even what the song's called.

(see also: "Song 2")

Yeah I think a lot of people have probably read about Kraftwerk in passing or whatever but I don't think they qualify here

xp It still is, but I think relatively few people know it's Gary Glitter. Or even what the song's called.

(see also: "Song 2")

Doesn't this still mean that the music is popular?

It's unclear as to whether or not the question is "Who is a very famous musician of whom nobody knows anything about their music?" or "Who is a very famous musician who's music is unpopular i.e. widely hated?"

Brio has clarified that twice!

I'm not saying he hasn't, I'm saying the discussion continues

Doesn't this still mean that the music is popular?

Oh, absolutely. But "Song 2" is known as "Woo HOO!" just as "Rock & Roll Part 2" is known as "Duh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh HEY! duh-nuh-nuh-nuh" rather than "that song by Blur" or "that Gary Glitter song."

Well sure but what about "who wrote God Save The Queen / America"

OK, rereading the OP, I guess what is unclear is NOT the distinction that fgti made (which brio has spelled out) but the meaning of "musical popularity": I've been assuming that this simply refers to whether an artist's music is popular, regardless of whether people associate the music with the artist. However, "musical popularity" could also mean "whether an artist is popular for their music", i.e. whether people associate that person with their famous music, in which case the Mozart and Gary Glitter suggestions seem slightly less insane.

But yeah, in that case, fgti's xpost OTM.

Famous for being bad-at-music / status as "famous for music only" debatable has got to be John Tesh, Yoko Ono. Jamie OTM upthread for saying the world is full of assholes

I cannot even parse Zappa into this conversation because people I know who are familiar with his music are so much more familiar with it than I am that I can't even comprehend a world where he is considered "unpopular"

Are massively famous but their music is unknown, from a ratio perspective it's got to be Sistah Souljah. brio's initial post of Pete Doherty is interesting but I could sing you "Fuck Forever", however I couldn't name a single song (or even post-Libertines band) belonging to Carl Barat

Well, you can only not ever have heard "Bang Bang, You're Dead" then.

Gary Glitter is a good call these days, but the guy was actually hugely popular in the mid 70s.

I only started listening to his albums after his, uh, fall from grace. Always preferred the Glitter Band anyway.

John Tesh was famous first as the host of Entertainment Tonight, I think.

I would disqualify any of these "young people don't know them" or "we Europeans don't know them" picks, especially if the artist is/was popular in their particular context.