An example is Five Star, a clean cut Black British pop group of the 80s, that are seen as so cheesy and embarrassing yet had numerous hits and uplifting music with snappy dance routines. They are rarely played on AOR dance and pop stations. Yet have millions of video views on YouTube.

Then you have other excellent singers like Lisa Stansfield and Dina Carroll, who used to rule TOTP and are not supported by major labels and have to be independent.

Why?

45 comments

  1. In 2019, Stormzy apologised after claming he was the first black British headliner at Glastonbury, having apparently forgotten about (or never heard of) Skunk Anansie, UB40 or The Prodigy.

  5. Amazulu

    Mel and Kim

    Bros

    The Inspiral Carpets

    And – unfortunately – the fabulous – Frankie Goes to Hollywood

  8. Not totally forgotten but I don’t think madness get enough credit for being a really good band.
    Been playing Embarrassment a bit recently and it’s a cracking track.

  9. Dodgy were a great Brit Pop era band that could have been huge. Oasis supported *them* in early touring days. Saw them at Glasto in 09, on one of the smaller stages, same night as Blur’s triumphant reunion on the Pyramid Stage.

    A little bit earlier, The La’s were incredible. Self titled debut album is an absolute gem. I think they’re seen as a one hit wonder with ‘There She Goes’, which is a shame.

  10. This is sort of tangential, but the Zutons’ original version of “Valerie” seems to have been entirely replaced in the public consciousness by the Amy Winehouse version

  11. Shakin’ Stevens was the biggest selling singles artist of the 1980s and was overlooked for the whole Live Aid/Band Aid thing.

  12. I watch the old TOTP on BBC4 and had never heard of Jive Bunny, who had three number 1s in 1989 (and five further top 40 hits) until seeing them on that show. Feels like their work and has been (thankfully!) forgotten

  15. Because pop music was based on novelty and youth

    The good side of that is every generation got their own set of cultural reference points

    The bad side is that bands and artists were discarded like used face masks

  19. Ash, cracking band, loads of energy. Saw them live a few years ago.

    Embrace could have been massive. Same with Spiritualized.

  21. Paul Heaton and Jacqueline Abbot (former Beautiful South). They are still turning out amazing albums every year or so. Amazing song writing. No fillers on their albums at all. Every song deserves to be a hit, but they get little radio play.

  22. The Christians .. Ideal world , Born again , Hooverville, When the fingers point – all on the same album !! Great stuff .

  23. Always surprised that Strawberry Switchblade are not more in the public conciousness, loved those girls the look and sound was exquisite! Well to me anyway.

  24. Dina Carroll was a powerhouse. Amazing vocalist and two massive albums then never to be heard of again.

  25. Not sure about MASSIVELY popular but maybe Hefner and The Bluetones.

    I also wonder about Damien Rice after O, when his songs were everywhere. 12 year old me thought the lyrics were the most romantic thing in the world. 20 years later I tried a re-listen and my main thought was “this bloke sounds like a bloody nightmare”.

  27. David Gray. White ladder was a monumentally good album. I saw him at V festival and honestly, he was one of the best recording artists I’ve ever seen live (and I’ve seen a couple of hundred top bands over the last 25 years).

    I have no idea what happened to him. The guy just disappeared into the musical ether. Huge shame.

    (And I’d say, Daniel Bedingfield too… he was also a good song writer)

  32. Joe Jackson (“Is She Really Going Out With Him”). Great singer, who just disappeared off mainstream radar.

  39. Eternal. “I wanna be the only one” still gets played, but people forget they had loads of singles and huge albums all the way through the mid 90s. To some extent the solo Louise (Redknapp / Nurding) is the same. I feel like the Spice Girls just killed a bunch of careers dead post 1996.

  41. One for fellow X’ers – Imagination were *huge* in the early 80s but now seem to be completely forgotten. Not really my thing, then or now, but even so.

  42. Back in the day I genuinely thought Feeder were going to be one of the biggest bands on the planet, you know, in the Foo Fighters bracket of “there is no longer an arena big enough to host them” levels of fame.

    Tbh the rot set in around Buck Rogers.

  43. Steve Marriott of Humble Pie fame. Led Zeppelin were basically their tribute band. Steve died tragically in 1991 in a house fire since then he hardly seems to be mentioned despite being HUGE in his day (60’s-90’s).

    “I could never be compared with Steve Marriott because he’s too good! He’s got the best white voice, for sheer bravado and balls. He is the master of white, contemporary blues.”

    — Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin (interviewed by Ray Coleman for Melody Maker, in 1977)

    “Steve Marriott was the best vocalist that this country has ever produced.”

    — David Bowie

    “Steve Marriott played and sang on Their Satanic Majesties Request. On ‘In Another Land’ and I think on two other songs. Brian (Jones) couldn’t do his part, so we had Steve in. He could sound like a pixie with the sweetest pipes. Could’ve lead little children over a cliff with that side of his voice, and then he could bray like a donkey, gale force, and the power of his voice would turn your skin to ice.”

    — Mick Jagger

    “You know Steve Marriott was the first choice to be Black Sabbath’s vocalist. I tried everything I could think of to get him to agree, but he had other plans. He was Jimmy Page’s first choice for Led Zeppelin too. He tried as hard as I did. I had a conversation with Page once about that, about what might have been. No skin off Ozzy or Robert Plant, both great in their ways, but Marriott was it. Greatest singer ever. Page and I agreed. We would have killed to have him.”

    — Tony Iommi, Black Sabbath

    “Steve Marriott and I didn’t get on. Had a couple of brawls with him. But I would have scraped the shit off his shoes to have his voice. To have his looks too.”

    — Iggy Pop

    “Steve Marriott was the greatest white soul singer to come out of the UK – and still is. No one has ever touched his unique lung bursting vocals. Set the high mark, he did. Unsurpassable. The rest of us can only try.”

    — Jack White

    “Steve Marriott was unbelievable. He was one of my heroes. I saw Marriott perform live with Humble Pie and it was like being at a church revival. And that to me is the coolest thing you can do, turn it into an evangelical event.”

    –Paul Stanley of KISS

    “I remember when I was about 16 I went to see Humble Pie.So at the end of the concert we’d go to the back gate. I was just a skinny little kid, but I’d stand next to my friend Jeff. And he’d say, “Hey, you guys need some help?” They’d let us in and we’d find ourselves onstage wrapping cables or something. It was very exciting for us. I remember walking up the ramp towards the stage and there’s Steve Marriott from Humble Pie looking at me like ‘Who’s this kid? What’s he doing here? I said ‘Steve Marriott!’ and that was about all that could come out of my mouth.He must have known I was petrified, but I was a big fan. Remember him giving me a pat on the shoulders and saying, “Hi. Thanks for being here and listening to the music,” and walking off. And that gesture remains with me today. Because he could have turned to someone and said, “Get that kid out of here!” or “Bug off, kid, I’m busy.” He could have said anything, and some stars do—they’re so impersonal it’s disheartening. But he was the first star that I ever met, and that brief encounter made me think ‘A star can take the time to be genuine with a fan. And they do appreciate it and they never forget it”

    — Joe Satriani

    “Steve Marriott was a very unique talent wasnt he. I dont know how I would describe it. He was one of the really great white soul singers, I know its all been said before but he really was. Hes just amazing really especially when you look at the size of him. As for why he wasn’t as massive as he deserved, as massive and revered as Robert Plant or Rod Stewart or any of them, I think you make your own choices in life. I dont think theres any kind of sad story there because Steve Marriott didnt want it. Thats how it seems to me anyway. Although Im not convinced they were the happiest days of his career, its hard to say, Im not inside the mans head. Humble Pie were massive in America but he seemed to turn his back on all that didnt he.”

    — Paul Weller

  44. There is a constant process of selection and winnowing of what music from the past lasts (with a certain amount of rediscovery chucked in, of course). Going slightly out of your time period I can remember bands (mainly what was then characterised as “heavy rock”, proto-metal, because it was that kind of school I went to; we were painfully genre-loyal back then) that seemed immensely popular among my peers who used to carry albums around with them, who I have neither heard or seen anything about in 40 years since: Barclay James Harvest, Uriah Heep, Wishbone Ash, that kind of stuff. People remember and play Zeppelin and Floyd, but many other acts from the same ecosystem have vanished. I don’t think it’s “unfair”, I think it’s mostly random, with a certain natural bias against the more derivative acts (which probably includes the above named). But you can trace the same sort of thing for hundreds of years, even before recorded music altered the listening landscape; Beethoven and Mozart had *lots* of contemporary competitors that you’ve never heard of, mainly because they were kind of OK but ultimately not that exciting. A lot of perfectly harmless landfill indie, nice girls with acoustic guitars and 120 bpm disco is suffering the same fate.

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