Rock/Metal Bands that are HUGE everywhere but the U.S.?

S.D. wrote:

Witchfinder wrote:

S.D. wrote:

The Final Frontier debuted at #4 on the Billboard charts, their highest chart showing and sold 63,000 copies in the first week of release alone.  A lot of metal bands would be overjoyed to sell over 60,000 albums in this day and age.  No, still not a huge release, but that completely disproves the "they don't sell here" thing.

My point was they are not as popular here as in the rest of the world.  That much is clear.  Their sales are minuscule in the US compared to what they garner worldwide.  Their US fanbase is mostly composed of people 35+ as opposed to the rest of the world where their fans run the gamut.  They are a very successful nostalgia act here, and there's nothing wrong with that at all.  I am glad they are still successful.

It's not like I said your precious, latter day, Maiden albums were boring, old man progfests.  

I kid, I kid!

How about Thin Lizzy?

They aren't that huge either, to be fair. I'd bet most of the people I know haven't even heard of them. Also including a lot of the "rockers"/"metalheads".

We're mostly talking about bands that were at the height of their popularity at least 25 years ago. What bands since 2000 routinely sell a good number of albums in Europe and play large venues but can't get arrested in the US?

Witchfinder wrote:

S.D. wrote:

Witchfinder wrote:

S.D. wrote:

The Final Frontier debuted at #4 on the Billboard charts, their highest chart showing and sold 63,000 copies in the first week of release alone.  A lot of metal bands would be overjoyed to sell over 60,000 albums in this day and age.  No, still not a huge release, but that completely disproves the "they don't sell here" thing.

My point was they are not as popular here as in the rest of the world.  That much is clear.  Their sales are minuscule in the US compared to what they garner worldwide.  Their US fanbase is mostly composed of people 35+ as opposed to the rest of the world where their fans run the gamut.  They are a very successful nostalgia act here, and there's nothing wrong with that at all.  I am glad they are still successful.

It's not like I said your precious, latter day, Maiden albums were boring, old man progfests.  

 I kid, I kid!

Actually, they do have a younger fan base in the US too - it's just not as great of a percentage as the rest of the world.... Been to enough shows to know!

S.D. wrote:

We're mostly talking about bands that were at the height of their popularity at least 25 years ago.  What bands since 2000 routinely sell a good number of albums in Europe and play large venues but can't get arrested in the US?  

Nightwish

David Hasselhoff's musical career divebombed badly everywhere in the world except Germany where he was inexplicably insanely popular!

Status Quo have to be the ultimate band for this thread. 118 million records sold worldwide and you guys have barely heard of them.

Also on a non musical tip Bill Hicks was really, really popular in the U.K selling out tours of very large theatres before going back home and performing in front of a few people in small comedy clubs.

Some other Canadian groups that did well in their homeland but not in the U.S. are Haywire, Lee Aaron and Razor.

On the subject of American artists who weren't big in their home country - Rodriguez fits the bill. Pretty much unknown in the US but successful in Australia and even more so in South Africa, where he was allegedly outsold Elvis.

Then there's Cold Chisel, an Australian band who were apparently second only to AC/DC in popularity, but didn't do much in the US. But it might have been a case of done much internationally either, although Uriah Heep did cover one of their songs.

S.D. wrote:

We're mostly talking about bands that were at the height of their popularity at least 25 years ago.  What bands since 2000 routinely sell a good number of albums in Europe and play large venues but can't get arrested in the US?  

Interesting enough, Southern rockers Black Stone Cherry

Citanul wrote:

Then there's Cold Chisel, an Australian band who were apparently second only to AC/DC in popularity, but didn't do much in the US.  But it might have been a case of done much internationally either, although Uriah Heep did cover one of their songs.

I saw Cold Chisel when I was down under. VERY fun live band [although I did not know any of the songs].

manny wrote:

S.D. wrote:

We're mostly talking about bands that were at the height of their popularity at least 25 years ago.  What bands since 2000 routinely sell a good number of albums in Europe and play large venues but can't get arrested in the US?  

Interesting enough, Southern rockers Black Stone Cherry

That's another one - they are fairly popular in Europe.

Also, Alter Bridge is an arena act in Europe, club act in the US

I want to say Mr. Big, due to their massive Japanese following. But, I am not really sure about the rest of the world.

Required Fields wrote:

Manowar are American, but are way bigger in Europe and Asia than they are in their own country.

Great call!

It's 'cause Manowar started to suck.

They sucked the moment they realized they weren't quite attractive enough to be Chippendales dancers and took their fur boots and loin cloths into the recording studio instead.  

Thor were actually pretty successful over in the U.K. with "Thunder in the Tundra" hitting #1 on the charts.

Vexer6 wrote:

Thor were actually pretty successful over in the U.K. with "Thunder in the Tundra" hitting #1 on the charts.

Erm....What chart was that then? Thor did do a fairly extensive media campaign for that single and even appeared on a U.K TV show (ECT) Kerrang did some stuff on him as he was an interesting enough character to fill a page but he was never 'popular' here. That said I bought a couple of singles.

Europe...still releasing great albums..in fact their new album is #14 on the UK metal charts right now...
UFO
Accept
Lamb of God
Rammstein

Boris2008 wrote:

Vexer6 wrote:

Thor were actually pretty successful over in the U.K. with "Thunder in the Tundra" hitting #1 on the charts.

Erm....What chart was that then? Thor did do a fairly extensive media campaign for that single and even appeared on a U.K TV show (ECT) Kerrang did some stuff on him as he was an interesting enough character to fill a page but he was never 'popular' here. That said I bought a couple of singles.

It was the British Rock Chart.

Vexer6 wrote:

Boris2008 wrote:

Vexer6 wrote:

Thor were actually pretty successful over in the U.K. with "Thunder in the Tundra" hitting #1 on the charts.

Erm....What chart was that then? Thor did do a fairly extensive media campaign for that single and even appeared on a U.K TV show (ECT) Kerrang did some stuff on him as he was an interesting enough character to fill a page but he was never 'popular' here. That said I bought a couple of singles.

It was the British Rock Chart.

Yeah, the rock chart wasn't exactly scientifically based, if I remember it was compiled from a few London specialist record stores, even so it must have been a very slow week as I think that the largest venue he played here was The Marquee which while legendary, was tiny.

Riot, being an American band, always plays overseas.

Manilla Road is slowly becoming more appealing in the United States.