Artists who are consistently enjoyable, but not exceptional?

I've enjoyed a few of these in my lifetime. Some were Japanese (the regulars here are aware of my fondness for asian music) and many others were western.

For the latter, I want to mention All Star United. This is an American pop/rock group inspired by the 90s brit-pop sound, and they were very addictive and like-able, but not exceptional. They lost me with their last few albums, though. They just weren't that engaging anymore.

For asian ones, I remember the group Shazna. They were never taken too seriously in Japan mainly because of the singer's androgynous image and more so his cutesy vocals coupled with their very saccharine pop-rock, but the group for me had enough charm that for a while I was really indulged in all their songs, up to every b-side, single and album track that I could get my hands on. They had already disbanded by the time I got in to them. Then one day, they announced a comeback followed by a new maxi single and a new album. I played their stuff to death, then when the single and new album came and I had downloaded it off the net, it was rather lackluster and wore thin quick. Then, one day, my interest in Shazna came to an end and rather suddenly their entire catalog and songs that were going through my head just vanished and now when I try to listen to the majority of them again, I just don't feel the magic.

This also happened to me with my t.A.T.u. phase. I had all the russian and english albums, as well as rare demos and alternative versions salvaged from t.A.T.u. fan sites. Really crazy.

But here's my point: a lot of these artists put out music that was consistently enjoyable but for the most part not exceptional. I noticed most bands that are in this category tend to be the accessible poppier ones, that had songs that were fun to hear, but never really blew me away. X Japan is an exception to Shazna, a band that has stuck with me over the years even after my initial phase had ended. I have retuned to playing them regularly again and this band, while having a small catalog of original material, was very much a 'quality over quantity' band.

I guess it has something to do with playing it too safe, in terms of musical style.

The first that comes to mind for me is Airbourne. Exactly as you said - consistently enjoyable but to me never exceptional.

The first one that came to mind for me was Danzig. I own and like his first three albums but they've never been frequent spinners.

Another one is Annihilator. I own most of their stuff, like it all just fine, but when I'm in the mood for'em I mainly reach for Alice in Hell and the rest languishes on the shelf.

A lot of the European power-metal bands I was listening to during the late 90s/early 00s fall into this trap too, i.e. Heaven's Gate, Iron Savior, Gamma Ray, HammerFall, Angel Dust, Primal Fear, etc.
I was really into that "scene" back then and have numerous CDs from all of these bands, but in each case, after the first album or two they started getting really samey - don't get me wrong, it was all still excellently performed/played, but after a while when I bought a "new" album by any of them it started to feel like I was buying the same old bread in a different wrapper.

4 of the bands FF mentioned are exceptional to me. In that they have an exceptional album or two where I was really just blown away. I think muckie is getting at a band that is enjoyable/ average and never gets beyond that. As I try to think of more examples the criteria for exceptionality would be that one album I couldn't get enough of or the song/ chorus I couldn't stop singing after hearing it. It might be their one shining moment, but it's there. If I sat down and scratched out a list there would probably be a lot of B and C list Hair Bands fro the '80's like Bang Tango and Faster P*ssycat. Again, it's all subjective as the bands/ artists we've mentioned so far might be some ones faves and exceptional to them.

Rough Cutt is probably one of those bands for me. Really enjoyed Cutt your heart out. The rest of the album had bits and pieces that were good which taken on a whole made the album average. I was hoping that the next release Wants You! would take that next step and instead average if not less than. So, Rough Cutt was always a B list band that I hoped for more. Love the vocals and some of the guitar parts had serious promise. The opening riff of Take her gets stuck in my head, yet I rarely make all the way through the album.

I would put Lana Lane in this category. I have a lot of her albums, and I wouldn't say that there's a bad one among them, but none of them really stand out. And there are no songs that come to mind that I would describe as "killer" - songs that once I've finished listening to the album make me go, "Wow. I want to go back and hear that again right now."

AC/DC's last few albums hits me this way....so does the last few scorpions releases...Jackyl and ugly kid joe as well..