Singers / bands who are hugely successful but deeply uncool

[HAZZAGTR]

Cliff Richard. Best selling artist of all time but deeply uncool. Hes the worst bar Boy George.

[yellowbentines]

Bon Jovi.

Bad hair, bad dress sense, in recent years nothing but rock ballad dross, still fill the stadiums though.

[robsco]

HAZZAGTR said:

Cliff Richard. Best selling artist of all time but deeply uncool. Hes the worst bar Boy George.

The guy (Cliff Richard) is a colossal wker.

[maxxy5]

samdale said:

Metallica. The amount of times I hear "they were never cool, even in my day" or similar.

Still, their record sales must be around the 100 million mark and I believe the black album is one of the best selling of all time

Even less cool - Iron Maiden

[captainzep]

robsco said:

HAZZAGTR said:

Cliff Richard. Best selling artist of all time but deeply uncool. Hes the worst bar Boy George.

The guy (Cliff Richard) is a colossal wker.

Apparently not.

On Songs of Praise the other day he said he can't wk that much because it squeezes his colostomy bag 'like bagpipes' and can cause seepage.

[thehawk]

The Scorpions spring to mind.

Quite a few other bands that are hugely popular still in Europe/Asia/Japan (Air Supply) but totally uncool or forgotten in the UK/US, well even in the US, many bands uncool in the UK sell out tours constantly - many hair metal bands still exist in various incarnations.

[Ayahuasca]

Obiwonkeyblokey said:

Ali2202 said:

Simbu said:

Rush. Most people just don't 'get' it. 19 released studio albums and another on the way this year. Worldwide success.

Saw them live on the Snakes and Arrows tour. Awesome.

There is no way on earth Rush could be described as 'uncool'!! They're a huge influence on soooo many bands and folk that don't get them tend to be a bit obviously stupid

Just fantastic musicians and funny as fook too.

WE know!

^^^^^^^^ what he said.

I think it is very difficult to be both Canadian and cool.

[tuscaneer]

maxxy5 said:

samdale said:

Metallica. The amount of times I hear "they were never cool, even in my day" or similar.

Still, their record sales must be around the 100 million mark and I believe the black album is one of the best selling of all time

Even less cool - Iron Maiden

the last maiden album i bought was seventh son of a seventh son in 1988 and it was deeply cool to me as a 13 year old boy.it went down hill quickly from there to be honest.until bbc4 showed the documentary "flight 666" last week.fking class.chartering your own 757 for a whistle stop world tour with the singer piloting the plane!
it didn't prompt me to dust off my old vinyl it prompted me to replace all my old maiden albums with cd's and i spent all last week rocking out to piece of mind and powerslave.
even cooler that it's deeply uncool and better than when i was a little kid

[Vladikar]

Mick Hucknall?

[SkinnyBoy]

speaking of Jimmy Buffet....

http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/music/i-hea...

[clonmult]

HAZZAGTR said:

Cliff Richard. Best selling artist of all time but deeply uncool. Hes the worst bar Boy George.

Thankfully he's not the best selling artist of all time, thats either the Beatles or Elvis. If you want some serious entertainment, listen to Cradle of Filths cover of Devil Woman. Makes you want to laugh and cry, before you realise that cranking up the volume is the best option.

[jpringle819]

Ayahuasca said:

Jimmy Buffett earns an estimated 100 million dollars a year. I want to cry.

I am one of the people adding to his wealth. Just spent a great weekend in Paris with fellow Parrotheads going to two concerts.

[Justin Cyder]

Asterix said:

It's the musical equivalent of beige wallpaper.

Dido is the same.

She sure is. There's no end of people who love this unchallenging schtick though. Nothing wrong with that I suppose, it'd be boring if everyone was punk.

Anyway, I nominate Paul Carrack. He's fairly dull to my ears, but was in Squeeze, Mike & the Mechanics, worked with Nick Lowe, Eric Clapton, The Eagles & tours all over the shop. I Shouldn't think he's short of a gig whenever the fancy takes him.

[gazza285]

thehawk said:

Quite a few other bands that are hugely popular still in Europe/Asia/Japan (Air Supply) but totally uncool or forgotten in the UK/US, well even in the US, many bands uncool in the UK sell out tours constantly - many hair metal bands still exist in various incarnations.

I know the lead singer of Smokie...

[sparks_E39]

Nickleback.


I don't get them.

[RichB]

Goughie said:

Hammer67 said:

Goughie said:

Billy Joel - more than 100 million albums sold

His material from the 70s and 80s is excellent.

No argument from me, a huge fan here. He is without doubt, the surest cause of my own ridicule amongst my friends when our "cool quotients" are being assessed!

Another fan of him, hugely talented given he writes the stuff, plays it and sings.

[The Hypno-Toad]

Dire Straits

Once the biggest band in the world by some considerable margin and now no-one dare speak their name.

When did you last hear on of their songs on the radio?

[Justin Cyder]

To be fair, they were last heard from 25 years ago. I think Mark Knopfler transcends cool anyway. Such a unique style of playing whether it was in DS, which let's face it was a vehicle for his songs or his solo stuff since.

[Baryonyx]

Dire Straits were once cool. Don't forget, they hit America like a sledgehammer and sold loads of records there!

As for Rush, they're as cool as fk. And Alex Lifeson putting on weight, give the guy a break, he's middle aged! Fantastic band. Phil Collins was pretty cool too, don't forget he was a member of Brand X who were a pretty serious fusion group.

[CAPP0]

Ultuous said:

slomax said:

Ever seen hot chip? Highly bizzar group of people.

I think we may have a winner!

I always filed Hot Chip under " oh fergawdssake" but then I listened to some of their less commercial stuff - they're VERY good.

Edited by CAPP0 on Friday 10th October 23:21