What are some weird musicians that achieved a level of mainstream success or popularity? Whether it's as a meme or genuine chart or sales success doesn't matter to me, I just want to see moments where strange succeeded.
/thread
Laurie Andersonhttps://youtu.be/Vkfpi2H8tOE?si=_QqEpWJ-5xkzj829
1985-2000 was an odd stretch of time when many bands who shouldn’t have progressed beyond their local college got a record deal and a moment on MTV
>>128322564It was as if the record executives were all on crack when the usual "new thing" wave of signings happened. I mean we got a major label deal for a band called the Butthole Surfers
>>128322511>>128322564https://youtu.be/O9S56SIIzhM?si=JxVkPg1k2nUuB273
System of a Down. Its actually insane how successful they are considering the music they make
>>128322693Theyre very melodic
>>128322693Are they really that stranger than your average nu-metal group?
>>128322913Compared to Linkin Park, and Limp Bizkit yes.
Wesley Willis
>>128322693SOAD is extremely normie friendly lmao
Devohttps://youtu.be/XTNGg0Tj5Aw?si=uUSSLtFUa1XqFDa5
>>128323117Im surprised normies like them. If you take youre superiority glasses off theyre really out of the ordinary. The sudden changes and offputting lyrical content are unusual for a mainstream band.
>>128323114Came here to post this.Cherry Poppin Daddies and the brief swing revival was pretty weird I guess.
Slayer is pretty extreme and brutal for a mainstream act, by far the most inaccessible band from the big 4 and even some other thrash bands (e.g. Testament).Slipknot is another band that weirdly got mega popular, they might trick you with some of the hits but their first 2 albums have plenty of death metal influence and arent an easy listening
Maybe björk. Or not, her 90s stuff was pop with slightly unusual vocals, but lots of normies think even that material is weird. Yet she was totally mainstream back then, on top of charts etc, people knew her name.
>>128324140Are bands like soad and slayer mainstream really though? Slipknot was for sure, okay soad too because they had hits. But slayer, what hits do they have?
>>128324204>Are bands like soad and slayer mainstream really though?Yes
>>128324204for sure 'Raining Blood' riffs became an easily recognizable classic, at the very leastsure they arent at the same popularity level of SOAD, but they aren't nobodies to people who know *some* music. talking about thrash metal, I'd say the big 4 + Sepultura are definitely mainstream
>>128322642https://youtu.be/L7d9FXUepiQ?si=oI3UcflTfGQjSio9
>>128324140>Slipknot is another band that weirdly got mega popular,they were an edgy gimmick band for teenagers arriving at the height of nu-metal, it was absolutely no surprise they got huge
>>128322511
>>128322511Mindless self indulgence was on Carson Dalyhttps://youtu.be/wss8WQh15hk?si=kHEa2AjiHkX1LVef
>>128324076Yeah I get it and I don’t. On one hand they scratch that quirky thing young people look for, and are very melodic, but on the other hand, they’re very loud, literally screaming, and then there’s the constant changing time signatures
Beck
>>128324204SOAD were huge back in their heyday. "Sugar" especially was a very weird song for the amount of radio play it got.
>>128324542MSI were never big or mainstream. Tons of not-big bands were on shows like this. If you needed five musical guests a week, they weren't all going to be Blink 182.
>>128322524Considering how weird Chumbawamba normally were, "Tubthumping" really wasn't all that weird of a hit.
>>128324430Tiny Tim was practically a sideshow act.
>>128322632And they managed to get a big hit! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRXty8lDUW0
>>128324204Soad is more popular than Slipknot. They definitely were mainstream. I heard Chop Suey a long time before I was shown before I forget
>>128324204Calling Slayer mainstream is not accurate. Successful, but not mainstrem
>>128324589>they’re very loud, literally screaming, and then there’s the constant changing time signaturesall those are reasons why they were popular, people loved the fast/slow melodic/screaming transitions
>>128324905Yeah but I can’t think of any other household name bands doing those things
They're arguably the face of Nu-Metal, but they were still pretty strange. Though I will concede not nearly as strange as others mentioned ITT
>>128324668Beck is such a sad story, I will go to my grave swearing he would've been a classic artist to a Rolling Stones level if not for his scientology. He has a Best of the Decade contender for 90s, 00s AND 10s.Odelay, Mutations, Midnite Vultures, Sea Change is amongst the best four album stretches in history. Guero is also pretty good. He hasn't made an album in the 2020s yet but when he does it might be a banger.
>>128326359>I will go to my grave swearing he would've been a classic artist to a Rolling Stones level if not for his scientologyHow did scientology even effect his career? It seemed like he started to lose relevancy in the late 00s and never really gained it back. It was not "cool" to like Beck in the emo-scene or the hipster scene. He already felt like a 90s fossil at that point
>>128326502nta but Beck was cool in the alternative scene mid late 90s very popular, Loser was very well known and mainstream. That’s up to late genxers not millennials, zoomers probably never heard of him. I just remembered there’s this nice little vidya called Sound Shapes was on ps3 and he did some tracks for that, it’s worth getting if you can get ithttps://youtu.be/h3VQuoY0EgE
Meredith Brooks was one of the weirdest and most pointless OHWs ever.
>>128326359>>128326502Seconding, I wouldn't really consider Beck's story "sad". The saddest thing is that the past 10 years of albums have been boring sellout junk (a redo of Sea Change with none of the sadness, then extremely forgettable commercialcore indie pop, then a DUDE CITYPOP LMAO album years late is the best he could come up with???). Those don't detract from all his great albums, especially ones that no one talks about like One Foot In The Grave (great delta blues covers) and The Information (has some true avant garde hip hop on it)
>>128322693Slipknot are even heavier
>>128322511Butthole Surfers with Pepper
Define strange?
>>128323976You know what's cool, that's the Ridiculousness show's theme song which airs about 14 times a day on MTV, and Mark Mothersbaugh gets residuals every single time it airs. I do realize the show just got canned.
>>128324076they're gay ass pop dude. "everybody's goin to the party have a real good time" >b-but they're just showing how b-bad it is to do that when people are muh starving and stuffno, it's a super gay ass pop song you can't have it both ways
>>128322511It was probably due to the music video but it still boggles my mind how my name is mud got popular. On similar note Japan's ghosts somehow managed to chart on the uk top5 as their biggest hithttps://youtu.be/0cLeyGWthgw?si=izmzpvtwF43_lh7j
Remember when The Mars Volta won a grammy
>>128328019If you got your head out of your ass for ten seconds youd realize thats unusual for successful pop to do>>128326761Its less the heaviness and more the weirdness/spork aspects. Slipknot's song structures are pretty normal.
This Elvis impersonator: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MiJTxlEdtQ
>>128324861>Soad is more popular than Slipknot.not even close. Slipknot was several times more popular than SOAD ever got.
>>128322511>>128322632>>128324840>>128326783Butthole Surfers is one of those bands that owes at least 95% of their mainstream recognition to Beavis and Butthead, see also - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPjPb3nNprghttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELof8YM1zzU
tiny tim is a classic examplehttps://youtu.be/p9TtUjZVTJQ
The KLFhttps://youtu.be/HDsCeC6f0zc?si=ZOYlHp6cKg-5m789
>>128322693that's a pop band
>>128324204For me mainstream means they got played on commercial radio, none of those were. Metallica was
>>128322642This is Playboi Carti coded, I'm sure of it. These guys must be fans.
I have no idea how this was a hit The story behind the guy is pretty crazy https://youtu.be/TSffz_bl6zo?si=7iZwyTf-07woOjBc
>>128329559They have way more Spotify listenersThey also have 2 songs with over a billion YouTube views while most popular one by Slipknot has 600 million
mindless self indulgence, panic at the disco
>>128329559>>128330586Sorry but no neither SOAD nor Slipknot are mainstream. If my zoomer father in law doesn’t know anything about them they aren’t mainstream
Scatman John will always be my favourite "weird" mainstream musician.Always thought his backstory was really inspiring as a kid.
>>128330079Yeah man. The thread is about mainstream music
Do the talking heads count
>>128329596Rob Zombie has said many times if it wasn't for Beavis and Butthead his music career wouldn't have taken off
>>128332204Yeah. They were on The Muppet Show
There was that Italian-American in Australia who made the most stereotyped Italian song you can imagine, and it became a UK number one somehow
>>128324204Soad is always played at least a few songs off toxicity. Def mainstream
>>128322511Bjork and Tricky
Maybe Busta rhymes, but I'm not sure. His look and his music videos for definitely out there, but musically he wasn't strange. I feel the same way about The prodigy. Visually weird yes, but sonically they weren't that different from their contemporaries.
>>128332389busta had a unique delivery and some of his beats were very out there and forward-thinking, put your hands where my eyes could see for example
>>128332623It might be hindsight, and it might be the fact that I am a very avid listener of tribe so I get that version of Busta a lot.
>>128332684put your hands where my eyes could see is not a very tribe-like song though
>>128332693I know, I was saying that he might not be sonically weird in my mind partially because of that.
>>128323114>Wesley WillisI think that was a meme or a psyop of some sort. On Last.fm he has 141k listeners, less than such bands I've never heard of as Strand of Oaks and Piebald and 1/5 the amount of listeners Great Lakes Swimmers have, whoever that is. Not to discredit your answer. Obviously we know who he is, so it fits the thread.
>>128331287
WEIRDEST EVER:US performance artist Laurie Anderson had a #2 hit in the UK with O Superman.Listen if you doubt:https://youtu.be/Vkfpi2H8tOE?si=bOlyv-plLGW-_NNo [Embed]...see?
>>128332874duplicate post AND a jeet, wew
Captain Sensible from The Damned had a UK no.1 hit in 1982 with this tune from South Pacific https://youtu.be/291ET6Py6H8The more I think about it this is the winner, everyone who was alive knows it and it’s in the public consciousness. Probably the most famous song by any of the punks ever
>>128322511Touch of Grey charting from a 22 year old band
>>128331032>father in law>zoomerToddlers are getting married these days?
When I made this thread I wasn't sure what I expected, but it definitely wasn't the system of a down versus Slipknot weird-off. And I don't think I expected to get absolutely zero pushback on the op pick of Primus. Also I'm surprised nobody posted this guy yet.
>>128334056>PrimusThey were genuinely weird and to this day have a very unique sound for how big they got. Obviously Slipknot and nu-metal aren't what you were originally asking for but it is sort of vague when you say "Whether it's as a meme or genuine chart or sales success doesn't matter to me, I just want to see moments where strange succeeded". That implies they band or act is sufficiently weird AND managed to become "famous" or otherwise somehow "well-known". Without a more narrow definition that would apply to a ton of well known famous acts and bands. Anyways not sure if this qualifies but I would say Cake is an example of what you're asking for:https://youtu.be/WBu8SFr1eAc?si=-_br5YxrCSqKAn6n
>>128332886>duplicate posti added a pic, newfag lollurk moar
>>128334056Weird Al isn't actually that weird musically or as an individual. Parody music is pretty mainstream
>>128334056Primus were known by the kids before South Park became famous, which wasn’t immediate, like everyone knew one or two dudes who were massive Primus fans and most people liked what Primus were doing, they were respected by punks and metalheads. So then everyone started watching South Park and the fact Primus were there just made it more cool
>>128322511https://youtu.be/B0qpQrUWU3I?si=yS56ovsfrcV9K7r6
>>128322511Andrew W.K.
The true winner (after Laurie Anderson, of course) must surely be any New Age music. That shit was all over the charts in the 1990s. Enigma had a number-one hit in multiple countries across the world with Sadeness, then they came back and did it again several years later with Return to Innocence. And they weren't even the only New Age band! There were loads of them! Era had Ameno, my nigga Karl Jenkins was everywhere for a while with Adiemus, and that's before anyone even mentions Enya or Clannad.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk_sAHh9s08https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xUnSVTh8fIhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aL8kZ-iVk90
>>128322511Ween. Ugly, annoying and shit music. It's honestly unbelievable how successful they got while sucking so hard.
>>128339972gen X thought they were rebelling by buying into the shittiest low effort acts when MTV (huge corporation btw) played their music vids or beavis and butthead referenced them. ween were one of those MTV bands.
>>128322511The Residents , not mainstream but touring for 40 years is impressive
>>128339972>>128340133seethe harder
>>128322511Buckethead
10cc
>>128332897I've seen the Damned live 3 times and I had never heard of this
>>128329559more people probably know a System song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzHtePuz13UThis song was number two in the US, number one in the UK and Canada, and a top 10 across Europe
>>128341837I would say the most popular Slipknot song (Duality) is about the same level of popularity as the most popular SOAD song (Toxicity), you could probably make an argument for either song.....but we were talking overall band popularity anyways
>>128339972Not mainstream. Successful, but not mainstream
>>128344219Push Th Little Daisies was mainstream for a hot minute in 1993, I think it counts
>>128341089There’s a podcast called No Dogs In Space they did a good series on The Damned you will like https://youtu.be/b31L4P7G5j8One of my favourite punk bands all time
Blood Brothers ever getting signed to a major label still seems so bizarre to me, even 20 years later. I live in Canada so I don't have a firm grasp on how much of a push they got in the US. Though they drew a good crowd when I saw them on tour with ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead in 2006. It seemed as though the audience was split in half between Blood Bros fans and Trail of Dead fans.
Were the B52s weird at the time or was everything weird?
>>128344392Early on they were very weird. But they became pretty normal as time went on
>>128339972>Ween>shit musicpick one
>>128344443I don't think I've ever considered their chronology but yeah that makes sense.
>>128322632>Ed HallThats a band that doesn't get discussed here often enough
>>128324140Back then I thought Slipknot was too soft. I was class of 2001, and was mainly listening to grotesque noise rock and d-beat hardcore at the time.
>>128324542I hated them.
>>128344265You must be from the same generation I am, my old bassist used to carry a copy of Burn Piano Island Burn everywhere he went.
Red Hot Chili Peppers
In Vanessa Paradis's Joe le Taxi, she sings about immigrants listening to their gritty and authentic music, and one of the acts she mentions is Yma Sumac. Yma Sumac was an avant-garde opera singer in the 1950s; I didn't think she was mainstream but perhaps she might have been if she was getting named in songs 30 years later.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1SIscNxwaI
>>128328019>one line from one songShut the fuck up retard
>>128344856Red Slop Child Predators
Freddie Wadlinghttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TI6w8_9RkSMVery strange swede, was always respected as a artist in sweden. sold out big time and did lots of TV gig stuff last part of his life, but he was so strange and so good that he didn't lose any credibility doing so.
