Actually they weren't labelmates. Rick Astley was signed to RCA rather than PWL although he worked for the latter studio as a teaboy until his singing carreer.
I think it may have had to do with Astley having a slightly more R&B influenced style than most Stock/Aitken/Waterman produced acts. It tends to go down better in the US. Though a different song with a different mix (“Together Forever”) was needed to break him in the US market.
Maybe, Jason did not hve a breakthrough hit like Rick Astley did. Rick Astley breakthrough hit is still famous today.
Maybe, Jason did not hve a breakthrough hit like Rick Astley did. Rick Astley breakthrough hit is still famous today.
In order to make it, you need talent, support from a record company, and a whole lot of luck
Of the artists that make it in Europe - there are many reasons for not making it n the USA. Among them:
Timing - artists fall ill before a tour, so do not follow up their hit.
Style - America like different music
Competition - there is an American band that fill that niche, Grand Funk Railroad were to some extent filling the same niche as Status Quo. So Quo never broke the states and GFR did not do well on this side of the pond.
If you can fill arenas and headline festivals, it is simply not worth it to go
In order to make it, you need talent, support from a record company, and a whole lot of luck
Of the artists that make it in Europe - there are many reasons for not making it n the USA. Among them:
Timing - artists fall ill before a tour, so do not follow up their hit.
Style - America like different music
Competition - there is an American band that fill that niche, Grand Funk Railroad were to some extent filling the same niche as Status Quo. So Quo never broke the states and GFR did not do well on this side of the pond.
If you can fill arenas and headline festivals, it is simply not worth it to go back to playing clubs in the USA. So some bands do stop trying to break America.
Because most Americans are stupid idiots who don't have good taste in music they go cuckoo over Taylor Swift and to me her music is garbage. I would rather go cuckoo over my two favorite Brits Bullet For My Valentine and Def Leppard their music is a zillion times better than hers.
He really wasn’t for a while.
After his major chart success in the late 80’s, he had some minor hits after that, and sort of faded back into more adult contemporary realms. He released albums, and they sold well, but they were never the hits that he had previously enjoyed. He did, however, manage to maintain a pretty significant fanbase and he never fell victim to the same rock and roll excesses of many of his contemporaries, so he’s managed to continue recording and basically just doing whatever he felt like, musically, without any of the pressure that a lot of “retro novelty” acts often have.
He really wasn’t for a while.
After his major chart success in the late 80’s, he had some minor hits after that, and sort of faded back into more adult contemporary realms. He released albums, and they sold well, but they were never the hits that he had previously enjoyed. He did, however, manage to maintain a pretty significant fanbase and he never fell victim to the same rock and roll excesses of many of his contemporaries, so he’s managed to continue recording and basically just doing whatever he felt like, musically, without any of the pressure that a lot of “retro novelty” acts often have.
Had Rickrolling not become a viral meme, he’d probably still be doing that, and his big hits would be curiosities that only found play once in a while on 80’s throwback nights, not the pop-cultural juggernauts they are once again. Rickrolling is at this point over a decade old, and people still recognize it and it’s still considered a humorous prank.
The sustainable nature of the rickroll and of Astley’s subsequent career may be due to the fact that he’s pretty genial about it all and often is in on the joke. He performed a live rickroll on the Macy’s parade; he’s performed “Never Gonna Give You Up” with Foo Fighters and Kylie Minogue. He just genuinely seems amused, slightly baffled and flattered that there’s been an unexpected resurgence in a 30-year-old pop hit, and he’s just having fun with it.
It’d be a bit too simple to put it down to cultural differences as each case is unique. Each example you’ve listed had their own struggles, failures and successes in their attempts to break through in different markets.
Yes, cultural differences likely have a role to play, but there is a lot more to it. Just a few examples:
- Timing. If you’re too early or too late, you’re probably not going to get the attention needed to break through. There are plenty of early- to mid-80’s disco that might’ve been huge had it come out 3–5 years earlier.
- Management. If you don’t surround yourself with people who c
It’d be a bit too simple to put it down to cultural differences as each case is unique. Each example you’ve listed had their own struggles, failures and successes in their attempts to break through in different markets.
Yes, cultural differences likely have a role to play, but there is a lot more to it. Just a few examples:
- Timing. If you’re too early or too late, you’re probably not going to get the attention needed to break through. There are plenty of early- to mid-80’s disco that might’ve been huge had it come out 3–5 years earlier.
- Management. If you don’t surround yourself with people who can vouch for you and put your music in front of the right people, you’re probably not going to get heard.
- Marketing. You can put all your time and money into getting your music to people, but if the “messaging” isn’t appealing to the market or, more importantly, your “product” isn’t really good, you’re out of luck. Speaking of which…
- Luck. Getting your timing right, having the right people around you, and marketing your product also requires a lot of luck as well as hard work.
Unfortunately it’d require far more research than I have time for to do a proper post mortem on what made the particular bands/artists you mentioned fail to have more success in the US. That being said, they did enjoy some success (see links).
You could look at the history of Billboard to see what tastes were like in the US and UK during the bands/artists era in as well as their sales on sites like BestSellingAlbums.org. Also, you can read up on the bands/artists, watch documentaries, and read interviews with people who worked with the bands/artists to gain more specific insights into what went right and what went wrong.
I’ll attach some links for you to check out.
Thanks for the A2A Timothy Christian Liu and have a kick-ass ₢eative day!
Links:
List of Billboard number-one singles - Wikipedia
ROBBIE WILLIAMS album sales - BestSellingAlbums.org
WESTLIFE album sales - BestSellingAlbums.org
BOYZONE album sales - BestSellingAlbums.org
OLLY MURS album sales - BestSellingAlbums.org
TAKE THAT album sales - BestSellingAlbums.org
He had a few other top 10 singles, but mostly transitioned away from making pop music towards making “blue-eyed soul” music. He retired from the music industry for a while, mostly to spend time with his family.
He came back and has released a few more albums in the past 20 years. He’s never enjoyed the pop dominance of the early days, but he still has a fairly large live draw and sells a respectable amount of albums.
Unlike many of his contemporaries, he also apparently did not blow his pop millions in his early days, and despite not hitting the top of the charts for decades, he has an estimated
He had a few other top 10 singles, but mostly transitioned away from making pop music towards making “blue-eyed soul” music. He retired from the music industry for a while, mostly to spend time with his family.
He came back and has released a few more albums in the past 20 years. He’s never enjoyed the pop dominance of the early days, but he still has a fairly large live draw and sells a respectable amount of albums.
Unlike many of his contemporaries, he also apparently did not blow his pop millions in his early days, and despite not hitting the top of the charts for decades, he has an estimated net worth of about $16M. So it seems like he’s been pretty successful long-term.
I have no frame of reference but am going to take a guess at this one. Each culture has a different pop culture. Hello Kitty is not so big in the US but if you go to Japan or Thailand it is. Pop art works based on cultures. Right now in the US you see and influx of comic book pop art because it is so huge in our culture right now. I have no idea if you see that deep into other cultures on the surface I have not. Culture is the basis for pop art.
Many years ago, Punch magazine published a ‘Counterfeit’ issue and one of the categories, along with recreating the Big Mac, was creating your own Stock, Aitkin and Waterman hit, the aforementioned being the producers of Rick Astley along with the likes of Kylie, Jason, assorted Aussie soap stars and Sonia and Big Fun bringing up the rear.
The article writer played a number of their hits to a professor of music from a British University and he singled out the word “say” from ‘say goodbye’ in Astley’s “Never gonna give you up’— which was a high note he held very powerfully— as the moment of high
Many years ago, Punch magazine published a ‘Counterfeit’ issue and one of the categories, along with recreating the Big Mac, was creating your own Stock, Aitkin and Waterman hit, the aforementioned being the producers of Rick Astley along with the likes of Kylie, Jason, assorted Aussie soap stars and Sonia and Big Fun bringing up the rear.
The article writer played a number of their hits to a professor of music from a British University and he singled out the word “say” from ‘say goodbye’ in Astley’s “Never gonna give you up’— which was a high note he held very powerfully— as the moment of highest vocal quality in all he was played.
Noteworthy!
He just released a new “Best Of” collection. He’s still making music, although after his early pop hits he transitioned into more soul music and adult contemporary and fell off the pop radar. He briefly retired to raise a family, and returned in the mid-2000’s.
He still tours a lot, still sells out fairly large venues on a regular basis, does the occasional guest appearances, and records.
It is difficult to break into the US market. If you aren’t a big name act, you might not even make up the costs of touring.
From what I can tell in interviews and other media, Astley seems like a nice guy, and is perfectly willing to laugh at his 80s dance-cheez debut album and to go along with the Rick-Roll meme. Apparently Astley had little creative control over his early songs, being very young, and tried to take a more adult-contemporary bluesy sound on his third album rather than making Still Never Gonna Give You Up ‘90. I think “Cry for Help” is an excellent song. But the album was otherwise unfortunately forgettable, and Astley wisely bowed out of the music industry, at least for a while. I’ve also read that
From what I can tell in interviews and other media, Astley seems like a nice guy, and is perfectly willing to laugh at his 80s dance-cheez debut album and to go along with the Rick-Roll meme. Apparently Astley had little creative control over his early songs, being very young, and tried to take a more adult-contemporary bluesy sound on his third album rather than making Still Never Gonna Give You Up ‘90. I think “Cry for Help” is an excellent song. But the album was otherwise unfortunately forgettable, and Astley wisely bowed out of the music industry, at least for a while. I’ve also read that his hip joints are no longer what they used to be in his dancin’ days.
It’s really this simple. Most artists don’t make it.
Maybe someone gave him up or let him down. Maybe someone ran around and hurt him. Or maybe just maybe someone made him cry or said goodbye or they told a lie to hurt him. 👀
A number of reasons I suppose. One is that to make it huge in the US, you need the support of a major label/ media organisation. US label execs have traditionally viewed British bands as lazy, and too high a risk for the large investment required to break an artist in the US.
But I think it is a cultural thing. The US is a huge, multi cultural and diverse country. In the US, their own massive variety of music forms is more than enough. It's a similar thing in sport. The US are passionate about their own sports, but not bothered about what other countries play.
To be successful in the US, you hav
A number of reasons I suppose. One is that to make it huge in the US, you need the support of a major label/ media organisation. US label execs have traditionally viewed British bands as lazy, and too high a risk for the large investment required to break an artist in the US.
But I think it is a cultural thing. The US is a huge, multi cultural and diverse country. In the US, their own massive variety of music forms is more than enough. It's a similar thing in sport. The US are passionate about their own sports, but not bothered about what other countries play.
To be successful in the US, you have to find a way to repackage and sell American culture/ music back to them.
Of the bands mentioned in the Question, 2 of them are second rate covers bands. The US are ( rightly) not remotely intetested in being sold cheesy Bee Gees/ Bette Midler covers. Robbie is too lazy, and bands like Oasis/ Blur/ Take That/ Cliff Richard are just too English.
Adele is an exception. Not particularly hard working, not particularly good looking and not a technically great singer. However, she wrote one of the greatest, most human break up albums of all time, an album that resonates with anyone who has ever been dumped - included millions of Americans. With the best will in the world, Gary Barlow or Olly Murs could never write anything as good or emotionally powerful as 21.
Tastes can be fickle. Richard wasn’t as popular as any number of other Brits in the US possibly because we just never latched onto his sound. Groups were pretty popular, but a number of the male soloists (I’m thinking also guys like Adam Faith and Tommy Steele) just couldn’t compete in the US market. Same holds true today - Robbie Williams never hit it big in the US.
I would say language plays a big part in the artist's success in the US.
For example, pop bands from the UK & Australia have been more successful than those from non-English speaking countries, as it's easier to sing along with English as it is to sing along with a J-pop band.
Still going.
The Foo Fighters had him as a special guest for their televised gig at Reading Festival this year :
Foo Fighters Bring Out Rick Astley And Rick-Roll 60,000 People At Reading Festival
And it seems he’s played with them several times. Seems to be enjoying a bit of a resurgence these days.
Pete Waterman, of famed production team Stock-Aitken-Waterman, first hired him as a studio intern, and then added him to their roster of artists.
The single topped and was the best selling single on the “dance-pop” charts Worldwide for weeks in the latter part of the ’80s and is ranked in the top 50 for ’80s dance-pop genre. It’s included on my collection along with “Together Forever” as indicative of the pop synthesizer, drum sequenced pseudo soul of the period.
They’re too British and can’t easily connect with American culture/audiences. Add Oasis to that list.
He’s a singer from outside Wigan in the north of England who got discovered when he was tea boy for Stock, Aitken & Waterman.
He made some decently harmless songs and has a good following and if you don’t like him you can ignore him.
Got it? Good. Now on your way.
Because he’s never going to give you up.
The deal? What do you mean?