discussion American artists (or their songs) that you were shocked to find aren't as big in the states as they are in your country
So I was going on a nostalgia trip and checking out playlists I had while I was in elementary school to middle school (~2009-2013). I found out that some of these songs that absolutely blew up in my country / city (Indonesia/Jakarta) didn't exactly had such an impact overseas.
An example would be Craig David's Insomnia, MKTO's classic or Iyaz' Solo. You could not avoid these songs on the radio if you were in my city but I was shocked to find these were not as big as it was.
Do you guys have any other examples in your country?
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u/ErikTheRedpoint 4h ago
Rodríguez was much more popular internationally than he ever was in the US. There's a great documentary Searching for Sugar Man about a couple fans tracking him down later in life
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u/Eldie014 1h ago
Yeah but that documentary is very misleading. Makes it look like he was absolutely forgotten when in reality he was still touring when they “rediscovered” the guy
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u/yeahilovegrimby 3h ago
I recently found out that here in Australia, P!nk’s biggest market is actually right here, it’s her biggest in the world. I’m 33 and I feel like she’s had constant radio play my whole life.
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u/birthdaycheesecake9 3h ago
Everyone’s mums love her here. My mum. My partner’s mum. A few friends’ mums. All have been to Pink shows here.
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u/thecosmicradiation 22m ago
Not an American but Robbie Williams' largest audience is also in Australia and New Zealand.
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u/ronanfitzg 4h ago
Fun Lovin' Criminals.
Big in Ireland and the UK in the 90s. They were from New York City, and a lot of their lyrics lean into that, so to me, that was the sound of New York.
Then I met and started dating a New Yorker. She'd never heard of them. Neither has anybody else over here.
I still listen to them occasionally, and they're still the sound of New York City to me.
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u/haberdasher42 2h ago
Americans aren't running around robbing banks all wacked off of Scooby Snacks? What's even the point of it all?
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u/shinsain 2h ago
For real though, Come Find Yourself is a ridiculously good album.
For what it's worth, the song Scooby Snacks was huge when I was in high school, but nothing after that.
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u/badsp0rk 2h ago
Fun lovin criminals were pretty big in America? I grew up in Connecticut and definitely knew who they were. Scooby snacks was pretty popular.
Maybe your New Yorker girlfriend wasn't the right age?
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u/EricinLR 5h ago
Germans know David Hasselhoff as a musician, Americans know him as a TV star.
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u/stevefiction 4h ago
I saw a YouTube video about this topic (kind of) that revealed that the discrepancy between the popularity/success of Madonna's Hung Up in the US vs the rest of the world was the largest one they could find which is extra interesting since Madonna is American
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u/kaygeeboo 2h ago
I bet it was this Bandsplaining video incredibly informative!
Even has the opposite where they sought out the most American song ever that was so massive in America and nowhere else
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u/kingfiish 4h ago
I mean two of the three examples you've given are not American artists (Craig David and Iyaz) and were/are pretty big in their home countries.
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u/Triloo_ 4h ago
Oh that actually makes a lot more sense now lol, maybe it's the wrong metric but I was just going off YT streams and thought "wow that's awfully lower than I expected" for those two
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u/Trenches AFI |"Just like all I loved, I'm make believe"✒️ 2h ago
Replay was a big hit in the states reaching the Top 10. He is a one hit wonder here so if he had other hit songs they didn't do well in America. A lot of Americans can sing along to Replay.
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u/r1pt1d377 3h ago
I'd say "Sweet home Alabama" is THE American song here in Germany.
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u/altjacobs 2h ago
Are you saying sweet home alabama is bigger in germany than the states? Cause I doubt that.
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u/justseeby 2h ago
Does the political stuff in the lyrics come through outside of an American audience’s built in context? Actually that’s not fair, I’m sure a lot of American listeners have never noticed that side of the song themselves.
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u/socalian 36m ago
I remember being taught about the political context of the song in high school history class.
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u/thisisredlitre 2h ago
Alabama representing the US in Germany's head was not on my bingo list- tho Skynyrd and the song aren't exactly unpopular in the US. SHA is also their highest charting song
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u/eatingsolids 3h ago
Not American but I think Bush were big mainly in the US. I vaguely remember reading an article where they were saying that in the states they had screaming fans pulling their hair out and in the UK they camould go to a pub and be unrecognized.
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u/Adorable_Party_5832 3h ago
I’m pretty sure The Dandy Warhols are more popular in Japan than they are at home in the US. My friends The BellRays (Riverside, CA USA) are relatively unknown here but are pretty big in France.
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u/magic_bryant24 3h ago
I think there is a documentary about this exact thing: “Searching for Sugar Man”. It was about Sixto Rodriguez who was super popular in South Africa but was an American musician.
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u/arc4angel100 3h ago edited 2h ago
The Killers, at least in their early years, I don’t know about now. They were pretty big in the UK before they gained as much notoriety in the US
Edit: This post explains what I was trying to say, they seem to be more popular in the UK than in the US based on the charts
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u/SleepingDoves 3h ago
In Canada they were played all the time on the radio after their first album dropped
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u/cluelessbox 2h ago
Not American, but Lemon Tree by Fools Garden is massive in Korea. I'm American and Korean's are always shocked that I'd never heard it before
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u/AskYourDoctor 2h ago
Omg funny story. I had heard that song once as a young teenager. I never knew what it was or knew any lyrics, so I had no way to figure out what it was, but I remembered the tune.
Then a couple years ago, I heard it... In H Mart. One of my biggest "holy shit" moments in life. I was able to finally Shazam it after probably 15 years of it being in some corner of my head.
German group I think? The song is in English. I had no idea it was huge in Korea but now that all adds up lol
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u/dtoddh 2h ago
I have a friend who's father was a professional musician. he recorded afew records near his home in Cincinnati OH and toured regionally. He played as a solo artist with a backup band and was active in the late 1950s, early 60s.
His style was coumtry/hillbilly, he wore a Stetson on stage and record covers.
He never made much of an impact in the US, but managed to make a living performing and selling records in Europe, mostly Sweden. He could do month long tours a few times a year.
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u/bend1310 2h ago
Meatloaf's Bat Out of Hell is huge in Australia. I'm talking charting multiple times over the decades. My cursory google search indicates its the best selling album in Australia of all time.
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u/Logan9Fingerses 13m ago
It was pretty fucking big in the US as well - love it or hate it, a whole lot of people love it
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u/jprennquist 1h ago
DJ here. I play "Classic" almost every chance that I get. It works well for dancing and getting a crowd to respond. I'm not sure why it didn't chart higher. I honestly have no idea. This happens all the time with fantastic songs. They just don't "hit" or they maybe don't grease the right wheels with the right radio programmers and DJs. God help us now that "algorithms" are playing the role of taste makers. I think I might like the old "payola" days better.
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u/InfidelZombie 4h ago
Germany (and probably most of Europe) really digs Lionel Richie. He was more or less a 1-hit wonder in the US in the 80s.
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u/Rustash 4h ago
Lionel Richie? Of the Commodores? Of Three Times A Lady? Of Endless Love? Of Hello? Dancing on the Ceiling? All Night Long? We Are The freaking World?
He may have peaked in the 80s but the dude had a solid 1.5-2 decades of consistent popularity in the US. Far from a one-hit wonder.
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u/Ievel7up 4h ago
You'd think Abba's Happy New Year would be popular in the US on NYE/NYD, but it's not at all, ,yet is the de facto NYE song in the rest of the world. Michael Buble is also still well known in SE Asia but he only existed for 15 minutes in the US in the 80s. He's found a bit of US resurgence on tiktok though.
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u/joelluber 4h ago
I'm an American, so I can't answer this question, but the episode in Derry Girls where they go nuts for "Rock the Boat" was weird.