Some friends and I were talking about various bands, and realized that the vast, vast majority of what we listen to is American bands (and, yes, we are in America, which undoubtedly skews the results). We got to thinking about what foreign bands we listen to and (intentionally ignoring the whole “British Invasion,” and only talking about any since 1970) could only come up with a few: Sabbath, AC/DC, Rammstein, Scorpions, HIM, Flogging Molly and one or two others that have slipped my mind. The question to you, dopers, is what other non-American bands are there that have been (reasonably) successful in the States? Keeping with the post-1970 restriction, of course.
In alt rock, Bush, Radiohead from Britain. In metal, Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, and before them Led Zeppelin from Britain. In mainstream rock, INXS from Australia. In Pop, Abba from Sweden, various disco acts from Europe, and 80s bands from Britain like Culture Club, Eurythmics.
But it is fair to say that the American charts, particularly in the past 10 years, have been overwhelmingly American.
T.A.T.U. is a band from Russia that’s gained some popularity here. Are you just counting bands? Cause Bjork is pretty well-known, and she’s from Iceland.
Zeppelin?
Coldplay has hit it rather big and Savage Garden has a hit every few years.
While with exception of one or two of these bands none of them were successful in terms of airplay or the charts, most of the (relatively) well known early industrial and goth bands weren’t American. Prior to industrial music breaking into the mainstream with Nine Inch Nails and Ministry there was for example: Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire, and Nitzer Ebb (England); Skinny Puppy (Canada); Einstuerzende Neubauten (Germany) and Front 242 (Belgium). For goth there was Joy Division, The Cure, Siouxsie & the Banshees, The Sisters of Mercy and Bauhaus (all from England).
The Cure did fairly well on the charts, and so did Joy Division, although Joy Division’s reforming of sorts as New Order did better in terms of airplay.
Oh, and I suppose there is Depeche Mode as well.
Oasis, Pulp, Blur, Suede. How about the whole ‘latin invasion’?
Simple Minds, Dire Straits, Roxy Music, Sex Pistols, The Clash, Yes, Genesis, Pink Floyd…
Do I need to go on?
How did Oasis do in the US?
Oasis was big in the mid-to-late 90s, but have tanked over here ever since.
Wow, I’m amazed you mentioned HIM. I came to this thread just to mention them.
Other foreign bands that have achieved some level of popularity over here that come to mind: Hot Hot Heat, Celine Dion* and Alanis Morissette (Canada); Silverchair and The Living End (Australia); Placebo (UK), The Hives, Millencolin, Refused/t(i)nc (Sweden)
*Please note that while the subject says “good,” the OP merely says “successful.”
As a Finn, I’m interested - how known, exactly, is HIM in the States? I mean, the Finnish press has a habit of making every band to sell a record in the foreign lands to Be To Finland What ABBA Was To Sweden, ie. put Finland in the world map.
I’m an American, and I’ve never heard of HIM.
Some more with chart success: The Vines (Australia), Barenaked Ladies (Canada), The Smiths (England), and Duran Duran (England). A lot of those “New Romantic” bands and new wave bands were from England.
Oh yes, probably the best-selling female “artist” of all time in from Canada. Shania Twain. (see Tanaqui’s qualifier.)
Another successful female artist from Canada: Joni Mitchell.
American bands are hard to find in the underground metal scene. Mostly it’s British and Scandinavian stuff. But that’s probably not what you had in mind by “successful”.
Other Canadian acts that have made it big include Bryan Adams, Rush, Neil Young, Crash Test Dummies, and some others. Of course, Avril Lavigne is huge now, she’s Canadian. Nelly Furtado has had some success lately. Sarah McLachlan has been extremely successful. Leonard Cohen, who’s sort of a poet with music crossover, has had great success. Going back a little more you have Anne Murray, of course.
Don’t forget Alanis Morisette. I can’t. And I try real hard.
I don’t think HIM is very well known except in specialist circles (i.e. underground-music-listening kids) in the USA. Until recently, they had conflicts with an American band also named HIM and had to do business here under the name of HER. But apparently they recently signed to a major label, bought the rights to their name, and hopefully it will soon become possible to actually buy their records over on this side of the pond. Outside of certain gothic-type people from various message boards (which is how I became acquainted with their music), I’ve never met anyone else who had heard of HIM. How well known are they in Finland? I’ve heard they are quite big in Germany and other countries in Europe as well.
Men At Work
Some of these have been mentioned, but successful Australian acts overseas include :
[ul]
[li]AC-DC[/li][li]Air Supply[/li][li]Men at Work[/li][li]INXS[/li][li]Midnight Oil[/li][li]Crowded House[/li][li]Silverchair[/li][li]Savage Garden[/li][/ul]
Bob Marley. Massive Attack has at least hit the charts, and they were on a Victoria’s Secret ad - if that isn’t recognition, what is? Most of the shoegazingish bands were from England - The Verve hit the charts, and My Bloody Valentine at least did as well.
Oh yeah, and U2.