The Minidisc.
BetaMax
Boston’s first album was huge. Their second album was a flop and that was the last we heard of them. I remember Rolling Stone magazine were big Boston boosters after the first album, but they jumped ship after the second.
Well, it did lead to a very funny episode of South Park. 
In fact, the National Hockey League is very close to Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association for average attendace at each game (although the National Football League is way ahead), and Major League Soccer is fairly close too:
NFL 68,240
NBA 17,520
MLB 30,201
NHL 17,460
MLS 16,675
Well, their second album did sell seven million copies. And the third album, in, IIRC, 1988, had two big hits, Amanda and We’re Ready. They are absolute staples of classic rock radio.
That said, I’m not a huge fan…
Joe
This notion that professional soccer in the U.S. is hopelessly far behind the big four professional team sports and will never catch up is rather tiresome. In fact, it has been catching up. It’s just taking decades to do it. Furthermore, sixty years ago there was very little soccer played by young kids, high school students, and college students. Now it’s reasonably common. In a few more decades soccer will be a major sport in the U.S. Not in a couple of years. Not never. In a few more decades.
They never were the next big thing, true, but they’re still around. Their last album came out in 2010. They never matched the hit of “Don’t Go” again and of course never scaled U2-level heights but they’ve had a somewhat successful time of it. “Don’t Go” is still a perennial on the radio here.
Actress Gretchen Mol is famous for this, after her appearance on the cover of Vanity Fair magazine. She said she “watched the doors open, and then the doors closed”. Maybe being on the cover of VF IS a curse.
You could probably start a whole new thread in the Game Room for athletes that fit the bill, but for now I’ll add Todd Van Poppel. He was going to be a stud pitcher for the A’s. His rookie card was the ultimate collector’s item before he eve stepped on the mound in a major league stadium.
In that vein, getting back to soccer (which I still don’t buy will ever be a massively popular sport in the USA within the next 50 years, if then) wasn’t that young player Freddie Adu (sp?) supposed to be the next Pele or something, when in reality his pro career is all but DOA?
I saw something about him within the past year or so, and it said that the excessive hype may have really hurt him, like other young “anointed” players who ended up fizzling out before ever actually making a real mark in their sport.
As mentioned, Donovan had a very successful career once he dropped the “next Dylan” persona and switched to psychedelica.
Loudon Wainwright III – tongue in cheek – talked about a “next Bob Dylan club” in the early 70s consisting of him, Bruce Springsteen, John Prine, and Eliot Murphy. Springsteen lived up to the hype (though not as a Dylan clone), and Wainwright and Prine were successful, but Murphy is pretty much forgotten (though he’s popular in Europe).
Similarly, people were talking about Roy Buchanan as the next great guitar hero. He was a fine guitarist, but never became a star.
There was talk that Don Bluth would give Disney a run for its money in animation after The Secret of NIMH. Boy, were people wrong with that – Bluth produced one dismal film after another.
Lots of critics thought Buffalo Springfield would be a super act. The individuals did, but they were too divided to stay together.
Robert Downey got a lot of press as the next great filmmaker back in the late 60s after Putney Swope, but his follow ups were disasters.
I know who he is and I’m not old!
I just watch Futurama.
Every few years, picturephones.
Amen. And some of them weren’t even similar styles! Didn’t one magazine (Time?) have a picture of Springsteen with the actual words “The Next Bob Dylan?”
I mean, at least Donovan sounded like Bob (yes, seriously, his early work like “Colours” and “Catch the Wind” really do sound more like Dylan than Leitch).
Loudon Wainwright III didn’t just joke about it – he wrote “Talkin’ New Bob Dylan Blues”!
He sings the song to Bob: “They were lookin’ for you, and signin’ up others: We were NEW BOB DYLANS! Your dumbass kid brothers!”
Dana Carvey was supposed to be the breakout star from his generation of SNL players (which included, among others, Mike Myers, Phil Hartman and Jon Lovitz). Think what Will Ferrell is today, that’s what Dana Carvey was supposed to be. But after starring in a couple of flops and a short-lived variety show his career just kind of fizzled. In his defense, though, he did have some serious health issues in the late '90s.
Yeah, but he got his big break a few years later
You are a bad person.
[hijack for a horrible joke]
Q: What’s the opposite of Christopher Reeve?
A: Christopher Walken.
[/hijack for a horrible joke]