We've thrown Undercover over to you to come up with the definitive list of genuine 21st Century superacts. Here are more of your comments:
So in my opinion, for the top 10 superactsLinkin Park, The Killers and My Chemical Romance, all should stay
Kanye West, Alicia Keys, and James Blunt, all should go
Snow Patrol, Death Cab for Cutie, both should be included
Austyn
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Hi Paul
Been interesting to follow the discussion on this. Couple of things
I'd like to add.
You count Nirvana and RHCP as groups of the 90's - both released their
first records in the 80's.
U2 - released their first records in the 70's.
You like to discount Beyonce and Gwen Steffani as solo artists because
they came from bands. Well you were pretty happy to include Phil
Collins in your first list of stars from the 70's. The point with
those 2 especially is they DID become stars in their own right after
stepping out. They could have easily be as successful as Darren
Hayes, Chris Cornell, Pick-A-Spice-Girl, Mick Jagger, Billy Corgan
etc. Huge acts as part of a group, pretty spectacular failures solo
in comparison.
Perhaps many of the successes of the 00's will only become apparent in
2015. We don't know yet which of the current generation who have had
the chance to put out 1 or 2 albums, are really going to make their
mark like the next U2. That was my point throwing up some of the new
names before - who know which of these are at the start of a 20 year
career? I forget who said it about seeing U2 for the first time in
the early 80's - "They could have been as huge as Echo and The
Bunnymen".
Are the groups to blame? How can someone become a mutli-album success
in 8 years, when record companies only let them release an album every
2 years. And if one is a failure - your dumped. In the eighties many
of the artists that went on to be huge had 3-4 years of yearly album
releases before really getting attention. In the 70's it might have
been a couple a year. You even discounted a number of acts who bombed
a bit on their second album and said others are yet to prove
themselves. The "music" industry demands top 10 success from the first
release and any fall in sales/charts subsequently is failure. Has
never happened and never will.
How does 9/11 factor into it? How many people remember Michael
Jacksons outstanding come-back performance a day or so before? I
think 9/11 probably put a hole into the entertainment industry of 2-3
years. Sure some big names came back - but not too many new ones were
being looked at.
I agree with your broad timeline of music. However the 2000's will
surely be remembered for the rise of digital music - and artists
telling record companies to go fuck themselves and distributing their
own music. The 2000's to me will be remembered as the time when an
artist didn't have to sell millions of albums to survive. Either they
made multi-million dollar deals which focused mainly on tours and
playing. Or they developed their own following via the internet and
could work out a living by playing and selling their music directly to
fans - almost regardless of the size of the fanbase.
Anyway. Fun to think about. I think music is pretty healthy at the
moment - the record execs might be in trouble but who cares. Someone
will work out how to make money out of it if they can't. For
accessibility, range and quality - I think now is pretty hard to beat.
Michael Quinn
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Hi Paul,
Looking at the top ten list I don't really believe these qualify as
superacts of the 21st century yet. I think they are potential
superacts, to be bonafide superacts they would need to have a
significant string of album successes and arena sellouts to
ultimately sustain a strong, supportive fanbase and achieve longevity.
With this in mind, I think one artist who isn't on your list is Pink.
I don't know where she fares elsewhere in the world but in Brisbane
Pink filled the Entertainment Centre four times over. The Killers
only had one or two sold out nights in the same venue.
Max
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Dear Paul,
Thanks for posting the list of the Superacts of the 21st century. Besides Coldplay, certainly the Killers would be my top choice for so many reasons...but here is my top 10:
1. The Killers - Sales/Festivals&Concerts/Charts/Fanbase/International status/Reinvention&Evolution
2. Kanye West
3. Daughtry
4. The Racontuers
5. Maroon 5
6. John Mayer
7. Alicia Keys
8. Linkin Park
9. My Chemical Romance
10. Rhianna
Peace and love,
Eileen M
Email your comments to paul@undercover.com.au and have your say in Undercover
