artists with cult followings

[raskolnikov]

Some artists, irrespective of how good they are, have built up a cult following. Some of these would be:

Led Zepplin
Iggy Pop
Nirvana
Joy Division

others?

 

[AndSmithMustScore]

Kiss
Abba
Elvis
The Beatles
The Monkees

 

[John]

Some artists, irrespective of how good they are, have built up a cult following. Some of these would be:

Led Zepplin
Iggy Pop
Nirvana
Joy Division

others?

Good thread .
Would Led Zep and Nirvana be considered cult? Or Iggy for that matter. They have been commercially succesfull and that to me goes beyond cult following. Joy Division would have a cult following.

My idea of cult following would be say Joanna Newsom or Cocorosie or Chris Knox or Sigur Ros or Ed kuepper to name a few. Critics love them and their hard core of fans devour their every work but they do not have major sales.

 

[John]

Kiss
Abba
Elvis
The Beatles
The Monkees

I must have the meaning of Cult following wrong. I would consider all of those commercially succesfull.

 

[PHX]

Modest Mouse have a massive cult following, as do Against Me!

I was at a festival on the weekend and I saw 6 people wearing Against me! t-shirts, easily the most of any band not playing there. Not alot of sales but a hell of an under-current.
And I agree with John, Led Zep and Nirvana's followings are alot larger than cult.

 

[Atreyu]

AFI.
The Despair Faction (the official group name) has turned into it's own little community.
25,000 people strong at the moment.

 

[AndSmithMustScore]

I must have the meaning of Cult following wrong. I would consider all of those commercially succesfull.

All of these bands have massive cult followings.

I'm not talking about the average person liking them, i'm refering to those fanatical fans that collect anything and everything related to the band.

To me that's how i see cult followings for bands, people that take their obession to the enth degree.

When you walk into a persons house and it's wall to wall of Elvis memorobilia i'd consider that cult like in it's support.

 

[John]

All of these bands have massive cult followings.

I'm not talking about the average person liking them, i'm refering to those fanatical fans that collect anything and everything related to the band.

To me that's how i see cult followings for bands, people that take their obession to the enth degree.

When you walk into a persons house and it's wall to wall of Elvis memorobilia i'd consider that cult like in it's support.

Right. I was thinking more in terms of buying the music. The obscure release etc. The compilation release because it has one unreleased track. That type of cult follower. Both trains of thought have merit though don't they.

 

[HorseHead]

Good thread .
Would Led Zep and Nirvana be considered cult? Or Iggy for that matter. They have been commercially succesfull and that to me goes beyond cult following. Joy Division would have a cult following.

My idea of cult following would be say Joanna Newsom or Cocorosie or Chris Knox or Sigur Ros or Ed kuepper to name a few. Critics love them and their hard core of fans devour their every work but they do not have major sales.

I'm with you here. My definition of "cult" is more a band/artist that has a small, loyal following. I suspect the term started out as polite marketing speak for "a band that has sold bugger-all records".

If you subscribe to that definition, there's no way a band like Nirvana could be considered "cult" in any way. The term is bandied about to freely these days.

 

[don vito of fitzroy]

The Ramones and The Smiths. Both bands lacked commercial success but they're both influential groups. The same can be applied to Black Flag and Husker Du.

 

[Jabso]

Don Vito most punk rock bands with minimal mainstream exposure would probably fall under the cult category.

Yidcore, Australian Jewish punk rock band has a pretty big cult following in Israel. Frenzal Rhomb has a small cult following in America. The Living End have a cult following in America and have pretty minimal mainstream sucess there.

 

[John]

The Ramones and The Smiths. Both bands lacked commercial success but they're both influential groups. The same can be applied to Black Flag and Husker Du.

I would not put The Smiths or the Ramones under the cult catorgory. The Smiths I thought sold mega in the UK. The Ramones also sold well I think.

 

[sethlad]

The Church, adored by their long term & rabid fan base.
Another seriously under appreciated local band who's o/s fans cant understand why they dont get credit at home.

www.hotelwomb.com/

seth

 

[PLSC]

All of these bands have massive cult followings.

I'm not talking about the average person liking them, i'm refering to those fanatical fans that collect anything and everything related to the band.

To me that's how i see cult followings for bands, people that take their obession to the enth degree.

When you walk into a persons house and it's wall to wall of Elvis memorobilia i'd consider that cult like in it's support.

i think thats called obsessed

a cult following is small but very loyal

 

[AndSmithMustScore]

i think thats called obsessed

a cult following is small but very loyal

Not neccesarily.

It's all down to the interpretation of the word Cult.

Some "Cults" have 100's of thousands of members.

Cultus is the latin for care or adoration.

So the Cult status of said bands is quite large.

 

[finrod]

Television

 

[Leaping Lindner]

I would not put The Smiths or the Ramones under the cult catorgory. The Smiths I thought sold mega in the UK. The Ramones also sold well I think.

Both these acts have what I'd consider cult followings in this country.
The Smiths certainly sold a lot of records in the UK but virtually none here (according to ARIA charts that I recall). The Ramones never troubled chart compilers much in their careers, actually I'm struggling to think of a Ramones LP that has gone top 20 in either the UK,US or Australia.

 

[raskolnikov]

Good point as to what actually constitutes a cult following. I would say there are four criteria.

1. The artist has had relatively little commercial success.

2. The artist or lead singer is a demi-god and often eccentric or eclectic. They often engage in behaviour that is obscene or over the top, even to the point of suicide, as in the case of Kurt Cobain and Ian Curtis.

3. Their fans are extremely loyal, to the point of being obsessed.

4. Their music could be defined as eccentric, or at least non-mainstream

I would be prepared to list an artist as having a cult following if they meet three of these criteria. So, while Nirvana have had commercial success, they meet the other three criteria and thus I would say they have a cult following. Iggy Pop and Led Zepplin also meet the same three criteria as Nirvana. Joy Division meet all four criteria.

 

[Timmy from Thomastown]

Theres only one band with a cult following

http://www.the-cult.com/

 

[John]

Theres only one band with a cult following

http://www.the-cult.com/

Very good. That bloke who sung for them joined the Doors did he not?

 

[mudgeathon]

What about the 'The Velvet Undeground'

I'm not a fan of them but could they be considered to have a cult following?

 

[AndSmithMustScore]

Good point as to what actually constitutes a cult following. I would say there are four criteria.

1. The artist has had relatively little commercial success.

2. The artist or lead singer is a demi-god and often eccentric or eclectic. They often engage in behaviour that is obscene or over the top, even to the point of suicide, as in the case of Kurt Cobain and Ian Curtis.

3. Their fans are extremely loyal, to the point of being obsessed.

4. Their music could be defined as eccentric, or at least non-mainstream

I would be prepared to list an artist as having a cult following if they meet three of these criteria. So, while Nirvana have had commercial success, they meet the other three criteria and thus I would say they have a cult following. Iggy Pop and Led Zepplin also meet the same three criteria as Nirvana. Joy Division meet all four criteria.

Your points 1 and 4 dictate that Cobain and Nirvana are not cult worthy.

They were very mainstream in the end.

 

[AndSmithMustScore]

What about the 'The Velvet Undeground'

I'm not a fan of them but could they be considered to have a cult following?

Deffinately.

 

[AndSmithMustScore]

I'm a bit iffy on the 1st one about album sales critera

I think you can shift units, but not necesarily end up in charts

An example i'd use is the Fureys,

Possibly never charted outside of Ireland.

But globally they would have sold quite a few records.

Having said that id say they tick the other 3 boxes and make it as a cult like band for oldies.

Other possible groups depending on Q1

Dead Kennedys
Echo and the Bunnymen
A-Ha
Hard Ons
Dropkick Murphys

 

[Conan Troutman]

my definition of cult bands would be bands that gradually, and continue to, build up a fan base over the years, probably mostly through word of mouth, and are probably more well known now after they've been & gone. For rock and/or metal related, I'd have to say a good example of this is...

Kyuss

especially now with QOTSA around and people perhaps looking into Josh Homme, Nick Oliveri, and Alfredo Hernandez's past. They weren't too big commercially (that I noticed, or can remember) during their time, even though I remember some metal critics going on about how good "Blues For The Red Sun" was when it came out - "album of the year" talk and other things. But now they're probably known more than when they were around, and looked back on as a legendary band. Plus on top of that they basically started "stoner rock/metal" or "desert rock" whatever you want to call it.

Another metal band, though on a much smaller scale (just within some parts of the metal world) would be...

In The Woods...

- sort of similar to Kyuss, they called it a day after 3 studio albums, some members went onto form (or re-form technically) another band ("Green Carnation") who have become bigger in their own right, but In The Woods... popularity it seems still steadily grows, and they're looked back on as either "ahead of their time", "legends", "genuis" or whatever. They are influencial like Kyuss, and again at the time were considered highly by critics - I remember Omnio getting 'album of the month' in Metal Hammer with the review saying "just short of genius".