Thousands of bands form every year, but unfortunately most of them don't ever achieve significant commercial success.These five bands, however, somehow managed to achieve their greatest popularity only after they had broken up.
1. The Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground was not what people wanted to hear in the late '60s. At the height of the psychedelic hippie era, this New York four-piece was writing primitive, gritty songs about hard drugs and sadomasochism, a million miles away from "With a Little Help from My Friends," and the band's albums sold very little as a result (its second album White Light/White Heat was famously on the charts for just two weeks, at number 199). However, the albums proved so influential to alternative music that far more successful artists such as David Bowie eventually brought the band to public attention, after it had split up in 1970 (officially 1973, but no original members were left at that point).
2. Big Star
Unlike the Velvet Underground, Big Star actually sounded like it should have been at the top of the charts. The music was fun, accessible, and excellently produced, but Big Star's original albums were either mismanaged or flat-out neglected by the band's label, resulting in poor distribution and, inevitably, poor sales. Only after alternative rock bands from the '80s, such as R.E.M. and the Replacements, started singing the praises of this Memphis power-pop band from the early '70s did Big Star achieve widespread recognition.
3. Death
There are actually two very influential bands named Death: a (successful) Florida death metal band from the '80s and '90s, and a Detroit punk trio from the early '70s, which is the Death I'll be writing about now. The Detroit Death consisted of the three Hackney brothers, who were destined for stardom if not for the band's name. Columbia Records president Clive Davis had funded some recording sessions, but when the band refused to change its name to something less commercially toxic, Davis withdrew his support, and Death faded into obscurity until 2009, when Drag City released the seven songs that the band recorded in 1974.
4. Slint
The lack of success that Slint achieved wasn't due to inaccessible music or mismanagement or stubbornness, but rather the band's youth. The members of Slint were in high school in Louisville when they formed the band in 1986, and just 20 when they disbanded after recording their masterfully eerie second album Spiderland, but good old-fashioned word of mouth helped Spiderland sell steadily throughout the '90s, even though the band had stopped performing live. The overwhelming influence of Spiderland has spurred several reunion tours in the last ten years.
5. Cap'n Jazz
Much like Slint, Chicago's Cap'n Jazz was incredibly young during its original inception from 1989 to 1995, which resulted in the band being more of a moderate regional success rather than a nationally known band. However, the popularity of the member's later projects, such as The Promise Ring, Owen, and Joan of Arc, have shone a light on their original band, who has come to be known as the originator of the Midwest emo sound.
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