soundgarden and linkin park aren't even bands anymore lol. at every point of nickelback's career, u2 has been at least double the size of Nickelback rhcp definitely had a moment from Californication through stadium arcadium where they were probably in the argument for a top 5 largest band in the world. that moment ended a while ago. losing an integral band member and releasing two albums that bricked didn't help.
I feel like those of us who’ve carried on the conversation have settled on Metallica and Foo Fighters in terms of most popular or known active rock band, probably taking over the mantle from Nirvana and allowing U2 to hold their era title.
RHCP are still huge to be fair. None of these bands are getting significant pull from recent records anyway. Overall I think it's probably Metallica.
Foo Fighters just played the Inauguration a couple days ago, frequent Saturday Night Live and played the outro to Letterman. I feel like a good argument could suit them or Metallica (not looking at sales or streams). Again, Coldplay is right up there too. Shout out to The Tragically Hip too, which I am sure will only make sense to a very few people here.
i mean, if we're being honest, the biggest band in the world right now is pretty indisputably BTS haha pearl jam has definitely waned a bit in terms of their active music but their live show kinda keeps them in the convo the conversation people don't want to have, though, is that if oasis reunited tomorrow they'd pretty instantly hop to the top of the list
of bands "new" to the last decade or 15 years or so, i'd say arctic monkeys, tame impala and black keys are over the killers and the strokes
But isn’t Blur bigger than Oasis? Hahaha....sorry. I don’t know any of the music by those new bands you posted, except from maybe 2 Killers songs. Also, does BTS play instruments like a band or are they a group like Backstreet Boys? I honestly don’t know much about them other than they broke through from K-Pop. The current mainstream seems pretty obsessed with solo performers like Ed Sheeran (?), Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, Beyoncé Knowles, John Legend and many more (although solo performers have always been around).
I definitely would say the Killers are a lot bigger in the mainstream than Tame Impala. Bigger than arguably all of those bands really
maybe once upon a time. not currently. the thing with tame impala that helps them is their crossover appeal is insane. the amoint they’ve been sampled in the last few years is pretty staggering. it’s anecdotal, sure, but they have the largest portion of their fanbase too that isn’t ... straight white dudes in their 30s and 40s.
I remember the comment that DonGlover maid about Tame Impala and it really caught me off guard. That being said, I don't see the appeal of TI.
if you’ve been a human who has left your house at any point over the last five years, you know who they are even if the name doesn’t jump out at you as recognizable. they’re everywhere. i swear i’ve heard the same song from them every time i’ve been to a chipotle from 2017-last year
Foo Fighters TCATS TINLTL In Your Honor ESPG Wasting Light One By One haven't listened to the last two
This has had me thinking actually, what would be the biggest band reunions? As in ones that could plausibly happen, no dead members etc. Oasis would undoubtedly be huge, but who else? REM would be a big deal.
i think certain prominent bloggers in recent years have kinda overshot rem's status a bit. no doubt, it'd be huge, but it wouldn't be, like, RATM or MCR this year huge. imo at least. the three answers imo are, in descending order, Oasis, The White Stripes, Talking Heads (lowkey the smiths would also be very high but I think that is basically dead given the heel turn of Morrissey)
If you had a reunion of all four R.E.M. members, that would get a ton of buzz. I’m not entirely sure how much sway they hold among millennial listeners, but they were absolutely one of the biggest bands in the world in the early to mid 90s. And the fact that the original lineup hasn’t been intact since then would definitely make a reunion a big deal.
A Nate project like fun or The Format going in and making a new album would get buzz. I don’t imagine that happening soon after seeing his interview with Jim of Jimmy Eat World anytime soon. The Gaslight Anthem would get a lot of buzz (around here). Again, doesn’t seem likely. Brian’s kept busy solo and has addresses GTA not having any ideas.
A Nate project like fun or The Format going in and making a new album would get buzz. I don’t imagine that happening soon after seeing his interview with Jim of Jimmy Eat World anytime soon. The Gaslight Anthem would get a lot of buzz (around here). Again, doesn’t seem likely. Brian’s kept busy solo and has addresses GTA not having any ideas.
we saw the numbers of a gaslight anthem reunion. they were nowhere near the level of bands we are discussing here.
I put ‘around here’. I qualified it in my post. The other band i mentioned won a Grammy for whatever that’s worth.
Colour and the Shape number 1 for sure. Wasting Light is an easy number 2 for me. Beyond that I think there’s a lot of incredible songs but the albums don’t grab me front to back.