The Cranberries - why not popular in Ireland?

Harry Palmr

The Cranberries were an archetypal "college" band, I dunno what that scene is like now but in the late 80s and 90s the American college arena/radio scene was pretty big and could springboard an act into the MTV/VH1 mainstream. Obviously they'd hardly be the first act to be very successful (for a while) outside their own country - in the 80s there was a whole sub-genre of "indy" British bands who struck MTV gold in the states but who didn't do much at home - The Fixx, The Outfield, A Flock of Seagulls, Billy Idol, The Psychedelic Furs etc. I think the Cranberries were just a 90s version.

Mr.Nice Guy

I listened to Dave Fanning touch on some of this when speaking about the band last week on Good Morning Ulster after her passing.

"Britain was getting involved in its Britpop with Suede this, Blur that, and Oasis etc. and in the middle of all this, while Suede went to America as the most hyped band - they were on the cover of seven or eight of the British music magazines before they even released anything - 'the greatest band ever, they'll conquer America', who was the support band? The Cranberries. And who won out if you like, in terms of popularity? Suede did nothing and The Cranberries became absolutely huge. There was a few reasons for that: one was the single Linger. And the other one was MTV, and an old fashioned phrase now but 'heavy rotation'; MTV got behind The Cranberries and really, really helped them.

"Not to get in any way sexist about Rock, but Britpop and Grunge, I would say 70 per cent of people who were into that kind of thing at the time were males; whereas go to a Cranberries gig, especially outside Ireland - and frankly I think they were much bigger in America and elsewhere than they ever were in Ireland - I'd say 60 per cent of the people there were female, and 40 per cent male. It was a real kind of couples Rock thing. People looking for something else. High school people in America of that age will remember The Cranberries forever, they were the sound of that, and not just the visuals in terms of MTV as well. Absolutely huge.

"It's really funny when you think about that because if you're talking '92 to '95 there, we used to put on these gigs - 2FM - around the country, like in Cork and Galway and Dublin and put on a thing called Cork Rocks, and it was brand new six bands, demo tapes kind of thing, they hadn't anything released or anything, and one of the bands we put on had just changed their name from The Cranberry Saw Us to The Cranberries - what a terrible name, The Cranberry Saw Us - and there was a girl singing in front of the band and she never once looked at the audience for the whole gig. And that was Dolores. Within a year she was playing to, like, fifteen thousand people in America."

sushmita

Deleted User wrote: »

Popular in what way? Album Sales? Plays on radio?

All of them. They always played in big venues and most of their gigs were sold out.
I don't think they ever played in Ireland in places like Croke park or Slane, have they?

sushmita

GetWithIt wrote: »

They weren't huge in Ireland because they were already big in the States before many here had heard of them.

We don't like that. On a number of levels.

The music scene is, or was, about local heroes. Hearing someone before they're big, that's what everyone wants. "Oh you've already sold a million records? I see. So you won't be playing in the Roisin Dubh then?"

And who cares? If you like their music...

rayray2002

i can understand were u ar comin from i was in slane last year for guns 'n' roses and the place hasnt changed over the years. yeah i agree with what francie brady originally posted "they were not popular in ireland" back then . we knew they were around but there was just too much competition for them back then so they got aknowledged in the u.s and canada ,as there were not that many popstars there. the cranberries music from back then is even more unique now for the younger generations as they are use to the likes of tecno and artists doing cover versions of songs rather than coming up with their own words ,melody and harmony.
anyway Dolores O' Riordan was and is still an epic role model for young girlz .
may she rest in peace XD. after bringing irish female singers culture and representation to the highest level that there is.

truelly one of the greatest in irish histiory along with Thin Lizzy

Mossy Monk

beauf wrote: »

I was going on this...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MTV_Ireland

That was only when MTV UK & Ireland split for advertising reasons. The only difference programming wise that I can recall was when MTV showed Big Brother in the UK and something else here in Ireland as TV3 owned the Big Brother rights for this country. MTV was available for a long time before then on cable and satellite.

worded

worded wrote: »

..

Does Dave fanning still do a top 100 as voted by the listeners?
The rock show is gone ..

No idea and I didn't try googling it as not really interested these days:P

I remember though that U2's "Bad" featured in the top 10 for a lot of the 80's - was it No 1 on a number of occasions- nearly sure it was, probably spurred on by LiveAid's performance.

Moving slightly back on topic, IMHO, if Cranberries were around for Fannings Top 50 they would have scored highly in the ratings- definitely top 10.

I didn't listen to the show in the 90's so not sure what the rankings were there or if The Cranberries featured but I'd lay a bet they did, but just because a band isn't played on radio constantly, doesn't mean they're not popular- and when it comes to Fanning fans, they're a discerning bunch of people

Effects

Sesame wrote: »

Ray Cokes show, can't remember the name sticks in my memory, would have been around 1994.

He got caught slagging off Ramenstein fans on a hot mic before being sent out over the crowd in a crane. They all spat on him, he shouted profanities, which ended with him getting immediately fired. Or so I think.

lordgoat

They never did much for me musically. Amazed they were as popular as they were.

Effects

lordgoat wrote: »

They never did much for me musically. Amazed they were as popular as they were.

People like crap music. Pretty simple.

NewbridgeIR

Deleted User wrote: »

I remember though that U2's "Bad" featured in the top 10 for a lot of the 80's - was it No 1 on a number of occasions- nearly sure it was, probably spurred on by LiveAid's performance.

Bad (Live) was #1 1985 - 1989 anyway.
Caused by its appearance on Wide Awake In America.

trashcan

lordgoat wrote: »

They never did much for me musically. Amazed they were as popular as they were.

Yeah, thought they were pretty awful. Don't like to speak ill of the dead and all that, but I could never stand Dolores voice. Incidentally, their first hit, Linger really reminded me of an English indie band called the Sundays.

Horizon2011

In the imortal words of the Lady herself "the play bubble gum music on irish radio. All that's on Irish tv is Louis Walsh acts. O'riordan was not a celebrity in Ireland and rarely appeared on Irish tv as she valued her privacy. Everything she did was the opposite of what the music industry tells their artists. O'riordan kept her own name, accent and never adopted a pet charity for promotion, she was pure class pure talent.

Effects

Horizon2011 wrote: »

Everything she did was the opposite of what the music industry tells their artists.

Cranberries singer Dolores O'Riordan fined for head-butting police officer in air rage incident

lordgoat

Horizon2011 wrote: »

In the imortal words of the Lady herself "the play bubble gum music on irish radio. All that's on Irish tv is Louis Walsh acts. O'riordan was not a celebrity in Ireland and rarely appeared on Irish tv as she valued her privacy. Everything she did was the opposite of what the music industry tells their artists. O'riordan kept her own name, accent and never adopted a pet charity for promotion, she was pure class pure talent.

Wasn't she a judge on one of those Louis Walsh band producing shows?

And I don't get praising someone for keeping their own accent or name?

Ralf and Florian

beauf wrote: »

Its interesting isn't it.

My thinking on it, there were a lot of Irish Bands back then, a lot never really made it big. I don't think the Cranberries stood out. Also Irish bands didn't really have an chart hits in Ireland over the time Cranberries came to fame in other countries. Looks like we were more interested in music from the UK and USA. The Cranberries also really became a hit on MTV in the mid 90s. We didn't have an MTV channel in Ireland still 2004. We only had MT-USA which was a TV Show only on for a few hours on a Sunday afternoon. I'd say in most house people didn't watch it, as people would have watched football etc.

Maybe I'm wrong.

We had MTV Europe, or at least those with the Sky subscription did. The Cranberries got pretty heavy rotation on that from what I remember.

Sheridan81

I think the novelty value of the pronounced Irish accent was a big help in them gaining popularity abroad.

It's not the same when you can hear the same thing walking down the street.

MikeyTaylor

I always thought the Cranberries were huge in Ireland. Interestingly they never had a UK top 10 single - their highest peaking songs there were Salvation and Promises, both of which reached #13, but that was only one place higher than both Linger and Zombie. Dreams only reached #27.

Laois_Man

lordgoat wrote: »

Wasn't she a judge on one of those Louis Walsh band producing shows?

And I don't get praising someone for keeping their own accent or name?

It was The Voice which was nothing to do with Louis Walsh - although your point stands, it was still that "type" of thing, and a bit gimmicky, although nowhere near as absurd and disingenuous as The X Factor.

Now that 2-months+ has passed since her death, is it safe to say I could only ever take her voice in small doses?

Having said that, I'm sorry she's gone. I liked her. Although I didn't like her on The Voice - particularly her egotistical battles with Kian Egan, dressed up as "banter". But he's a massive wally so she's excused somewhat!

maccored

beauf wrote: »

Its interesting isn't it.

My thinking on it, there were a lot of Irish Bands back then, a lot never really made it big. I don't think the Cranberries stood out. Also Irish bands didn't really have an chart hits in Ireland over the time Cranberries came to fame in other countries. Looks like we were more interested in music from the UK and USA. The Cranberries also really became a hit on MTV in the mid 90s. We didn't have an MTV channel in Ireland still 2004. We only had MT-USA which was a TV Show only on for a few hours on a Sunday afternoon. I'd say in most house people didn't watch it, as people would have watched football etc.

Maybe I'm wrong.

eh? mtv was being broadcast in ireland long before 2004. MTV Ireland appeared in 2004 alright, but you could watch the european channel for years before then

dublingreen

They reformed in 2009, any reason why they never played a decent Dublin gig in that time before Delores death?

MEGA BRO WOLF 5000

maccored wrote: »

eh? mtv was being broadcast in ireland long before 2004. MTV Ireland appeared in 2004 alright, but you could watch the european channel for years before then

We had the UK version of MTV as early as the early 90s and a variation of that in the 80s!! The European was available since the early 90s on analogue 19.2.

endacl

They weren’t very popular here because they weren’t very good.

MEGA BRO WOLF 5000

endacl wrote: »

They weren’t very popular here because they weren’t very good.

They were popular here for a while to be fair. Saying they’re not very good is really stupid. They’re massive in other countries I’ve been to. It’s typical Irish begrudgerh tbh.

endacl

Hunky Monster wrote: »

They were popular here for a while to be fair. Saying they’re not very good is really stupid. They’re massive in other countries I’ve been to. It’s typical Irish begrudgerh tbh.

It’s not at all. I don’t begrudge them their success. I just never understood it.

dublinman1990

Dolores O'Riordan had her name mentioned with the other deceased artists at the end of the MTV EMA's from Bilbao in Spain tonight.

Will I Am Not

endacl wrote: »

It’s not at all. I don’t begrudge them their success. I just never understood it.

It’s almost like other people like other things.