Bands that could have been successful, but weren't

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 AFlowerKingCrimson wrote:

 Awesoreno wrote:

 AFlowerKingCrimson wrote:

 FatherChristmas wrote:

 AFlowerKingCrimson wrote:

Porcupine Tree are pretty well known even outside of prog circles. I would say most metal fans know about them and many are into them. In fact many consider them metal. I was looking up one of their earlier more rare albums on ebay recently and some of the sellers had it as "metal" under genre. 
Anyway, it depends on what we mean by successful. Some of the bands mentioned in this thread have been successful. Sometimes it amazes me that Yes became as big as they did considering what they were doing musically. It's not all about getting your song on the radio. Porcupine Tree weren't played much on the radio(I actually only heard them played on the radio once and that was sort of in the middle of their career just after IA)and neither were the Mars Volta.  Only a few prog bands get to rise above the others. It's the same in most genres. These days Big Big Train seem to be one of them but there's a few others(mostly ones with a metally sound).
True, I should have said more clearly - commercially, PT were not incredibly successful. They certainly were in that they are quite famous and have a fairly large fanbase.

Well, they never quite became a household name like Radiohead, Coldplay or Muse if that's what you mean. But yeah I think you get what I meant and I agree. However, I would say they became nearly as big(maybe as big) as Dream Theater at one point. DT has the advantage of still being around but that's not always a good thing since it depends on the quality of the output and DT it seems hit their peak a long time ago.

I think what puts DT well over the edge is that they were way bigger worldwide than PT. Being metal for longer (or at all, depending on who you ask) certainly helped.

Maybe but PT are still way more well known than 99 percent of modern prog bands. There's maybe a few that are more well known but most if not all of them have other elements that make them fringe bands(ie Coheed and Cambria and Muse). Also, as well known as DT are they still aren't played on the radio and still aren't as well known as Tool. So there's almost always going to be a bigger dog. Unless you're Pink Floyd. :P

I'd heard Dream Theatre and Porcupine Tree before coming to this site. I'd never even heard of Tool before I came here.