Robbie Williams

Lazy OP

Search this thread, OP

IMO it's because his music is not low brow enough to attract US listeners.

R3 has answered the question. Succinctly.

Oh thank you, OP. It's been at least a week since we had this discussion.

Outside of “Millennium” and “Rock DJ” he wasn’t cool enough.

He sucks.

He isn't a star at all in the US.

A lot of it - at least the early solo work - tends to work overseas because the UK audience understood the references in his songs to his prior fame as a boybander and his tabloid exploits getting out of Take That. Since TT only had one American hit - right after he left- he had no real backstory to latch onto or goodwill. It’s the same reason no one cared about his recent bio pic. He’s just a blank slate in the US or like trying to watch a Marvel universe side project flick with no reference to people or events that came before,

EMI Capitol tried hard to make it all work a few times here but even Angels didn’t catch on past the fifties on the Hot 100. His last big attempt was with the Escapology album. They forced half a million copies into the marketplace so it went “gold” but almost all of them didn’t sell so eventually they were sold to China to be ground up to repave roads.

What is this, 2003?

R3 But then why were Elton John, David Bowie, the Beatles and other British males so successful? Or do you think their music is low brow as well. And I’m not being cunty or snarky either, legit question.

I was sure his later 1990s early 2000s albums would be breakout hits in the US, but outside of some light regional urban radio airplay, he never did. Like a handful of British music acts of that period that made good music, like Blur, Supergrass, Ash, they never broke out in the US, even though they did well in Europe and Asia.

R12 Where are you from. I have never heard Robbie Williams on urban radio. Are you calling cities with dance/house show mix stations urban?

NYC local radio.

Oh pardon us, R3, shall we approach you on bended knee? You're so superior.

The Ego Has Landed

He was sort of cute in this song

He's always cute! I have a huge crush on him.

"Press be askin do I care for sodomy? I dunno, yeh, probably"

He wanted to sell himself based on his sexiness, and he's not handsome enough to US audiences to justify that.

His laddish looks (the ears that stick out, the dark circles under the eyes, the jutting jaw) are attractive to Brits, but not to Americans. His voice was not not strong enough to compensate for his looks.

R17 uh oh. Get em Robbie. That Barry white sample was a fixture in late 90s/ early 2000s music of black origin.

He came out at a weird time. The death of the solo male star that wasn’t a rapper. White males had to either be doing rock or adult contemporary. JT had a built in audience with his boyband roots, co-signed by the poppin black hip-hop producers. Other than that, the only successful male stars were black men doing soul whether “neo-soul” or contemporary hip-hop/soul.

r20, Those laddish looks and hairy chest are what did it for my 19-year-old self! I wrote him a fan letter, and nothing, not even a form letter

I love him!

I don’t agree with any of the above.

He just didn’t fit into the American music landscape.

He was a white pop singer who leaned into rock. There wasn’t an audience for that.

The 90s commercial during his launch and peak was soft rock, female ballads, hip-hop, R&B, bubblegum pop, Latin pop, pop punk, and nu metal.

He just didn’t fit into any of that.

Btw I just watched his biopic (Better Man), which was excellent. It’s disappointing it didn’t do better at the box office, as it’s very well done.

Too Cheeky. Too British.

R3 Maybe you just have shitty taste?

He was wonderful in Mork & Mindy, but I lost interest after that.