I Heard that Before it was Popular.

[RedmanWasHere]

This is your time to boast/brag about songs and musicians you claim you heard before they became big.

They can be lame songs or otherwise.

I'm forever claiming Nelly and Christina Aguilera - Tilt Ya Head Back from about 2004 and Starsailor - 4 to the Floor.

Fountains of Wayne - Stacy's Mom and Christina Aguilera - Genie in a Bottle too.

Fire away guys.

 

[Mootsy]

Those are great, Mine are boring rock band stuff, but here goes, I've forgotten a couple.

It'd be awesome if you heard a great song from a band that's not that well known and really liked it and then it became a worldwide hit later, that's never really happened to me properly in terms of a really well-known song that anyone can name. But I imagine it's awesome. Then you can say, yup! I knew it, I knew it already.

I heard songs from well-known bands before they got airtime.

- Queens of the stone age - no one knows, which they played in Oz at a soundcheck in 2001.
- Radiohead Lift and Man of War would be the obvious ones, which by the way is a pretty easy thing to do if you just by chance were already a fan of the band.
- Knowing Waikiki before they became Howling Bells and they did well in the UK.
- Hearing early Arctic Monkey demos before their debut album came out. Their early demos were out for a year before the record released, this was early 2005-ish.
- Hearing The Shins - Turn on Me unreleased live before it was recorded and released and played on radio and thinking "this song is going to be huge!".
- Knowing about the Black Keys in 2004, before they had a huge commercial song in 2011.
- I heard Outkast - Hey Ya in 2002 before it became even more popular on glee in the 2010's!

stuff like that.

 

[Cody_]

For anyone indie I definitely was one of the first to find Hatchie, Ruby Fields and Tiny Little Houses.

 

[Mootsy]

For anyone indie I definitely was one of the first to find Hatchie, Ruby Fields and Tiny Little Houses.

so cool! that's great.

 

[psychobrown]

"Kiss From a Rose", listened to it on Seal II before Batman Forever blew it bigtime. "Torn" by Ednaswap before the Natalie Imbruglia cover; I heard it at some film launch (think it was Tank Girl), years later I was watching Videohits in '97 with the NI one and thought "what is this? sounds so familiar, feels like I heard this before, but that can't be right, this is a new song". About 2 years ago it hit me like a ton of bricks and I sprang from a chair going "oh my god, I did hear it before."

 

[Kyptastic]

I used to watch a lot of Starcraft 2 from Korea and they played Gangnam style just after it had been released over there. I was showing it to one of the classes I teach when it only had a couple of million views on Youtube - now it's got over 3 billion!

 

[Silent Alarm]

For anyone indie I definitely was one of the first to find Hatchie, Ruby Fields and Tiny Little Houses.

I remember when Joe Agius put a post on his tumblr saying how he'd started playing guitar and remember the I Won't Wait video, the one shot at a suburban train station and Woolies, being uploaded. The Creases got signed to Rough Trade for that single. Kind of fizzled now and I can see him concentrating on Hatchie but they did okay. I followed Hatchie through Babaganouj and Go Violets and that one-off Jonny and the Femmebots band.

Girl I knew slept with Joe Agius and a decent mate used to work at a video rental place with a bloke from all those bands. I used to see Harriette tagged in stuff on Facebook and in Instagram uploads.

 

[Silent Alarm]

I used to watch a lot of Starcraft 2 from Korea and they played Gangnam style just after it had been released over there. I was showing it to one of the classes I teach when it only had a couple of million views on Youtube - now it's got over 3 billion!

I saw Friday when it had 20,000 odd views when I used to spend all my time on music forums. Showed it to everyone at school in a study period.

 

[Cody_]

so cool! that's great.

Probably these two I also found on Triple J Unearthed who are still up and coming but Boo Seeka and Just a Gent, I was also one of the first to get around their stuff.

 

[james Dean]

I remember loving Pumped Up Kicks about 18 months before it was everywhere

 

[DapperJong]

Tame Impala. Before the first EP release. Was a lot of fun seeing them in a venue that was sub 200 people/

 

[Cody_]

I remember loving Pumped Up Kicks about 18 months before it was everywhere

So many better FTP songs than that one imo.

 

[djrossie16]

I feel like they were playing Royals by Lorde on triple j a fair while before it and her got really popular.

 

[Cruyff14]

I heard A-Team by Ed Sheeran I reckon 3-6 months before it exploded.

 

[Richard Cranium]

- I heard Outkast - Hey Ya in 2002 before it became even more popular on glee in the 2010's!

You heard it before it had even been recorded? Impressive effort.

 

[RedmanWasHere]

A few months before it went gangbusters, I reckon I was one of the first on board the Haim - The Wire bandwagon.

 

[Mootsy]

You heard it before it had even been recorded? Impressive effort.

studio engineer in those days...

2003 it was!

 

[DIG]

This doesnt really fit the bill but flying back from Singapore with work I listened to the then brand new Black Eyed Peas album, but I kept going back to one song playing it over and over and over while i was in business class loading up on the free cocktails. I gotta feeling was huge a few months later once they released it.

I also bought the Creep "cassingle" back in the day, but for some reason didn't get back into Radiohead again til Ok Computer.

My mate did better than this though, he saw Nirvana touring on Nevermind at the Prince of Wales in St Kilda. He also saw the Smashing Pumpkins there a couple of years later. Both just before they went nuts especially Nirvana.

 

[Roobs321]

Save Tonight by Eagle Eye Cherry used to pop up on early morning rage around early 1998, and was a big hit around the world in 1997-98 (including on NZ radio), but didn't become a hit here until 1999. Never understood that delay.

Same goes for Good Riddance (Time of Your Life), which had a top 50 incursion in early 1998, followed months later by Redundant, and then after Seinfeld the Double A became one of the biggest hits of late 1998.

If you used to watch the Rage top 50, you'd often see a song debut in the 40s and then rise quickly, like Iris and All My Life in 1998, which debuted at 48 and 49 respectively and were top 10 within 2-3 weeks.

Sex & Candy used to get shown a bit before it hit the charts, and even then it had a sluggish rise to the top 10. I guess a lot of US hits had that delayed notice here, so you'd see them pop up as predictions well ahead of their airplay dominance. Sex & Candy dominated the modern rock charts over there for ages and hit its Billboard peak before it really made any inroads here.

 

[WoodyPecker]

Saw Violent Soho play at uni bar in Adelaide 2012 I think before they were huge. They were having a beer before the show and my mate and I were the only ones there that seemed to recognise them, they bought us a beer and had a chat. Also got up on stage and 'sang' (drunkenly slurred) Muscle Junkie with them that night

 

[Twoslabs]

Does seeing the living end circa '91 when they were still called the runaway boys count?.

Also playing on the same bill numerous times circa '95 when Scotty shared a place in Windsor with the lead singer of my old band.

 

[RedmanWasHere]

Does seeing the living end circa '91 when they were still called the runaway boys count?.

Also playing on the same bill numerous times circa '95 when Scotty shared a place in Windsor with the lead singer of my old band.

Previous names, yep.

 

[vanders]

I saw CDB perform at a Bluelight disco before they released lets groove

 

[Mootsy]

This doesnt really fit the bill but flying back from Singapore with work I listened to the then brand new Black Eyed Peas album, but I kept going back to one song playing it over and over and over while i was in business class loading up on the free cocktails. I gotta feeling was huge a few months later once they released it.

I also bought the Creep "cassingle" back in the day, but for some reason didn't get back into Radiohead again til Ok Computer.

My mate did better than this though, he saw Nirvana touring on Nevermind at the Prince of Wales in St Kilda. He also saw the Smashing Pumpkins there a couple of years later. Both just before they went nuts especially Nirvana.

Nice!
for black-eyed peas, Might have been the album with 'Request Line'?! That was a pretty big hit and as you say, was getting some airplay on the indie scene before hand it took off.

 

[revo333]

Not ashamed to admit it, i was the only person that listened to Creed in high school before 'higher' exploded on radio and MTV Australia.