Acts that came to prominence when their members were in their 30s or 40s?

Pulp, at least outside of the UK, were pretty unknown before Different Class came out in 1995 when Jarvis Cocker was 31. Makes me feel old to think of it now, but I remember seeing them on the tour for that record and being shocked at how old they looked.

i didn't know if this thread was going to buoy or sink my spirits, but the answer is buoy
three of Can's four core members were early 30s when they formed. (Michael Karoli was 10 years younger and had been one of Holger's students.)

― sideshow boob (haitch), Thursday, June 26, 2014 1:23 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark

also god bless tiny tim

The first Tiny Tim album is a masterpiece of psychedelia. The second one has some great moments too.

ctrl-f "Garbage"

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hmm, maybe that's an arguable case considering that Shirley Manson was under 30? I was going to posit that Butch Vig was also famous pre-Garbage but he was 36 when Gish and Nevermind came out (not sure producing Die Kreuzen and Killdozer counts as "coming to prominence" when compared to those two)

hmmm, yeah Garbage / Butch Vig always struck me as a vanity project by a known producer, plus Manson was always the visual focus of that band. I even forget Vig is involved these days TBH.

The first Tiny Tim album is a masterpiece of psychedelia. The second one has some great moments too.

One of these days I'm finally going to get around to Tiny Tim's Rock album from 1993, with a 23 minute version of "Rebel Yell". It's one of those things where I'm so happy just to know that it exists that I've avoided it because I'm afraid it won't live up to my expectations.

Huey Lewis was 35 when Sports came out.

Xpost a bit like Chuck Berry's "Concerto in B-Goode" ?

Sleater-Kinney didn't make it overground till, what, The Woods?

Sleater-Kinney didn't make it overground until Carrie Brownstein got a tv show.

They did "Entertain" on Letterman!

sharon jones - age 46 when her daptone debut was released.

good one

William Onyeabor?

Omar Souleyman is 48.

Open Mike Eagle just put out his most prominent album so far and he's 33, which is like 57 in rap years.

Robert Quine -- in his 30s as a Voidoid, near 40 circa The Blue Mask.

Lucinda Williams

Vi Subversa was 41 when she formed Poison Girls in 1976

Michael Gira was 34 when Swans major label debit came out

lots of old blues folks probably fit in here

swans came to prominence before that.

Danny Brown

Howlin' Wolf was 41 when he started recording for Sam Phillips in 1951. The Wolf was 55 when The Rolling Stones got him on the TV show Shindig in 1964.

Muddy Waters was in his late 30s when he started recording for Chess in the early 50s.

Papa John Creach came into prominence in his mid-50s, when he started playing with Hot Tuna and Jefferson Airplane. He released his first solo album in 1971, at the age of 54.

Just realized that Dean Garcia of Curve was 34 when their first singles were released.

Ian Dury was in his late 30s when the Blockheads had their big hits.

Great, now I've got "Papa John Creach, I'm in trouble deep" stuck in my head.

Lead Belly - born in 1888, first recordings in the 1930's

And there's tons of other blues artists who recorded a few sides for small labels before being discovered by a wider (whiter) audience decades later - from Mississippi John Hurt to RL Burnside

and I guess artists who came to prominence after death would be a whole other category - but that could include Blind Lemon Jefferson, Robert Johnson, etc.

Doc Watson played Newport Folk Festival in 1963 when he was 40.

MIA is 39 today, holy shit.

So, she was 29 yrs, 8 mos when Arular came out. Close enough.

Rufus Thomas (first Top 40 hit age 46)

A borderline case, but Ben Folds Five's breakthrough album, Whatever and Ever Amen, came out when Folds was 30.

The Hold Steady (thirties), Sleaford Mods (forties).

Shawn Colvin was 41 when Sunny Came Home became a hit.

Marnie Stern (31 when she released her first album)

MIA is 39 today, holy shit.

So, she was 29 yrs, 8 mos when Arular came out. Close enough.

She first came into prominence with "Galang" though, a couple of years before Arular came out. Or at least that's how I first heard about her, when people here at ILM were bigging up "Galang".

it was still her debut album, and on a major in the US - that beats a (better) mixtape and ILM chatter tbf.

"prominence" for mia either = 'galang' (crit love, internet stardom) or 'paper planes' (actual stardom, sales, tv)

Deana Carter (30 when "Strawberry Wine" hit).

Sarah McLachlan just misses the cutoff by about 6 months with Surfacing.

2 chainz claims he's 31 but is probably 35 (see fader profile by noz)
Tuneyards is 34 or something

I'm uncomfortable with the fact that I find this thread comforting

isn't fumbling towards ecstasy her breakthru? surfacing is when she briefly became a megastar but she was having hits - 'possession', 'i will remember you' - before that.

he'd had minor hits before then, but Rick Springfield didn't have his biggest US hit until he was 32.

also, Martin Page was never huge and really only had a brief moment, but "In the House of Stone and Light", which did well on the adult contemporary charts (our local station loved it, even though it sounded Sting-lite to me), came out when he was 35. it was from his debut album too.

also, Goo Goo Dolls had been plugging away for years and had minor alt rock hits, but didn't have a big (crossover) hit ("Name") that cemented them as popular until 1995, when Johnny Rzeznick was about 9 months shy of 30, and bass player Robby Takac was already 30.

isn't fumbling towards ecstasy her breakthru? surfacing is when she briefly became a megastar but she was having hits - 'possession', 'i will remember you' - before that.

FTE was kind of a niche singer-songwriter hit -- 2.8 million per Wikipedia -- but Surfacing was mega -- 16 million, #2 US Billboard, two top 5 singles, countless soundtracks.

And it transformed her from a farty, randy goth into a gauzy ASPCA Ur-mother figure.

imo this topic is only interesting if we're talking about people who had no public profile at all until their '30s or something. really huge number of acts plugged away with minor renown through their 20s and then peaked after 30, not that remarkable. but like, Mark Sandman turned 40 the month Morphine released its first album. that's interesting.

also a personally inspiring topic to me, as a 32-year-old who just sent his first album off for mastering.

Three of the four members of The Church were in their thirties by the time they finally scored an international hit (with Under the Milky Way).