Artists whose reputation is based on a tiny part of their overall work

Jonathan Richman? Unfairly or otherwise.

Miles Davis, The Wombles, Ten Years After, Chris Farlowe, Throbbing Gristle, Queen, Bernice Reading....

Everyone except the Singing Nun

i'm confused.

Jimmy Buffett?

Nas

I guess Pete Namlook is also one of these... He's best know for the classic mid-90s releases on his FAX label, but he kept on recording right until his death, and overall he released something like 200 albums, if you count both the solo stuff and the collab albums with others.

Captain Beefheart?

McCartney?

Dr. John?

anyone who was at the height of their popularity for a short while but made music for a longer time period before and/or after. ie almost every artist ever

^ END OF

That sounds a little simplistic.. But yeah, this would have huge overlap with one-hit wonders.

Anyway, all I really wanted to say was

Miles Davis, The Wombles, Ten Years After, Chris Farlowe, Throbbing Gristle, Queen, Bernice Reading

...it's what Band Aid II could have been. If only.

I guess Bernice = Bertice Reading?

I don't understand why Miles is on that list

Kind of Blue is an album someone who thinks "I should get into some jazz" will buy, and then they may or may not ever buy anything else.

Kind of Blue is an album someone who thinks "I should get into some jazz" will buy, and then they may or may not ever buy anything else.

― Johnny Fever, Saturday, August 15, 2015 4:36 PM (33 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

NOt sure if that is the same thing as their reputation since he has a great reputation among people who do know Jazz quite well. I would guess that a lot of those who do like his work are likely to concentrate mainly on one period though.
Coltrane's A Love Supreme is apparently as massive a token jazz record, not sure if there are others too.

Wonder on things like Neil YOung, possibly being best known to a wide public for Harvest which sin't very representative of a lotof his work.
& Fairport Convention who are probably most widely known for the Ashley Hutchings era and have continued for 40 years since then with some hiatus but otherwise pretty contiuously.

maybe Tom Waits at the moment, wonder if there are different groups of fans for different eras?
Iggy Pop for the Stooges and the early solo stuff not the 20 years of near metal.

Debussy

(Claire de Lune is a youthful work that doesn't really hint at what he would get up to.)

So much wrongness on this thread.

Hah yes.

Seems like Chumbawumba's "Tumbthumping" is the closest thing to a correct answer.

Is the question about the difference between what is considered hit material versus what is deep catalogue or at least being taken as that. IN which case here are probably a lot of artists who a lot of audience wouldn't necessarily know beyond a greatest hits compilation of a disc or 2, if that.
& what is being considered as reputation, in what circles or context.
Probably find that certain popular artists have multifaceted reputations dependent on who you asked about them.

Not sure I could list off a list of people whose overall reputations amongst music fans would be iceberg like i.e. 10% visible if that.
NOt sure who gets to release a lot of material that doesn't really sell. Though that is becoming easier if you can self release through the internet or whatever.