Bands that came up fast (and then stayed big).

steely dan for sure. formed in either 1971 or '72, debut album came out in '72 and yielded two big pop hits. slight slippage with their second album, commercially speaking, but with their third, released 17 months after their first, they scored their biggest-ever hit. and then kept going steady and strong, and still growing, from there.

― fact checking cuz, Saturday, February 4, 2017 5:19 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

These dudes had a similar trajectory, down to the years of "Break Up" and "Reunion":

http://media.philstar.com/images/the-philippine-star/entertainment/20160125/Eagles-Poster-Rollingstone.jpg

The Cars: First Gig on New Year's Eve '76...Signed in '77...Debut released in June '78.

I was living in Nashville when Kings of Leon popped up out of nowhere, nobody in town knew who the fuck they were. They just materialized out of thin air.

Eh, Arcade Fire had a debut ep (the one with 'No Cars Go') and were a steadily touring/opening band for at least a year before Funeral. I saw them open for the Constantines in 2003. Hype rose up in Canada on the basis of that/college radio.

I imagine alot of boy bands fit this trope; either they get big fast or you never hear of them, and if they get big they often stay big for a few years. A longer run, though, is difficult for obvious reasons.

Westlife