a-Ha, has lent their newly recorded version of "#9 Dream" to the Amnesty project that will be released this March, the project will include Lennon songs being covered by artists like a-Ha,BEP,K-OS,Maroo5 and a host of others. As of right now all tracks are completee but the a-Ha track is being re-touched a bit by the band, never being satisfied, an early version has gotten to a few european websites and the version kicks ass, a-Ha have created the feel of a "dream", along with Morten Harkets most amazing vocals, this could be a chance for a-Ha to have something heard in America, since their last 4 albums have been denied a chance in America by labels, despite having influenced everyone from Coldplay,RadioHEad,Snow Patrol and Keane.

Another interesting fact i read was that after 9/11 there was a list put out of songs that could not be played by radio or media, and one of the songs listed was a-Ha's "Manhattan Skyline" from their 1986 Scoundrel Days album, which if the lyrics were read have nothing to do with the Skyline, and its not mentioned till the last word of the song.

Personally I have never trusted a-Ha.

there was no blacklisting of songs post 9/11.

KidOmega said:

Excuse me but there was, it was a huge, moronic list that made no sense.
Some of the songs on there, Rem's "Its the end of the World", Bangles "walk like an Egyptian" Alan Parsons "Eye in the sky" and a host of others, this list can be found somewhere on the net, someone told me that Lennons Imagine was on it too.

i thought a-Ha was blacklisted in the late 80s.

sallysassalot said:

Only by america, they've sold 70 million albums/singles to date outside of america from 1985-2006, so blacklisting seems to be a positive thing.

lastdecember said:

"outside of america"? of what place do you speak of?

lazycrockett said:

considering most of my music hails from lands outside of america, i'm not trying to be rude. i'm just kind of playing around a little.

frankly speaking, though, there is a reason everyone wants to break the american market. commercially speaking, its the market that matters most.

lazycrockett said:

lastdecember said:

www.snopes.com

do your research.

KidOmega said:

I can see I'm going to waste hours reading at this site. Thanks for the link.

sallysassalot said:

That may have been true years ago, but its not anymore the US market is not what it once was, there are lots of artists who are huge and continue to sell without the US market. A great example of that would be Queen, which had some success in the US from 1977-1980 but after that they were pretty much ignored here, but their worldwide success made them one of the biggest selling bands ever. as for a-Ha,there success still is from Germany,south america,norway,russia, and once again the Uk has caught on with them.

lastdecember said:

so why were kylie and robbie williams recently trying so hard to crack american audiences?

sallysassalot said:

The United States are one of the major record selling markets...but hey it was until last week!

Now japan is the one!

lastdecember said:

Stating that the US is still the most important market doesn't mean that others have zero importance. However, the fact is that the US still represents the wealthiest and largest concentrated audience.

I once had a chat with the manager of some luckless mid-level Canadian act, and he put it this way: Platinum in Canada is great, Platinum in the UK is wonderful, but platinum in the US means retirement.
[Edited 1/14/07 10:40am]

damosuzuki said:

At this point i think its not so much about where you can make the most money, but if as an artist you think that just one hit album in the US is going to be your big payday than thats a mistake. Im not saying that the US isnt important, but to say an artist cant survive because its big in other markets but cant do anything in the US market is crazy. Someone mentioned Robbie and Kylie, well perfectly example, Kylie has been around forever with limited success in the USA but i think we can all agree that she is royality in the UK as is Robbie Williams. Also artists do make very good money overseas that they dont make here, case in point would be a-Ha who late last year decided to play 10 shows in Russia and release their album their, well it sold 20,000 units, which in Russia is Platnum status, now here in the USA that total would get you nothing but dropped from a label, to a-Ha that 20,000 was a million times more lucrative than Cassie selling 250,000 in the USA. Another case in point would be Shakira, i read somehwere, that at 29 Shakira is on pace to being one of the Top 5 selling artists of all time, and sure she had US success, being her appeal in the Latin American countries and now Europe are what is causing that. So its great to be big in the USA or have a gold record here, but dont think its the only thing, and also dont think if you dont make it here its over.