It's so interesting to think about how different the pop market was before the late nineties was fully flooded with teen pop. When Britney got signed by Jive there was really only one other act that fit the niche they envisioned for her career: Robyn
![[shortened because of character limit] They work as much as they want to and get top billing in the major cities across the country. They have a particularly strong following in Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago. Their three albums have all received praise in reviews and the first one, which hit the charts twice, has sold 220,000 copies and is still selling. They are Velvet Underground. And Fillmore East audiences requested them in a poll-they turned the gig down. So why aren't they considered a major group? Why have so many people never heard of them? Why the Velvet Underground mystique? Well, there are all of the "too weird, too far ahead of their time," kind of explanations. The Velvets really were too weird for everyone except the most avant of the avant-garde in 1966. And it's doubtful that even those who accepted the strangeness of the band really knew what their music was about. The Velvets' vision went far beyond the surface implications of their lyrics.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ocnk46fsfybkgxkdqvagcz4i/bafkreidxrlxwvibcafonp6awsk4ztce42uayxwomuyb6atslwcv5wyo4ku)
