3 Obscure Musicians From the 80s Who Disappeared From the Mainstream Charts in an Instant

A lot of one-hit wonders throughout the 1980s made it big with one major hit before slowly fading away from the charts. Some obscure musicians from the 80s, however, disappeared from mainstream charts in the US quite abruptly. That was the case for the following three artists, and I’m shocked they vanished from the charts so quickly. Each of these artists is (or was) incredibly talented. Let’s inspect their music a bit more closely, shall we?

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Maria Vidal

This one always rubs me the wrong way. Nobody was doing dance-pop and alternative rock quite like Maria Vidal was in the 1980s. And yet, her only hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart was the 1984 pumped-up jam, “Body Rock”. The song was an enormous success that even made it to the Top 10 on the US Dance chart, and it did similarly well in the UK and other international charts. The song was even used as the theme of the 1984 film of the same name. And after the song dropped, Vidal vanished from the charts entirely.

Thankfully, Vidal is still active in the music world today, though it seems like she has focused more of her talents on songwriting, vocal arranging, and producing. Her last studio album was Living In Radical Radiance from 2009.

Tracey Ullman

Before writing this list, I was under the impression that comedian and pop-rock musician Tracey Ullman had made it to the mainstream charts countless times. In reality, this super underrated artist only charted with one album, You Broke My Heart In 17 Places, from 1983. Two of her singles from that album, “Breakaway” and “They Don’t Know”, made it to the Hot 100. And after that, she vanished from the chart completely.

This could be a case of Ullman focusing more on her acting career, which makes sense, considering she is a powerhouse actress. Still, I think her second album and subsequent singles deserved more love on the mainstream US charts.

Living In A Box

Remember Living In A Box? This pop-funk band from Sheffield, England, makes it to our list of obscure musicians from the 80s who made it big once and then disappeared from the mainstream charts entirely. 

This group’s claim to fame was their self-titled debut single from 1987, which made it to No. 17 on the Hot 100 and No. 5 in the UK. That song would be their only Top 40 hit in the US, and their standing on the UK and international charts would end in just a couple of short years. In fact, if they hadn’t broken up in 1990, I feel like they would have been even bigger. Unfortunately, they called it quits that year due to artistic differences and issues with their label. Living In A Box has since reunited as of 2016.

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