Most overrated musical act

[UdoKier]

Poll question: Most overrated musical act

Most overrated musical act

[NuckinFutz]

1. Rolling Stones ...............n/t

[Goldmund]

2. I like the Stones, and I agree with you.

[jpgray]

3. Beatles. They are still the greatest pop band ever

But I don't like the prevalent idea that everything they did was great, or that Sgt. Pepper's was the crowning achievement of rock music.

[UdoKier]

7. I didn't like much of what they did in the early sixties.

The later stuff was better.

The early stuff was too much jangly, hooky pop fluff.

Always gets on my nerves when "She loves you, yeah yeah yeah" or "I wanna hold your hand", etc. come on.

[jpgray]

8. I think they peaked around '66 or '67 myself (nt)

[bunkerbuster1]

32. Maybe so, but that doesn't mean the before and after stuff was shite.

Every new lp from the Beatles from Please Please Me to Abbey Road represented a pretty remarkable turning point.

If I had to pick the most marginal album, it'd be Magical Mystery Tour, I guess. But I sure wouldn't want to live in a world without "Penny Lane," would you?

[RandomKoolzip]

37. Huh. Really? I think that 'The White Album" is their crowning acheivement.

As a group, that is. As Richard Meltzer said, it was the most generous gesture ever given by a superstar act. I personally have little time for pre-"Pepper" Beatles (I think "Revolver" is overrated.)

From "Pepper" to "Abbey Road," as a body of work, was an astounding stretch of creativity. And if you widen the definitions and include the first few solo albums from Lennon, Harrison, McCartney (and Ringo's "Beaucoups of Blues") it becomes an even more stupendous landmark. Personally, my own favorite Beatles album is "Plastic Ono Band;" if the Beatles existed solely as a platform from which Lennon could make this music, it would have been enough for me.

[jpgray]

39. Not for me--three okayish solo albums cobbled together

Bungalow Bill? Wild Honey Pie? Ob-La-Di-Ob-La-Da? No thanks. Julia, Cry Baby Cry... pretty mediocre. A couple of strong ones on there, but lots and lots of filler and failed experiments.

[RandomKoolzip]

44. I've heard that argument before....

One man's filler is another man's diamonds. Cry Baby Cry "mediocre?!" Hmmmm.....that's one of my favorite Beatles tunes. Having grown up with the album since I was about 5, I don't hear those songs as "failed" expiriments; to me, they have the ring of stoned genius in full flight (All right, I'll give ya "Honey Pie." And "Good Night."). To me, they were hitting their stride during that era....


In fact, if an alien from another planet came to Earth and asked "Waht is Rock and Roll?" the very first song I'd play for him would be "Why Don't We Do it in The Road." The second would be "Fit and Working Again," of course.

[jpgray]

60. Well, it's all bullshitting anyway

I want to rape Lennon's rotted skull every time I hear Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, for example--I can't explain that.

:D

[Chipper Chat]

24. Yeah, but that "jangly, hooky pop fluff" was so ...

radically different than the "USA 3-chord post-crooner era ballad monotony" that we were enduring from 1960-63. "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" and "I Saw Her Standing There", with their complex chord patterns and vocal harmonies were really fresh and exciting. I remember running right down to the record store to buy the 45 so I could analyze the chords.

[mac56]

26. Just the opposite.

I think they peaked with "Revolver" in 1966, and everything from "Sgt. Pepper" on was a big ol' nosedive.

I'll see your "She loves you, yeah yeah yeah" and "I wanna hold your hand", and raise you "I am the walrus, goo goo goo joob" and "Ob la di, ob la da, life goes on bra".

[bunkerbuster1]

31. I used to poo-poo anything pre-Revolver

Then I heard the "Help" and "Hard Day's Night" soundtrack CDs.

And now my life has changed in oh-so-many ways.

[jpgray]

36. I think "A Hard Day's Night" is one of their best albums (nt)

[Phillycat]

4. Radiohead. Whiny crappy crap crap.

Ick.

[jpgray]

5. LOL. I also dislike Radiohead

But I can objectively recognize that they are a good band. Their style is just not at all for me.

[Bat Boy]

28. I feel the same way about Led Zeppelin

Okay. I'll leave the country now...

[JimmyJazz]

34. Speaking of Whiny - I can only listen to one REM song at a time

after that, all I hear is Michael Stipe whining....


:hi:

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

6. Nice choices on the poll (I voted Doors). I don't think Madonna

is an appropriate choice as I don't think many rate her too highly, sort of like having Brittany Spears there...

[UdoKier]

The media LOOVE Madonna.

Every time she comes up with a new "look" or manufactures another tedious "controversy" they fall all over themselves to say how brilliant she is at "reinventing herself" and "pushing the envelope".

[LiberalVoice]

11. perfectly said...

At the start of her carrer I think she was much more original...but the last decade has just been silly.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

13. Yeah, but the quality of her "music" is not rated highly, just her

capacity for self reinvention. In contrast, any number of claims have been made about acts like the Doors or the Beatles (both of which I like by the way).

[Phillycat]

Yep. You could replace her with Pink Floyd.

[LiberalVoice]

10. I disagree...

I think madonna did her own thing where as britney spears is a complete hack...I will say this though... ALOT of Madonnas new shit (the last 6 years or so) has been pop GARBAGE.

[donheld]

57. I love madonna

At least she can write a song, can shittany? I think the last few years Madonna just hasn't tried as hard. I guess it's the family thing thats keeping her busy now. can't complain about that can we?

[MemphisTiger]

9. I say Pearl Jam

I liked Nirvana, but Pearl Jam just sucked.

[UdoKier]

12. But they're not as universally worshipped as Nirvana.

I think Nirvana is all right, but probably get a lot of undue credit for having a dead lead singer.

Pearl Jam were acceptable for a while there, but when all the bands copied their sound, I came to hate them all.

[UdoKier]

14. Due to popular demand and no votes, Nirvana is nixed

and replaced with the Stones.

I like the Stones a lot more than Nirvana, personally, but what the hey.

[Semi_subversive]

15. Sting

[UdoKier]

16. Oh, God yes.

How could I have forgotten.

[jpgray]

17. Unpityingly pretentious, but at his best a good songwriter (nt)

[tjdee]

48. Indeed....all that English teaching came in good for something.

I do find him to be...missing something a lot of times, although a few of his songs I like quite a bit.

[no name no slogan]

58. They booked him to play the Metrodome in Minneapolis...

but they had to cancel it, because there wasn't enough room for the audiece, oxygen and his gigantic ego to fit under the dome.

Sting ain't $h!t without Copeland and Summers. His pseudo-lounge music for yuppies is just plain crap.

[johnnie]

18. One that is playing right now

Zeppelin. Da da da...da da da...da da da...da da da..da da da...da da da.. this song drives me nuts.
I know many people think these guys were gods, but in my opinion they are way overrated. I have tried to listen to them, just can't get past Plant's squeaky screamin' "voice".
But..that's just me.

[jpgray]

20. Plant is unlistenable (nt)

[newscaster]

19. Gee Guys,

you forgot Tiny Tim

[realisticphish]

23. are you kidding?

tiny tim is a god :)


:hippie: The Incorrigible Democrat

[Kire]

43. did you listen to Howard Stern this morning?

Tiny Tim died 8 years ago today.



Tiny Tim's last great song was, "Santa's Got the AIDS this Year"

[Mike Daniels]

21. Alanis

Never understood the appeal of this particular singer.

Woman sings a song about getting dicked over by her lover (nothing original there) but because it contains a reference to the lover getting his knob sucked in the movie theater it's considered edgy and gets air-play.

Never mind that the protagonist of the song sounded like a whiny chick with some major abandonment issues who should have been avoided at all costs by any sane member of the male gender... (with that 'tude I'd dump her as well).

[Mad_Dem_X]

30. Plus, she used to be a teen pop star

She was a Canadian Debbie Gibson.

BTW, I love The Beatles *and* Pearl Jam. Nirvana is only so revered because Kurt is dead.

[Mike Daniels]

45. The former bubble gummer gone angry/grungy is another reason

I think she got the initial airplay.

A thoroughly unexceptional and unlistenable talent who had a "hook" and was able to capitalize on it.

[realisticphish]

22. Radiohead

whine whine...beep beep...synth chord...whine...

^standard song format


:hippie: The Incorrigible Democrat

[jpgray]

25. I agree. And I think Phish sucks

:)

[realisticphish]

27. to each his own

and your own sucks monkey balls :)


:hippie: The Incorrigible Democrat

[UdoKier]

29. Overrated does not equal sucky.

I like a lot of these groups. U2, for example is WAAAY overrated. But they are still a pretty decent rock band.

:P

[bunkerbuster1]

33. I don't think one could over-rate "OK Computer."

Problem for me is, I don't think Radiohead could ever top it.
Not that they actually tried.

[Guaranteed]

55. "Hail to the Thief" is their second masterpiece. nt

[Guaranteed]

54. Freaking blasphemy.

Radiohead is GOD.

[RandomKoolzip]

35. Where's Morrissey? Tori Amos? The Cure? Depeche Mode? Nine Inch Nails?

You have some pretty safe choices on that list. Nothing that actually would cause people to take stock of their tastes.

[solinvictus]

38. Rolling Stones..

I can't understand why they'd sell a single ticket today. They are past washed up and were never that great in their prime.

[redqueen]

40. KISS!

How could they not be listed?

tsk tsk...

[DelawareValleyDem]

41. Led Zeppelin NT

[bif]

42. Led Zeppelin

Sucked.

[elperromagico]

46. Pretty much anybody who died young.

Can you imagine Janis Joplin or Jimi Hendrix in the disco era? How about Kurt Cobain hanging out with Carson Daly, promoting his new CD on TRL? How about the Beatles going on their eighth farewell tour?

Think how much more legendary McCartney would have been if he really had bit the big one in '66. Or if Dylan's motorcycle accident had been fatal. Or if the Rolling Stones had broken up after Brian Jones died. Or if Brian Wilson had driven his Rolls off the Santa Monica pier and the Beach Boys had broken up after Pet Sounds.

Dying young - or breaking up while still on top - tends to give your work that "fated" quality, and makes it legendary when perhaps the music doesn't really deserve it. That is not to say that rock stars who die young are all talentless - far from it - but they are given a reputation through early death that they almost definitely couldn't have sustained in life.

[mr blur]

47. Can I just say "U2"?

Thought not...

[democracy eh]

49. Oasis

Wallflowers, Simpson sisters

[shawmut]

50. I've got one hand in my pocket

and the other one clicking my mouse to choose Alanis Morissette.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

51. van halen

with or without roth, it doesn't matter, they just suck

[barb162]

52. all mentioned except for the Beatles and Grateful Dead n/t

[Dr J]

53. Can I...

...vote for all of them?



does anyone else think that Nation Of Ulysses were underrated?

Helmet?

Swervedriver?





nah. :yourock:

[no name no slogan]

59. Swervedriver KICKS ASS

I had the good fortune to catch them in London, UK back around the time of "Raise", and also in Minneapolis on the "Mescal Head" tour. These guys are/were so underrated it makes me weep.

"Ejector Seat Reservation" is one of the Top 10 albums of the 90s. It's a crying shame only a dozen people in the US seem to own it.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

56. the white stripes

it's a gimmick- whiny pubescent vocal with guitar noodling and sparse drums-plus they're siblings, no wait, they're a couple, no wiat, they're divorced!

whatever it is, it's not cute anymore and jack white is an egomaniac