Name your most overrated bands/artists

[Donovan]

I hate agreeing with Dins about music, but Metallica in their prime are unfuckwithable. If anything they were underrated.

[PSUFAN]

I'll agree, Master of Puppets was quite an album.

[Baceña]

rem
springsteen
lenny kravitz
creed

i concur on all counts

[Mike the Lab Rat]

I guess a lot of this depends on your tastes.

For example, I absolutely love Steely Dan, while I wouldn't walk across thr frigging street to see Metallica. To me, it's just so much noise.

I hated King Crimson until about a year ago, when some friends of mine (who Bri also knows) immersed me in it over several weeks. Now I dig the stuff big time.

[BSmack]

I guess a lot of this depends on your tastes.

For example, I absolutely love Steely Dan, while I wouldn't walk across thr frigging street to see Metallica. To me, it's just so much noise.

I hated King Crimson until about a year ago, when some friends of mine (who Bri also knows) immersed me in it over several weeks. Now I dig the stuff big time.

Damitt Mike! I've tried for 3 pages to troll you into a response on Steely Dan and that's all you have for me? Christ, am I going to have to call you out on AIDS research al la Mal?

You know nothing about sequencing blood samples!

:wink:

[At Large]

RUSH!!!! - I just dont understand it.... there is nothing about them that i like...
U2 is a good pick
Aerosmith is another good one.

I'll second that. Don't get me wrong. I like a lot of Rush songs, but I've never been wowed by a whole album of theirs.

When I used to hang out at the local record store in college, you'd hear guys come in all excited because the new Rush album was coming out. The next question was usually, "Didn't their last album suck?", which was followed by the guy going, "Yeah, but I think this one is going to be great!"

[mothster]

RUSH!!!! - I just dont understand it.... there is nothing about them that i like...
U2 is a good pick
Aerosmith is another good one.

I'll second that. Don't get me wrong. I like a lot of Rush songs, but I've never been wowed by a whole album of theirs.

When I used to hang out at the local record store in college, you'd hear guys come in all excited because the new Rush album was coming out. The next question was usually, "Didn't their last album suck?", which was followed by the guy going, "Yeah, but I think this one is going to be great!"

moving pictures is close to perfect as anything, remember it pre-dates digital technology

[BSmack]

RUSH!!!! - I just dont understand it.... there is nothing about them that i like...
U2 is a good pick
Aerosmith is another good one.

I'll second that. Don't get me wrong. I like a lot of Rush songs, but I've never been wowed by a whole album of theirs.

When I used to hang out at the local record store in college, you'd hear guys come in all excited because the new Rush album was coming out. The next question was usually, "Didn't their last album suck?", which was followed by the guy going, "Yeah, but I think this one is going to be great!"

moving pictures is close to perfect as anything, remember it pre-dates digital technology

Rush from their inception through Moving Pictures was kickass. And even up through Grace Under Pressure they were pretty good. Then they completely changed their sound for the Power Windows album and began sucking like no other for the next 20 years.

[Mike the Lab Rat]

Damitt Mike! I've tried for 3 pages to troll you into a response on Steely Dan and that's all you have for me? Christ, am I going to have to call you out on AIDS research al la Mal?

Oh, I caught it, you freak. I just wasn't gonna jump through any damned hoops. Steely Dan kicks ass. FM, Time Out of Mind, Peg, King of the World....

I'd never stoop so low as to retaliate.... except for my mentioning that I wouldn't walk across the frigging street to see Metallica and referring to their "music" as just so much noise...

[Terry in Crapchester]

[align=justify]A couple of thoughts to follow up what's been posted already.

Couldn't agree more on Aerosmith. Their early stuff was nails, and I, for one, was actually geeked up about their comeback effort in the late 1980's, expecting it to be more of the same. How wrong I was. Aerosmith is one band that should have stayed retired, but they're laughing all the way to the bank right now, and that's largely due to their post-Permanent Vacation career.

KISS would definitely belong on the list, if they got musical respect in the first place. Still, they had at least some influence on just about every metal band that came down the pike in the '80's, so they must have done something right, if only from a marketing standpoint if nothing else.

I really like U2's first stuff, and their most recent stuff. In between, however, beginning with The Joshua Tree, they hit a real lull for me.

Pearl Jam's first album was great, but they haven't been able to duplicate that success.

Also agree with the Tom Petty takes. He always showed a lot of promise, imho, but was never quite able to close the deal for me.

I never was a Michael Jackson fan, even back when he dominated the music industry. I'm probably one of the few people on the face of the planet between the ages of 30 and 50 who never owned a copy of Thriller.

Agree with Bri and Mikey that the public reaction to Born in the USA reflects more on the public than on Springsteen. Sad that so many people listen to only one line in an entire song.

Disagree strongly on the criticisms of Yes, Rush and Genesis. Perhaps that's a function, at least in part, of where I grew up. As Bri and Mike undoubtedly know, Genesis was huge in Crapchester back in the day. In fact, here's a story to illustrate that. If anybody remembers a band named Marillion, they had a few minor hits in the '80's (He Knows You Know, Kayleigh and Lavender come to mind). One time in '83, they came to Crapchester, and a local establishment used the occasion to hold a Phil Collins lookalike contest. Why? Because they sounded a little like Genesis.

Now, to add a few that haven't been mentioned . . .

For all of the Stones' stature as rock icons, I've never been a huge fan overall, although Give Me Shelter ranks among my all-time favorite songs. Never really forgave them for Emotional Rescue, which was a truly terrible effort.

I'll throw in Guns&Roses as well. I never got all the hype, and the band imploded within a relatively short period of time.

I like a few of Prince's songs, which surprises me given my typical musical tastes. But like Michael Jackson, I never understood why he was as huge as he once was in the musical world.

And for me, the entire genre of hip-hop is overrated, pure trash, or perhaps both.

[MiketheangrydrunkenCUfan]

And for me, the entire genre of hip-hop is overrated, pure trash, or perhaps both.

Great post, up until that point. For every band/artist you listed, you at least gave a reason why you thought they were overrated. I agree that a lot of hip-hop is overrated and pure trash. Unfortunately, that's the stuff that permeates MTV and FM radio. But I think there is something worthwhile in every genre of music, if you're at least open to the possibility and willing to look for it. I might've made the same comment about country music several years ago, but then Ween made a country album and it forced me to reevaluate my position. Then I got into Hank III, and then Wayne "the Train" Hancock, and then some of the older outlaw stuff like Merle Haggard and David Allan Coe, and then all the way back to Hank Sr. Now I play bass in a honky-tonk band!

I urge you to check out some music by The Roots, Jurassic 5, Ugly Duckling, or Atmosphere. Listen to the lyrics and note how it's not all about slappin' bitches and cappin' mvscals and all that bling-bling jumpsuit bullshit that you probably think all rap is about.

I have seen The Roots play live and it was one of the top 5 best shows I've ever seen. They are an actual band with guitars, bass, drums, & keyboards. DL a couple songs from their live album if you get the chance. Even if you just can't get past the fact that they're rapping instead of singing, I don't think you would consider it pure trash.

[Mike the Lab Rat]

Grateful Dead- Their music sounds great only if you are completely baked to the gills. Don't understand thier appeal one bit. Hell, Jerry Garcia couldn't understand the later day "Dead Heads" following the band around in the 80's and 90's. Jerry, they were just people that didn't want to get a job bro.

It sounds BETTER if you are fried (esp. "Terrapin Station"), but some of the tunes, especially those on "American Beauty" are classics. I agree that they were overrated by the morons who spent months or years of their lives skipping baths, marinating in patchouli, and selling watercress sammiches for their "miracle tickets" to following them around the country. No band in the entire history of music is worth THAT kind of dumbass devotion. That goes especially for "Dead-lite", aka Phish.

Conversely, I think the Dead are underrated by folks who dismiss the whole catalog of tunes compiled over four decades just because of the unwashed dregs of society that made up their publicly-seen fanbase.

Pearl Jam- Thier greatest hi......err.......Ten album was fantastic. After that they tried to go in this artsy fartsy, new age, activist, PETA, Greenpeace, bark eating, acid swallowing, brand of self induced "victim of the system" band. A shame too, they could have been absolutly HUGE.

Totally agree. I loved "ten" and "Vitalogy", but as soon as Vedder et al. decided that they had some kind of bully pulpit, they made the error of thinking that their music talents suddenly made their socio-political views more important and informed than the rest of us. "Beknighted elitist" musicians suck.

John Lennon (solo years)- Is there anyone out there that can tell me what "Imagine" is about? There are shitbrains out there that actually thought they were listening to Christ as a Lennon album spun. Look at the crap he put out with Yoko, dreadful my friends dreadful.

BWAHAHA! God bless you for having the balls to say what a ton of us, myself included, were thinking. He wrote some good stuff, but a lot of it, especially under the influence of Yoko, was little more than musical masturbation. Yeah yeah, got shot.....very sad....let's move on already...

White Stripes- A few years ago I think Rolling Stone magazine named Jack White one of the 50 best guitarists EVER. Hold on.........I'm trying not to piss my pants laughing here! Total fucking joke.

Again, totally agree. White will end of becoming primarily a record producer and someone that "artists' artists" will lament as some sort of "unappreciated genius." Gag.

As for Metallica being overrated, please. Bands like Anthrax, and Slayer are good, but wouldn't even have gotten a record deal if it weren't for Metallica. They are the Led Zepplin of the 90's and the new century. Load and Re-Load flat out stunk, but they single handedly brought heavy metal to the masses.

Here we disagree. I don't consider Metallica or any of the more modern metal bands in the same league as Led Zep. Maybe it's my age (I turn 40 this summer), but I have a hard time taking Metallica seriously as the kind of music I'm going to want coming out of my car/home stereo. When I picture middle-aged Metallica fans, I see pot-bellied, balding guys with "metal mullets" and black t-shirts desperately clinging to their youth. Metal like Metallica I see as "a certain phase of life" music. Zep wrote classic tunes (and some serious garbage) both harder and melodic that play well 30+ years later. IMNSHO, I can't hear anything like that in Metallica's tunes.

[MiketheangrydrunkenCUfan]

I think Metallica's first 3 albums are already bonafide classics. I'll probably still dig them when I'm 70. But they have also put out some of the worst music of the 90s and 00s.

But to say that Slayer & Anthrax would've never gotten a record deal if not for Metallica is just asinine. Yeah, like the tremendous commercial success of Kill 'Em All just opened the floodgates. :roll: I'm pretty sure all three bands put out their first album within a year of each other.

[The Whistle Is Screaming]

The one regret I have in my concert-going lifetime, is that I've never found the words to explain it. It just saddens me that more people couldn't feel the joy that I felt......not that a few unwashed little skanks didn't feel my joy.

Well, that, and it's hard to find good qual dose these days.

No live rock performer comes anywhere near Jerry. Not even close. Not on their best day, while He was having His worse.

Dins brought a tear to my eye. :(

BTW, the word you are looking for is religious*.

Dead show + good doses (Cali liquid) = religious experience.


*Foxboro 7/14/90 2nd set Lovelight, having a moment by myself totally groving on my surroundings with the light shining on the crowd of 75K & it finally hit me. It might not be the best way to describe it, but thats how I felt at that moment. Good times, good memories... need to make some phone calls tonight and reconnect with friends.

[lovebuzz]

I have seen The Roots play live and it was one of the top 5 best shows I've ever seen

rack, and agreed.