The most overrated band and/or singer

[MaxStout]

Always like the Dead, but never clicked with Phish, the band viewed by many to be Dead's heir apparent after Garcia died. I tried to like them, I really did. Even bought a few albums. Just didn't do it for me.

Same effect with the "southern rock" boom in the '70s after the Skynyrd plane crash. Bands like Molly Hatchet, 38 Special, Blackfoot, etc., coming out of the woodwork to try to take their place. None of them could compose and put it together like Van Zant & company. And nobody did that genre better than the Allman Brothers Band. Check out At Fillmore East. Awesome.

 

[brewmcq]

Donnie was the Van Zant with real talent.

 

[bigjohnmilford]

Here's another I just thought of, Jimmy Buffet.

Absofriginlutely

 

[hoppyhoppyhippo]

These threads always make me chuckle cause name a band and someone will agree with you. I've seen pretty much everyband called overrated. If someone has fans and sells, they're overrated by someone.

Though some common listed bands/singers I haven't seen here yet (sure they'd get in here eventually)

KISS
Elton John
Queen
David Bowie
Aerosmith
Genesis
Sinatra
MJ
Neil Diamond


I'll stop there before I take the thunder out of this thread. Keep on hating everyone

 

[ICWiener]

I gotta go home and put water in Buck Nasty's mama's dish.

 

[Krovitz]

Eric Clapton. I cannot sit through a single one of his god-awful, boring songs. And to make matters worse, he seems absolutely full of himself.

 

[ill4delph]

dylan's a GREAT songwriter, horrible singer

overrated band + singer = Nirvana & Kurt Cobain

listen to the Foo Fighters and then tell me who the true musical genius was in Nirvana

As soon as i saw this thread, this was my first thought. I can't stand Nirvana/Kurt Cobain. Glad there are more people out there that dislike him as much as i do!!

 

[brewmcq]

Eric Clapton. I cannot sit through a single one of his god-awful, boring songs. And to make matters worse, he seems absolutely full of himself.

He was SO much better in the 60's and 70's when he was on drugs.

 

[GrogNerd]

He was SO much better... when he was on drugs.

can say this about so many artists

 

[brewmcq]

can say this about so many artists

Sadly, that's so true.

 

[Homercidal]

Dead on. When people are young, they are creative. When they are on drugs, they are creative. When they are young and on drugs, they are rock gods.

 

[MaxStout]

Dead on. When people are young, they are creative. When they are on drugs, they are creative. When they are young and on drugs, they are rock gods.

And after they OD, they are immortalized.

 

[GrogNerd]

I'll have to disagree with Skynyrd being overrated

Yeah, I know, Free Bird & Sweet Home Alabama are probably the most overplayed songs on classic rock radio along with Hotel California, Stairway to Heaven, Smoke on the Water, and Steve Miller Band's entire catalog.

but there's a couple songs that I can still listen to; Call Me the Breeze, Whiskey Rock n Roller & Down South Jukin' (to name only 3). mostly because they aren't played on the radio at all (well, they might play Breeze once a year)

Whiskey Rock n Roller is one that I love playing in our band and we would play the other two, if I had the chops

if you can stand it, listen to the deep tracks from Street Survivors or the live album. pick out Steve Gaines' guitar parts and you'll understand what a great guitar player he was.

it's 2 days short of 36 years since he and his sister died. he was only 28

 

[TxBrew]

As soon as i saw this thread, this was my first thought. I can't stand Nirvana/Kurt Cobain. Glad there are more people out there that dislike him as much as i do!!

We're enemies now.

Just a heads up, so are many of the rest of you.

 

[chawagi]

As soon as i saw this thread, this was my first thought. I can't stand Nirvana/Kurt Cobain. Glad there are more people out there that dislike him as much as i do!!

I'll do you one better. I'm not normally a hateful type person, but I've often said the greatest thing that happened to music is that Cobain killed himself. I shudder to think where music would be today if he lived.

I get the tortured artist thing...whatever, but don't take the 30 pieces of silver and then spend your life b!tching about it. The grunge era was characterized by a certain ideology all around, not just from Cobain, and other bands made active worthwhile stands at risk to themselves, their popularity, and their finances (a la Pearl Jam v. Ticketmaster).

Cobain lived his life completely contrary to what his ideology supposedly was, but wanted to brood about and try to gain pity all the time.

Whiny b!tch.

 

[ICWiener]

I've often said the greatest thing that happened to music is that Cobain killed himself.

I don't know man, I'd argue that Mark David Chapman was probably the best thing that happened to music.

Ouch. Too mean? Probably a little. Sorry about that.

 

[smccarter]

I think it needs to be said that for each band/person mentioned, the time that they broke and were popular, they were great. Musical taste changes - along with generational intellegence (down, down, down it goes)... lol sorry... just had to do that. It's an "all music from my time is great, all music from your time just sucks" mentality.

Dylan was a good singer/performer for his time. As he got older, something happened to him. He became lethargic and his voice just turned to crap. But still a genious. I believe he had hits in the 60's, 70's, 80's, and 90's. Not to shabby for an over rated artist.

The Beatles... anyone that disagrees with the fact that they changed the entire way we think about, listen to, score, and perform music, just doesn't get it. Their music may not be contemporary today, but it is several decades old. They had hits in the 60's and 70's. The band members went on to have hits in the 70's, 80's and 90's. McCartney still sells out every arena he plays... even in his 70's. Again... not too shabby for over rated artists.

I don't criticize legitimate musicians. They were all important for a time to someone or to many. Any person that is able to make music for a living - a good living at that - is doing something that the absolute greatest majority of us can't do. If they make a mark in the process, all the better.

 

[NewWestBrewer]

pearl jam

everyone loves them and you can never understand what the singer is saying. Eddie veder even did a solo album that i also think sucks.

wrong

 

[Psycotte]

Bruce Springsteen annoys the crap out of me. Way Overrated IMHO.

Grateful Dead :rockin:
Pearl Jam :rockin:
RHCP :rockin:

But hey, we all have opinions.

 

[chawagi]

I don't know man, I'd argue that Mark David Chapman was probably the best thing that happened to music.

Ouch. Too mean? Probably a little. Sorry about that.

LOL!!! Blanked for a minute and actually had to look this one up, but really...that is the point I've always tried to make with Cobain.

These "artists" gain super-stardom and then think they are Jesus Freakin' Christ incarnate and it's their duty to change the world.

Post Beatles, Lennon suffered from the same over inflated ego that Cobain had, and someone called him on it. Not saying that Chapman wasn't off his rocker, but still...trying to make a point here.

These guys are part of the ENTERTAINMENT industry, and need to stop taking themselves so seriously.

Crank the organ grinder little monkeys and please me. I don't give a frog's fat a$$ what you political or economic views are.

 

[JoeyChopps]

wrong

That's your opinion. I believe that if some one that had never heard pearl jam was to sit in a bar and listen to them play there "hits". I bet most people would walk away saying either they were ok of flat out sucked. People like pearl jam because of all the hype built around them IMO.

 

[Ridire]

That's your opinion. I believe that if some one that had never heard pearl jam was to sit in a bar and listen to them play there "hits". I bet most people would walk away saying either they were ok of flat out sucked. People like pearl jam because of all the hype built around them IMO.

1991 or 1992 - first time I ever heard the song Alive on the radio, I literally stopped into the next record store I saw to ask if they had ever heard of this band I just heard on the radio, Pearl Jam. They had the album Ten and I listed to that CD more in the next year or so than I've ever listed to another album.

I had never heard of Pearl Jam until that afternoon, so certainly didn't buy it because of the hype. Who created that hype, anyway? Probably people like me who bought the album the first time they ever heard it.

 

[GrogNerd]

That's your opinion. I believe that if some one that had never heard pearl jam was to sit in a bar and listen to them play there "hits". I bet most people would walk away saying either they were ok of flat out sucked. People like pearl jam because of all the hype built around them IMO.

i'm on your side.

think I like one Pearl Jam song and it took me 15 years to even get to liking that one (I'm Still Alive)

otherwise, every time I hear them I start singing, "don't call me Vedder"

 

[chawagi]

That's your opinion. I believe that if some one that had never heard pearl jam was to sit in a bar and listen to them play there "hits". I bet most people would walk away saying either they were ok of flat out sucked. People like pearl jam because of all the hype built around them IMO.

This one is a tough one to argue for me because I can see both sides of this one; even as a die-hard PJ fan, theres times when I gotta do a double take and ask "WTF is he talkin' about?"

I think being a Pearl Jam fan is very relative to your age and what music you listened to in the 1980's.

To really understand Pearl Jam you have to have been coming into adulthood in the early to mid 1990's. You also have had to watch some of your favorite bands get corrupted and made into pop icons by MTV (Metallica please take a bow). You had to have attended, or at leasat wanted to attend the first two Lollapalooza festivals ('91&'92). To this day one of the best times of my life was Lollapalooza 1992 with Lush, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Ice-Cube, Ministry, and the Chile Peppers.

Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Sound Garden, Alice in Chains, Bob Mould's several bands, and all the rest of the Seattle scene groups gave us a way of thinking, acting, and dressing that let us say "FU! We're not drinking the Kool-ade" to the music execs that wanted everything to be cookie-cutter pop music. In addition, it was a fight against the over-indulgent and gluttonous attitude that swept the country in the 1980's.

The reason Nirvana earned so much hatred from those of us that really believed in the ideas of the grunge movement was because Nirvana repeatedly drank the Kool-ade, then made meaningless gestures to try to atone for it (Oh...you wore a "Corporate Magazines Suck! T-shirt on the cover of Rolling Stone. Wow, you're such a rebel. Oh you started a mosh pit while performing at the MTV VMA's which you supposedly disdain. Wow, fight the power, Kurt.)

Anyway...alot of it isn't about the music. It's about the attitude that defined us GenX'ers that makes us fans of the grunge bands.

I personally enjoy Mike McCready's guitar work and Veder's vocals even if most of the time you have to read the album jacket to know what the hell he's saying.

 

[aiptasia]

Every band thinks they're ten times more talented than they are, which is twice as talented as you think.

 

[bigjohnmilford]

Ok, I think I've got one that hasn't been mentioned and there can be no argument. Axl Rose nuff said.

 

[GrogNerd]

I personally enjoy Mike McCready's guitar work and Veder's vocals even if most of the time you have to read the album jacket to know what the hell he's saying.

which REM did to much better effect, without the benefit of the lyrics on the album jacket.

which brings me to the FLIPSIDE, the most UNDERrated band and/or singer

The Replacements and Paul Westerberg

"Jesus rides beside me, he never buys any smokes"

of all the lyrics in all the songs in the world, I wish I had written that one line

 

[MaxStout]

I don't know man, I'd argue that Mark David Chapman was probably the best thing that happened to music.

Except that you couldn't turn on a radio for 6 months afterward without hearing Lennon and Beatles songs rehashed to death. Yeah, I like the Beatles and all, but the music and broadcast industries beat those tunes into the ground in '80-'81.

And there was this abomination:

 

[GrogNerd]

Except that you couldn't turn on a radio for 6 months afterward without hearing Lennon and Beatles songs rehashed to death. Yeah, I like the Beatles and all, but the music and broadcast industries beat those tunes into the ground in '80-'81.

And there was this abomination:

wtf? wtf? wtf?

I could have gone the remainder of my entire life without having heard that, and I only heard the first 20 seconds

now I need to crank up some Crüe or something else really loud to cleanse my auditory canal

 

[lowtones84]

Alright, I can agree with some of these, but do you guys not listen to anything from the past 10 years? Plenty of these bands you're mentioning might as well be Bach or Mozart in comparison. I don't blame you for not listening to anything from the past 10 years though.

I think the Doors are pretty cool, I think Jim Morrison is the overrated part. Kurt Cobain technically was a piss poor guitarist, but no one else sounded like him (except for maybe some "true" grunge bands that nobody remembers/ever heard about). Pearl Jam may not be to everybody's tastes, but they have managed to recreate their sound many times yet remain unique and not bend to whatever trend is going on in popular music. Grateful Dead is one of the most eclectic bands I've ever heard, unless all you ever listen to is "Touch of Grey" and "Truckin'". If the jam thing isn't to your tastes I understand. I can understand how the Beatles may be overrated, but I think completely putting them down would just be for the sake of being argumentative. Not flaming anyone, but I think all of these bands have some artistic merit.

My votes for "current" bands: Newer Radiohead stuff, DMB, One Direction, Katy Perry, the list goes on...

For classic bands: The Rolling Stones, CCR, The Eagles. (Let the flaming commence )