Beeruls.
Posted on 03/25/2011 1:05:27 PM PDT by GSWarrior
There is no way to quantify if a band or artist is overrated. It’s more of a feeling than anything else.
There exists in popular music a hierarchy. It’s been created, and is constantly altered, by both natural and artificial means. At the top sits The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Elvis, Michael Jackson, U2, and Madonna. At the bottom rests the 8th place American Idol contestant. Everyone else fall somewhere in between.
Determining which artists are overrated and which are correctly rated is not a science. It’s not even an art. It’s just an exercise to start a conversation. It’s a lot like asking the question who is the greatest guitarist of all-time or what rocker, if still alive, would be a contestant on Celebrity Apprentice.
For this article, Land of Punt will throw out five artists we think are overrated and why we think that way. Hopefully our choices will elicit a response other than apathy. Maybe you’ll cheer, maybe you’ll purse your lips in anger, or maybe you’ll do a little of both.
LOP’s intention with this list isn’t to denigrate the five artists enumerated below, but to examine the machinations and politics of music and the music industry. The hierarchy of artists we refer to is that of the macrocosm not the pecking order of your own personal microcosm.
Bob Dylan
Before you freak out and delete our bookmark from your favorites, hear LOP out. When we say Bob Dylan is overrated we are not disparaging his contributions to popular music. What we are saying is if Dylan is rated a 9 (for example) Land of Punt believes his rating should actually be an 8.3. He’s just a bit overrated but overrated nonetheless.
First of all, the dude has released over 60 albums in his career but has only sold 70 million units. Almost assuredly if you own one Dylan album you own them all. So if you do the math there are about 1.16 million Dylan fans in the world.
By the way, only five of his albums have reached number one. To put that in perspective, Dylan has the same amount of number one albums as Metallica and less than half the amount of Jay-Z.
Dylan has probably composed a gazillion songs in his life, but not once has he charted a number one single or written a bridge.
The reason why Dylan is so highly rated is Rolling Stone Magazine. They absolutely love the guy. Sure, he’s influenced a bunch of artists but the number of people who actually say “Hey, let’s listen to some Dylan” is rather small. Dylan is not synonymous with fun.
Of course, if you’re a songwriter or a poet you’re a big Dylan fan. But to most of us he’s like a Socratic dialogue. You know that it’s brilliant but you don’t want to experience it unless you’re getting college credit.
To prove our points, in 2004 Rolling Stone Magazine named Dylan’s “Like A Rolling Stone” the number one song of all-time. That’s just Rolling Stone being sycophantic about a song that most people only need to listen to once in their life.
Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac could launch an arena tour of America right now and sell out every show. They are one of the biggest bands from the 1970′s, they’ve sold over 100 million albums throughout their career, and the lineup of Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, Christine McVie, John McVie, and Mick Fleetwood is legendary.
Yet, they are a one album band. Rumors. 1977. That’s it!
Okay, their self-titled 1975 album was pretty good and 1982′s Mirage went number one, but most people drive to a Fleetwood Mac concert with Rumors blaring in the CD player.
The band has been around since 1968, and with the exception of a few years in the 1970′s, Fleetwood Mac has mediocre at best.
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young are members of the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame as both a group and as individuals.
How in the heck did they swing that?
For one, they are beloved by Rolling Stone Magazine. Secondly, they epitomize the bleeding heart liberalism of the 1960′s. Ignorant baby boomers, with their free love and ridiculous peacenik attitudes, love them some CSN&Y.
But the main reason CSN&Y are rated so highly is the guys were well-liked. They knew everyone. If rock and roll in the late 1960′s and throughout the 1970′s was a high school, then Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young was the popular kid who always wore the fashionable jacket.
That has to be it because how else would they have joined the immortals of rock and roll?
In more than 40 years as band they’ve released just 16 albums. That includes studio, live and compilations. They’ve only seen one of their studio albums reach number one and most of their stuff is just downright awful.
Their highest charting single is “Just a Song Before I Go” which reached #7 in 1977. Their only other top ten hit was “Wasted on the Way” which peaked at #9 in 1982.
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young recorded some good stuff but certainly not enough to warrant a place in the hall of fame.
Tom Petty
This one is easy. Is Tom Petty a big enough star to perform at a Super Bowl halftime show? The answer is no. But he did as much in 2008 at Super Bowl XLII.
Now, Petty has been extremely successful throughout his career. He’s sold more than 50 million albums worldwide and Tom Petty concerts continue to sell out year after year.
But, he’s never had a number one album or a number one single.
One of the reasons why he’s on our list is because ever since his 1981 album, Hard Promises, all his stuff sounds the same.
Another reason why he’s overrated is he doesn’t elicit much enthusiasm. He’s not very exciting. Yes, LOP likes him and you probably do too, but when you hear the name Tom Petty your eyes don’t light up and your heart doesn’t flutter. More than likely you just shrug your shoulders and say “meh.”
Green Day
Furthermore, the Bay Area punk trio is often credited with ushering in the 1990′s wave of punk-pop bands. Music critics often cite them as progenitors of a whole new generation of punk.
And that’s why they are on our list–their association with punk music. For as we all know, they’re not punk rockers they’re pop stars. They write catchy tunes that feature whining lyrics about contrived political oppression.
Yet, they have more in common with Burt Bacharach than they do in Johnny Lydon.
If they lost the ridiculous eye makeup, dropped the bogus teenage angst, and shopped at the Banana Republic they’d make one heck of a pop band.
Only two types of people think Green Day is actually punk. The first type is record executives who want a safe, accessible brand of pop/rock music they can label and sell as punk. The second type is kids who want to listen to punk music as they drive around in their parents BMW.
In the shopping mall of popular music, Green Day is the store “Hot Topic.”
After all, what do a bunch of American kids born in 1972 have to rebel against? Not having cable? No Goonies 2? Sega Dreamcast not given enough of a chance to succeed?
Bottom line, the last thing any punk band would ever want is their music used in a Broadway musical. If punks thought mainstream music was commercial and corporate (both anathema to their world view), they should know Broadway is ten-times worse.
That’s why I posted the entire thing, rather than a link to his blog.
Maybe because he sings like he's trying to pass a bowling ball.
That I’ll agree with. Lennon and McCartney needed each other. Without each ohther’s influence, it wasn’t the same. Silly Love Songs was an abomination.
Where am I?
Hard to choose, but I think Battery Brides and This Is Pop are just about perfect.
It’s generic. All those songs are the same. They’re your basic chaste love song that draws pubescent girls in hordes.
It’s the fault of the Beatles because they’re the ones that showed you could just keep rewriting the same pablum over and over and keep making money on it.
You nailed it on Led Zepplin.
Very overrated.
For instant mute, fingernails on chalkboard talents - cat in alley wailing voice, junior high marching band musicians, or just gun to head annoying songs.
Bob Dylan
Neil Young
Doors
U2
Tom Petty
Green Day
For humors sake, I should point out the "guys" get togethers often take place at a home where the host has every CD and DVD of the bands, and a mutual best friend worships them as well. Eventually after they play a few, enough ribbing will go on for me to comment - I do the old agree while disagreeing commentary - "I'm sold. I see why you guys love them. Other than the fact they can't sing or play an instrument, I think they're great bands."
Beeruls.
“{Subtle complexity” = same junk over and over. They wrote 3 dozen love songs that are basically the same. Then they started doing drugs and at least got kind of interesting. But by then it was too late.
What an absolutely stupid remark.
Van Halen with Roth: Perfection
Van Halen with Hagar: Meh
Hagar Solo: Awesome
Roth Solo: Meh
Every word above is pure gold and 100% accurate.
From a long time ago...
Way to not actually read the post. That proved what I said. And frankly Teen Angle, for all it’s horrid crap, is no worse than any of the Beatles love songs. It’s all the same junk.
Sgt. Pepper and Abbey Road were pure brilliance.
They really didn’t create much of anythings. The Pistols were your basic thrash punk band. Fun, but not unique, not new, and not the best of their breed. They were helped by their quick self destruction, kept them from ruining their reputation like The Damned eventually did.
“After decades of carefully manicured deification by Columbia Records,” wrote the music critic Jonny Whiteside, the time has come “to flout indoctrination and examine Dylan’s track record as a Grade-A phony.”
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-04-30/is-bob-dylan-a-phony/
Joni Mitchell “Bob is not authentic at all. He’s a plagiarist, and his name and voice are fake. Everything about Bob is a deception.”
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/music/la-et-jonimitchell-20100422,0,601452,full.story
Personally, for the life of me, I can not understand how *anyone* could stomache more than 30 seconds of Dylan’s nasally screeching, nor more than 5 lines of his hokey lyrics. I defy anyone with serviceable hearing to last all the way through Dylan’s rendition of “Man of Constant Sorrow”. And I take no responsibility for the indelible, mental scarring that may occur if you attempt it. You’ve been warned!!
(abandon hope, all ye who listen to the crap at this link)
http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/s/Man+Of+Constant+Sorrow/3BF77k?src=5
Riverdance. LOL. Why use 12 dancers when you can fill up the entire stage with them?
Jackson's "Thriller" was a good album. But, it was all downhill from there. He only had one "hit" per album after that. Also, he never evolved as an artist. Everything as a rehash of "Thriller," and the moonwalk shtick got old after a while
I wish everyone would quit ragging on "The Monkees!" They are what they are - a made for TV band. I wouldn't consider them "overrated," because nobody ever took them serious.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.