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.
Wow, I feel like an idiot! I always though Casey’s Last Ride was a John Denver original. The Cash version is absolutely fantastic.
Genesis with/without Phil Collins
Any for any one that says Phil Collins is a great musician I have three words for them:
Su-Su-Sudio
And Def Leppard rates up with Phil and Genesis on my “Can’t push the button fast enough to change the station” List.
Both utter crap in my opinion.
How anyone can call Def Leppard “Rock” when they play the same drivel album after album is beyond me.
Gimme Sabbath, Purple, Heep, Rainbow and all their spinoffs.
All this thread proves is that people have different tastes in music. This is why I like baseball - you can statistically prove that certain players (like Derek Jeter) are overrated.
Awesome. That is the funniest thing I read all week.
I would say they are better with the other guy. But I can’t remember his name! :)
As these types of threads go, this one has been pretty civil.
It’s one of those things. Genie or Samantha, Gates or Jobs, Pirate or Ninja, Dylan or Cohen. You just have to pick one. I go with Dylan. Just a personal preference. But I’ve a huge affinity for Cohen as well. And although I only know the popular stuff I must say that “Famous Blue Raincoat”, “That’s No Way to Say Goodbye”, “Hallelujah” and “Sisters of Mercy” are some of the best written songs I’ve ever heard.
No slight against Rush (love them), but Pavement had one of my favorite lines ever . . . and it was about Geddy Lee’s voice.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnrM4UjaQmY
Did you write in invisible ink so that I didn’t see something?
The Beatles and Dylan completely revolutionized popular music. No one who appreciates music can deny this and expect any credibility.
After Revolver the Beatles were wildly inventive and wrote dozens of great songs. Any one who writes a COUPLE of great songs is worthy of not. But when they just flow out our their pens with more great ones than poor ones the writers are in a select group of Immortals.
Teen Angel, Chapel of Love, etc. are not bad music they are just not Rock and Roll. There is a place for pleasantries but they were killing R&R. Elvis couldn’t hold back the tide by himself. The Beatles took Rock and Roll beyond itself and it is no accident that major symphony orchestras play their works even now.
Which reminds me of another of my overrated bands “The Moody Blues”.
I completely agree with Clapton being over rated. He is fantastic as -essentially- a studio musician lending a hand to other musicians . . . but on his own . . . he’s about as stale as a day old can of Kenny Loggins.
Ha! I grew up in the nineties . . . so my conception of sloppy is somewhat skewed.
WRT Joni Mitchell. I only note that not only did she record a CD of Dylan’s possibly “plagiarized” songs. A few of the HUNDREDS from the pen of the Master but she hasn’t managed to create 1/100th of his output. As to his “phoniness” it is a fact that his bands consistently have great musicians in them who are anxious to play with him. I mean mg The Band and Tom Petty’s band have been his band.
Though I don’t care what a couple of non-entities think of Dylan or his character, it is particularly stupid to think that a musicians character has anything to do with his music.
Take Miles Davis, for example. He was one of the moving forces in Jazz for about 40 yrs but for what I have seen was one of the biggest A-holes you could find, a nasty piece of work by any standard. While Duke Ellington (known as “Sweet Man” for his personality) was beloved across the world popularly and personally. Yet both produced great stuff.
Thanks for the correction. While I had always appreciated Willie I was stunned when I played that CD.
Nirvana leaves me totally cold I might have a couple of cds but don’t play them. Neil Young falls into that category after his first albums too. That whine is a total buzz killer and try to make love to a woman with it on.
So Neal Young doesn’t help with getting the groove on? Try this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6eewqgGs_Q
Her, and she is very pretty. I put it in to show that she has brains, too. Maybe I like her so much because she reminds me of a very pretty girl in high school that I had a crush on.
There is more variety in the Beatles’ opus than in all the bands playing at their time combined and multiplied by a factor of five. Facts? Hilarious, stuff.
You are displaying serious musical ignorance with the over the top remarks.
If he wasn’t dead I would think you are Frank Zappa advertising for his Beatles’ mock “We’re Only In It For the Money”.
I have to agree with jtal. When Robin Macy fronted (i.e., before Piggie Maynes and Maynes's father) they were awesome, straight Bluegrass (well, maybe not technically...) with wonderful vocals and instrumentals. Macy and the Erwin sisters clashed (the latter wanting to go more pop), so she was forced out.
"Thank Heaven for Dale Evans" is a great album!
Led Zep - Most overrated band ever.
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