Overblown and overrated!

**2-1B** · 11-13-2004

John Mayer - I agree, very overrated. Downright irritating to me.

Radiohead - terrible, just terrible. Might as well listen to Dave Matthews, Linkin Park, or any other band I hate.

Metallica - I still have to love those Metallicats, even though I am up and down with some recent material . . . but there is still a wealth of good stuff coming from them.

KoRn - yeah, I was in high school when their first record came out, I checked it out before ever hearing about them and before that got big - and let me tell you, I disliked it then and I dislike it now. No need to beat a dead horse.

Motorhead - indeed, give Lemmy his due - He was editor of the school magazine ! ! !
(Airheads reference

)

Hey JBF, if you want to discuss beautiful metal, I'll point you toward King Diamond's The Puppet Master released just last year. BEAUTIFUL record, just beautiful.

Hey Chux, I believe Springsteen is on that Zevon tribute because Bruce cut a track with Warren on his last album before he died. So I think there is a connection for that reason.

**dr_evazan22** · 11-13-2004

Originally Posted by Jedi_Master_Guyute

Ween

Ween!

That song "Push The Little Daisy's" was great! But that is the only thing I've heardr from them, and that was about 10 years ago. I didn't know they were rated, nevermind over-rated.

Great av JMG. I'm looking forward to their new album in a week or so.

**evenflow** · 11-13-2004

Originally Posted by Caesar

Motorhead - indeed, give Lemmy his due - He was editor of the school magazine ! ! !
(Airheads reference

)

Nice!!!!!!!!!!!!

**Turbowars** · 11-13-2004

Originally Posted by Jedi_Master_Guyute

Nirvana (as my old guitar teacher said, "Cobain was better with a shotgun than he was with a guitar

Your Teacher is an idiot. Love killed Cobain.

**Exhaust Port** · 11-13-2004

Man, it seems that every year we get another overrated crap band that is touted as the next big thing. I agree with most here so far but not with grouping Metallica in with this group. Just because you don't like an album or 2 doesn't erase a bands influence or importance to the music scene. Being overrated means that a bands influence or importance is greatly misproportioned to their actual place in music. I really only think that it can be found in short lived bands, flashes in the pan if you will.

Korn is one of those bands in my opinion. When they first came out their sound was a new mix of an old routine and was a breath of fresh air to the metal scene. Next thing you know they are being talked about as if they invented the genre or outstanding singers/musicians/songwriters. Wha??? Korn came out with more albums which were nothing more than a variation on the debut album, nothing really that evolutionary or important. Yet, the praise continued and even grew in some circles with nothing really new to discover.

The success was a flash in the music pan and that was about it. Their first album was their best in my opinion and nothing to be ashamed of but are they really these music gods? Heck no! Will the music scene in 5 years been some how altered by the musicianship or writing of Korn? No, but some seem to rate their importance as such (there for they are overrated).

For those that bash Metallica would you also bash Black Sabbath, the godfather of metal?? If not, have you listened to the last 4-5 Black Sabbath albums? Ugh, mostly pieces of crap. There are a few gems in there but they are few and far between.

Does that deminish the importance of Black Sabbath? Heck no!! That band is incredibly underrated if you ask me. Plus even though Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler were apart of the crap Black Sabbath years they also turned out some killer solo material that really showcases their importance and true ability.

A few bands that I think are overrated...

Korn
Linkin Park
Nirvana
Kid Rock
Nickelback

**Mad Slanted Powers** · 11-23-2004

Some of the bands mentioned here that I actually like:

Radiohead - I have all their albums. Some of it I don't get into as much, but I'll agree that OK Computer and The Bends are great.

The White Stripes - I had heard and read about them but hadn't actually heard them. Then I heard "Fell in Love With a Girl" and thought that song rocked. However, I kind of lumped them in with the Hives and Vines pile. I still like that music, but I figured The White Stripes were just one of many of the current fad. Then I heard stuff from their first two albums on an internet radio station and realized there was more to them.

Nirvana - I'm a bit biased here being from Washington State. I was in college at the time Nirvana hit it big and I liked their sound. A refreshing change from the pop music of the day. Plus it was cool to have the spotlight on my home state. Love them or hate them, they were significant in bringing attention to "alternative" music. Of course, there would be no Nirvana without the Pixies. The Pixies should get more attention. Sure they get lots of critical acclaim, but how often do you hear the Pixies on the radio? Or Frank Black? His early solo stuff was great.

I think someone also mentioned Smashing Pumpkins as well. They are one of my favorites, though not as much after Mellon Collie. That album had lots of great songs, but overall was probably a bit too long and ambitious. Thus was not quite the complete album that Siamese Dream was.

Overall, I don't really get caught up in how popular something is or not. If it sounds good to me, I'll enjoy it. A couple months ago, I had an opportunity to listen to American Top 40. I hardly recognized any of the stuff on there. It started off all right. I think #39 and #40 were Modest Mouse and Nickelback. I'm not a big fan of Nickelback, but they rock pretty well. I can tolerate them. I don't understand why they are so hated. I first heard Modest Mouse a lot on that same internet station I heard The White Stripes. I've come to like their stuff fairly well. The rest of the top 40 then degenerated in to mostly slow sappy pop or some rap music that I didn't much care for. I actually like some rap music, but much of what I see and hear today doesn't do anything for me. Amazingly, one of the bright spots of the countdown for me was Avril Lavigne. I know she seems to get a lot of criticism too, so imagine a countdown where her song is one of the best.

I think the Public Enemy song "Caught, Can I Get A Witness" sums up my feelings pretty well - "You singers are spineless as you sing your senseless songs to the mindless, your general subject love is minimal, it's sex for profit".

**Exhaust Port** · 11-24-2004

Originally Posted by posty333

Nirvana - .....

Love them or hate them, they were significant in bringing attention to "alternative" music. Of course, there would be no Nirvana without the Pixies. The Pixies should get more attention. Sure they get lots of critical acclaim, but how often do you hear the Pixies on the radio?

I think you hit on the big issue with certain bands and Nirvana is a perfect example. Nirvana is important for bringing attention to Alternative music, more importantly the Seattle music scene. That's it, nothing more. Being an attention magnet that opens up the public awareness of a much larger music culture doesn't give that band more musical merit, it just makes them popular.

Like is often said, you remember your first, it's the Law of Primacy. Nirvana was the first of the "new" Seattle bands to hit the air waves and that stuck in everyone's mind. Their first album was crap but they really came up with some great material for Nevermind. After that they had a few gems but never recaptured the complete album success that Nevermind had. The problem was that folks couldn't shake the Nirvana connection with the Seattle/Alternative music scene which seemed to inflate their overall importance to the national music scene. Over and over again since then folks have touted Nirvana's amazing songwriting/musicianship/etc. but never really bothered to think for a minute if that was true. It just has always seemed to be the right thing to say when reviewing the music industry over the last 20 years.

The Beatles are another band that had inflated initial success thanks to being "the first." Unlike Nirvana though, the Beatles were able to carry themselves musically well after the British Invasion bubble had burst. Nirvana had collapsed even before the Seattle/Alternative music scene was dead. I remember critics praising Nirvana 1 year after Nevermind came out as if they were going to be music legends. One year after? It has always seemed that the music industry is quick to label a few ambassadors of a new sound as "legends" or something similar right off the bat to help prop up the newly forming genre.

For that reason I believe the Nirvana is overblown/overrated. I haven't listened to the Pixies so I can't vouch for their music (sorry posty333

) so I give my vote for influential Seattle band to MotherLove Bone.

**TheDarthVader** · 11-24-2004

Originally Posted by Turbowars

Your Teacher is an idiot. Love killed Cobain.

Right on man. Cobain didn't kill himself. Why would he shoot himself with his right hand? It was a fact that Kurt was left handed. It doesn't make sense.

In defense of Nirvana: Exhaust Port, you don't know what you're talking about. I can't even name one song by the Pixies. Who are they? I can name about 40 songs by Nirvana. In a time when pop ruled the charts, Nirvana came in and changed the sound. Think about how difficult that is! Let's say country music is number one. Let's see you come with a BRAND NEW form of music to knock it off all of the charts. I doubt it would be as easy as you are claiming. Nevermind...their only good album? Ha! I know you don't listen to Nirvana now. Incesticide is a great album...polly, dive, sliver, molly's lips (cover song), and aneurysm. In Utero is a great album too...heart shaped box, all apologies, serve the servants, rape me, pennyroyal tea, and dumb. Are you kidding me? His lyrics are witty and paint a nice picture of abstract ideas. Nirvana definitely was responsible for popularizing "punk or alternative" rock. I don't care that PJ and AIC followed. That doesn't matter. What matters is Nirvana was first. To make that point, does it really matter who climbed Mt. Everest second? NO. There is a plaque up there that names only the FIRST person to have ever climbed Mt. Everest. So there is not much room for second place. Sorry.

B.
TDV

**Exhaust Port** · 11-24-2004