Overrated/underrated musicians and bands

Heretic.



Basically, a Trevor Horn invention, much the same as the Pistols were Malcolm McLaren's.

FGTH my favourite group of the 80s and brilliant live, yes Trevor Horn mixed the shit out of it but you still hear their songs now. Power of Love is amazing song with great vocals by Holly Johnson.
 
Wouldn't profess to be an expert on them (far from it), but that is a bold statement.........

I mean, "band", right? So let's ignore Elvis or Dylan or Springsteen who had back-up bands ("artists"). A bit of an asterisk as Steely Dan was a twosome, but ok. Is Steely Dan in the top ten? I'd probably argue that they are, or near enough. I'd probably stump for The Beach Boys as the greatest, though I could make a case for the Ramones. Nirvana had not enough longevity (I do like Foo Fighters quite a bit), and I might have said Talking Heads or REM at one point.

Personally, my favo(u)rite American band is Husker Du.

Saw a recent piece over here that said The Grateful Dead were and made a pretty cogent argument for them. They were truly and uniquely American -- I don't even know if they had a following in the UK. I was never into acid-washed hippie jam bands and I detested their "scene" and Deadhead culture generally, but was forced to see them twice by my now-wife-then-girlfriend who adored them. The fact that we broke up temporarily after each show should tell you something.
 
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I mean, "band", right? So let's ignore Elvis or Dylan or Springsteen who had back-up bands ("artists"). A bit of an asterisk as Steely Dan was a twosome, but ok. Is Steely Dan in the top ten? I'd probably argue that they are, or near enough. I'd probably stump for The Beach Boys as the greatest, though I could make a case for the Ramones. Nirvana had not enough longevity (I do like Foo Fighters quite a bit), and I might have said Talking Heads or REM at one point.

Personally, my favo(u)rite American band is Husker Du.

Saw a recent piece over here who said The Grateful Dead were and made a pretty cogent argument for them. They were truly and uniquely American -- I don't even know if they had a following in the UK. I was never into acid-washed hippie jam bands and I detested their "scene" and Deadhead culture generally, but was forced to see them twice by my now-wife-then-girlfriend who adored them. The fact that we broke up temporarily after each show should tell you something.
Not enough acid
 
The Smiths are massively underrated. I think Morrissey is the greatest lyricist ever and what Marr can’t do with a guitar isn’t worth knowing.

I don’t get Bruce Springsteen, think he’s rather average.
 
I mean, "band", right? So let's ignore Elvis or Dylan or Springsteen who had back-up bands ("artists"). A bit of an asterisk as Steely Dan was a twosome, but ok. Is Steely Dan in the top ten? I'd probably argue that they are, or near enough. I'd probably stump for The Beach Boys as the greatest, though I could make a case for the Ramones. Nirvana had not enough longevity (I do like Foo Fighters quite a bit), and I might have said Talking Heads or REM at one point.

Personally, my favo(u)rite American band is Husker Du.

Saw a recent piece over here that said The Grateful Dead were and made a pretty cogent argument for them. They were truly and uniquely American -- I don't even know if they had a following in the UK. I was never into acid-washed hippie jam bands and I detested their "scene" and Deadhead culture generally, but was forced to see them twice by my now-wife-then-girlfriend who adored them. The fact that we broke up temporarily after each show should tell you something.

Well we are finding a few differences musically but be a boring world if we all liked exactly the same music and all supported Man U or The Dippers!

I did think that you would get that Van Halen (not Van Hagar) are the greatest American band ever but, hey, it's all about opinions.

Steely Dan are a band: they are not a solo artist. Whatever you want to class them as, they are not underrated as far as my definition goes. As a sidebar, I still find a lot of comments on this thread just expressions of personal taste rather than genuine assessment of bands being overrated.

I think the Beach Boys is a good shout for the greatest US band but nothing like my fave American band although I like them very much and should get some more of their albums in my collection. My lists of the ten greatest and my ten favourite US bands would be different although VH would be in both and The Dan probably would be too.

I love American music and more specifically the music that Americans love. We've done a few U.S. road trip type holidays and one of my little pleasures is listening to classic rock radio and seeing how long we can go before they play a track that I don't have in my collection. My collection is pretty broad but the core of it would allow me to run a U.S. classic rock radio station.

We could have a debate about whether Bruce with the E Street Band is a band rather than a solo artist. I'd have Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in both my 10's.

The Grateful Dead would not make my top 10 fave US bands but they have to be one of the greatest. They are not popular in the UK but I have to say they are a band that I've grown to like and appreciate a lot more over the last ten years - maybe it's age and a frustration with modern bands and music. I have a fraction of their output, given how many live releases there are, but I've got a reasonable number of their studio albums and a few really good live ones. I never got to see them live myself and was mortified to find when as a lockdown project I was putting all my gigs onto setlist.com that I went to see Cher at Wembley the same week that The Dead played what I presume was their last gig in the UK (very early 90's) - WTF was I thinking. For some reason, I don't think I even knew they were playing as I'd have thought I would have gone just for the experience at that point. Funnily enough "Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac" is one of my favourite lyrics.
 
Well we are finding a few differences musically but be a boring world if we all liked exactly the same music and all supported Man U or The Dippers!

I did think that you would get that Van Halen (not Van Hagar) are the greatest American band ever but, hey, it's all about opinions.

Steely Dan are a band: they are not a solo artist. Whatever you want to class them as, they are not underrated as far as my definition goes. As a sidebar, I still find a lot of comments on this thread just expressions of personal taste rather than genuine assessment of bands being overrated.

I think the Beach Boys is a good shout for the greatest US band but nothing like my fave American band although I like them very much and should get some more of their albums in my collection. My lists of the ten greatest and my ten favourite US bands would be different although VH would be in both and The Dan probably would be too.

I love American music and more specifically the music that Americans love. We've done a few U.S. road trip type holidays and one of my little pleasures is listening to classic rock radio and seeing how long we can go before they play a track that I don't have in my collection. My collection is pretty broad but the core of it would allow me to run a U.S. classic rock radio station.

We could have a debate about whether Bruce with the E Street Band is a band rather than a solo artist. I'd have Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in both my 10's.

The Grateful Dead would not make my top 10 fave US bands but they have to be one of the greatest. They are not popular in the UK but I have to say they are a band that I've grown to like and appreciate a lot more over the last ten years - maybe it's age and a frustration with modern bands and music. I have a fraction of their output, given how many live releases there are, but I've got a reasonable number of their studio albums and a few really good live ones. I never got to see them live myself and was mortified to find when as a lockdown project I was putting all my gigs onto setlist.com that I went to see Cher at Wembley the same week that The Dead played what I presume was their last gig in the UK (very early 90's) - WTF was I thinking. For some reason, I don't think I even knew they were playing as I'd have thought I would have gone just for the experience at that point. Funnily enough "Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac" is one of my favourite lyrics.
I never saw the Dead live either, have seen a couple of the off shoots with Phil Lesh and Bob Weir but Garcia was what made them so special ( in their own way) I doubt any band has toured more than them, that was what made them special with fans taking long periods of time just fillowing them around the country. There's a band out here called 'Widespread Panic' that were kinda similar, I thought their music was shite until I went to a show, one of the best I've ever been to and been to at least twenty since. Shame, they've slowed down a lot too.
Here's a sample from a show I went to in my valley
 
Well, since I just said this five minutes ago on @BlueHammer85's top 100 songs thread, I'll repeat it here . . .

"All about opinions, but I think Radiohead are far and away the most overrated band in the history of popular music. To me they're nails on a chalkboard. The voice, the lyrics, the sodden tempos, the whining, the hookless-ness, the songs that never seem to end, the drowning in atmospherics. I have absolutely never understood their appeal."

I also think Bob Dylan is overrated but his music isn't my style really.

The Beatles did some awfully self-indulgent stuff that sounds horribly dated today but they completely altered the face of music -- this thread doesn't exist without them. I don't really think they can be overrated though some of their tunes might be.

There's a side of me that says the Rolling Stones are overrated but I think the songs themselves are great -- I've always just thought their albums were poorly produced -- Keith's guitar in the mix is so often way too low and to me they've sometimes sounded like a Mick Jagger solo project instead of a band.
Yes, point about Stones recordings on point. Nevertheless, I would say Jagger and Richard are underrated as a writing duo. Imho, they beat Lennon McCartney by a mile.
 

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