"There's no accounting for taste"

It's an age-old adage that this thread proves to be true.

We all have different levels of appreciation of talent, different preferences of style, differing abilities to discern what we are listening to, and different perspectives on what we perceive as good or bad.

It's always disappointing to me to just see ppl rattle off a list of what sucks to them.
Very little thought required to just list a bunch of stuff that doesn't do it for you.
I'd be much more interested in reading about the redeeming qualities of artists that tend to have "haters."

Just to take a few from one such list above as examples:

Bob Dylan has a vocal delivery that is akin to a child with a face only it's mother could love. But he's widely known as one of the greatest songwriters and lyricists of our time. His songs have been covered over and over again by countless artists and still top the charts to this day when they are resurrected. The list of artists that have recorded his songs reads like a veritable "who's who" of incredible musicians from every genre under the sun.

Tina Turner was an insanely entertaining R&B performer long before MTV made her a household name to a new generation and associated her with a bunch of corny 80's pop songs. She had her first R&B radio hit in 1960 and in 1969 became very popular with a remake of CCR's "Proud Mary" that still gets heavy rotation on classic R&B channels/stations and streaming.

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whats overrated about Zappa?

He was a great guitar player, a great song writer.  he acquired some of the most talented musicians of the time.  and almost nobody likes him.

if anything, he's extremely underated.  you just don't get it.  that's not the definition if overrated..

I think the best way to say it is that he is an acquired taste. Same with someone like Iggy Pop. A genius and forefather for a lot of music that came after, but not someone that everyone is going to appreciate. At least that's how they seemed to me.

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Is it safe to say that overrated is just another term for dislike?

not necessarily.

there may be artists out there that are universally disliked or some that don't get the appreciation that they deserve.

I dislike Björk. Her music does nothing for me, no matter how others rate her.
People think the sun shines out of Elvis' backside, I think if TV weren't in its infancy when he first hit, he'd have ended up a gospel singer. I don't dislike him, but I absolutely don't hold him on any type of pedestal.

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Thanks for the thoughtful and insightful analysis.  I'll have to revisit/rethink some of his stuff.

I'm a jazz nerd. Rarely have the opportunity to expound on it. 

A really good chronological encapsulation of Miles' lyricism over the stages of his career could be heard by listening to these tracks:

Bye, Bye Blackbird - from the Round About Midnight album - 1957
Generique - from the soundtrack album Ascenseur Pour L'Echafaud - 1958
So What - from the album Kind of Blue - 1959
Gone, Gone, Gone - from the album Porgy and Bess - 1959
Circle - from the album Miles Smiles - 1967
Sweet Pea - from the album Water Babies - 1968
Guinnevere - from the album [BLEEP] Brew - 1969

Even just a minute of each should give a listener some perspective on what makes him different than much of the popular jazz prior to his output and what was being done at the time. 
The final three listed there illustrate his inclusion of more modern and unconventional harmonies as well as introduction of non-traditional instrumentation.

See this is what I dig - I will listen to jazz casually, but have no idea what to seek out if I want to be 'wowed'. Thank you for some cool recommendations.

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Led Zeppelin.......and Stairway to Heaven is massively overrated.

Preach it.

They have SO many better tunes. Even on that one album alone!!

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"There's no accounting for taste"

It's an age-old adage that this thread proves to be true.

We all have different levels of appreciation of talent, different preferences of style,  differing abilities to discern what we are listening to, and different perspectives on what we perceive as good or bad.

It's always disappointing to me to just see ppl rattle off a list of what sucks to them.
Very little thought required to just list a bunch of stuff that doesn't do it for you.
I'd be much more interested in reading about the redeeming qualities of artists that tend to have "haters."

Just to take a few from one such list above as examples:

Bob Dylan has a vocal delivery that is akin to a child with a face only it's mother could love. But he's widely known as one of the greatest songwriters and lyricists of our time. His songs have been covered over and over again by countless artists and still top the charts to this day when they are resurrected. The list of artists that have recorded his songs reads like a veritable "who's who" of incredible musicians from every genre under the sun.

Tina Turner was an insanely entertaining R&B performer long before MTV made her a household name to a new generation and associated her with a bunch of corny 80's pop songs. She had her first R&B radio hit in 1960 and in 1969 became very popular with a remake of CCR's "Proud Mary" that still gets heavy rotation on classic R&B channels/stations and streaming.

Yeah, I was gonna post similar regarding Dylan, there's a gaggle of artists that were much more talented at lyrics or songwriting than performing, but back in the day you didn't need a purty face or a plunging neckline to sell music. I think nowadays those lyrical geniuses tend to sell their work to labels and have the pretty faces record their works instead. Think about someone like James Taylor - if Fire and Rain were written in 2020, it would have probably been recorded by TSwift or Gaga or someone like that.

I don't tend to poop on anyone's preferences or dismiss an entire genre.

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"There's no accounting for taste"

It's an age-old adage that this thread proves to be true.

We all have different levels of appreciation of talent, different preferences of style, differing abilities to discern what we are listening to, and different perspectives on what we perceive as good or bad.

It's always disappointing to me to just see ppl rattle off a list of what sucks to them.
Very little thought required to just list a bunch of stuff that doesn't do it for you.
I'd be much more interested in reading about the redeeming qualities of artists that tend to have "haters."

Just to take a few from one such list above as examples:

Bob Dylan has a vocal delivery that is akin to a child with a face only it's mother could love. But he's widely known as one of the greatest songwriters and lyricists of our time. His songs have been covered over and over again by countless artists and still top the charts to this day when they are resurrected. The list of artists that have recorded his songs reads like a veritable "who's who" of incredible musicians from every genre under the sun.

Tina Turner was an insanely entertaining R&B performer long before MTV made her a household name to a new generation and associated her with a bunch of corny 80's pop songs. She had her first R&B radio hit in 1960 and in 1969 became very popular with a remake of CCR's "Proud Mary" that still gets heavy rotation on classic R&B channels/stations and streaming.

I'm 100% with you on Dylan. His vocals are an acquired taste, but its more about style, nuance and phrasing with him than actual pitch-perfect delivery. And he's one of the few songwriters that has had more cover versions chart big than his original releases. Nashville Skyline was the exception; he quit smoking and suddenly had a really nice vocal tone on that release.

I also liked Tina Turner more in the 'Ike and Tina' era than in the 80's during her pop period, but that early era just beat her down. Literally.

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"Remember Red, Hope is a good thing. Maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies."  - Andy Dufresne, The Shawshank Redemption

Is it safe to say that overrated is just another term for dislike?

Not for me. I neither like nor dislike the ones I listed, I just don't get the hype. Nirvana was a bit overrated but they absolutely changed music just as The Beatles and Elvis did. 

Coldplay is another I would consider overrated. They were just another band with music on the radio as far as I was concerned.

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I'll be the first to admit I don't get pop music, whether it's boy bands, the divas from American Idol, or gospel influenced vocal calisthenics.

On the first Jags message board, there was an entire thread devoted to why my favorite genre, prog rock, sucked. So take what I say with a grain of salt, and realize that I'm not passing judgement on what anyone likes or doesn't. The thread asks what doesn't do it for me but the critics dig.

Prince - OK, I guess, just don't see what the big deal was.
Michael Jackson - same thing.
Beck - a critic darling who has a few songs I like
Dave Matthews Band - same category as Beck. I don't get following him around like the Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead - sorry, I hate jam bands. Talented as hell but no way I'm sitting through a show.

I'm with you on classic prog rock; I really hated it at first until I had a roommate in college who was really into it. He had most of the albums of the early/mid 70's prog rock groups (Tull, ELP, King Crimson, Yes) and the more I listened, the more I liked and appreciated it. And I was able to get him interested in the classical kick that I was on at the time, so it was a win-win.

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"Remember Red, Hope is a good thing. Maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies."  - Andy Dufresne, The Shawshank Redemption

KISS. Worst band of all-time, and it's not particularly close.

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I'll be the first to admit I don't get pop music, whether it's boy bands, the divas from American Idol, or gospel influenced vocal calisthenics.

On the first Jags message board, there was an entire thread devoted to why my favorite genre, prog rock, sucked.  So take what I say with a grain of salt, and realize that I'm not passing judgement on what anyone likes or doesn't.  The thread asks what doesn't do it for me but the critics dig.

Prince - OK, I guess, just don't see what the big deal was.
Michael Jackson - same thing.
Beck - a critic darling who has a few songs I like
Dave Matthews Band - same category as Beck.  I don't get following him around like the Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead - sorry, I hate jam bands.  Talented as hell but no way I'm sitting through a show.

I understand that maybe you didn't like their particular genre of music, but both were very talented and made an impact on music back in their day.  Prince was more the musical talent and Michael Jackson was more the "performer" talent.

Prince was known more for his "funky" style of music, yet he was talented on many instruments, wrote many songs for other artists and crossed many borders.  One of my favorite performances by him was the guitar solo at this performance.



The guy was super talented and a master of music.

As far as Michael Jackson, again he was super talented and changed music back in his day.  I didn't care much for the genre of music that he made, but I respect his talent and can appreciate his music.

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There are 10 kinds of people in this world.  Those who understand binary and those who don't.