Mahavishnu are not and have never been a commercial juggernaut, but they are definitely well-known and respected among music geeks like ourselves.
Anyway, I consider the two most overrated bands of all time to be the Sex Pistols and AC/DC. I can, and have ranted on and on about why I don't like the Sex Pistols, but basically I just think they're a slick, commercial, macho, shock-tactics-reliant, elementary rock band that is really no different from KISS, Warrant, or Twisted Sister, but gets more cred because they're seen as political (by the way, did you know there's a song on Never Mind the Bollocks that calls women who have abortions "animals" and "disgraces"?). They aren't even particularly fun--aside from "Anarchy in the UK" the album is actually rather boring and trite hard-rock powerchording + tuneless vocals, not to mention that it's polished and organized in such a way that completely sucks any punk rock chaos or vitality out of it. As an unabashed prog-rock fan I also feel that they had a negative effect on music overall.
As for AC/DC, their music is just incredibly unimaginative, three-chords, regressive blues rock, with no change whatsoever between albums. They don't have any looseness or energy to them either, and they aren't even great songwriters (aside from "You Shook Me..." most of the songs are shockingly tuneless). How they continue to be accepted is beyond me.
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