Uh why did you bump this?
I really hate negative threads like this but it's up again so I guess I should give my two cents, I posted my opinions on this list before but since that was a while back I'll take a look at it again.
20. Radiohead: Like I've said before indie kids have made me want to hate this band sooooooooooo bad but I just can't. All of their albums after Pablo Honey are excellent, that's just the way it is.
19. Grateful Dead: Overrated as a live band, underrated as a studio band.
18. Snoop Dogg: Piss stain on hip hop? C'mon Lee, granted he probably does have more of a negative influence than positive but Doggystyle is a great record and he was also a big part of why The Chronic was so awesome. I don't know how people can not like the guy, I love his laid back flow. That being said he hasn't done anything that great after Doggystyle, he should team up with Dre again.
17. Coldplay: I think they're an average band with some great tunes to their credit. I don't think they are that overrated despite their mainstream success because a lot of people don't rate them that highly. They have their lovers and their haters and I'm rather indifferent to them myself.
16. The Doors: I like Jim Morrison as a singer and yes as a lyricist, it's pretty weaksauce when the example you cite for him being a bad lyricist wasn't even written by him. People always pick out the songs that were never meant to be serious. People forget that Morrison was a jokester and the humor in The Doors music is way too often overlooked. Maybe Jim is overrated in that I don't consider him one of the greatest poets of all time (but how many people REALLY believe that?), but the other members of the band are very underrated as musicians.
15. The Eagles: Nah, I like them and if anything they're one of the most unjustly hated bands of all time.
14. Garth Brooks: People still care about that guy? I wasn't aware of this.
13. John Lennon: Well he IS the greatest songwriter of all time so I gotta say no to this one. To say all of his post Beatles material is crap is mega wrong. Plastic Ono Band and Imagine are both excellent records, his songwriting on those is totally on par with his Beatles work. That being said everything after those two have ranged from decent to mediocre so maybe he is overrated as a solo artist in that he only had two great albums.
12. Eminem: Totally. He's a one trick pony ranting about the same stuff over and over, how much of a whore his mom is and how much Moby hurt his feelings. Enough already. He is a skilled rapper but I don't enjoy his music that much anymore, his beats are annoying.
11. Kanye West: How could he not be? This guy thinks he's gods gift to music, though he has some good stuff I guess, better than Lil Wayne anyway.
10. The Rolling Stones: Great band but still overrated, in that I don't think they are in the same league as the Beatles as their fans always cry, and they shouldn't be constanty rated above bands like The Who, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, yeah they came first and they influenced them but that doesn't make them better. They plummeted to mediocrity after Goats Head Soup and never fully recovered for the next 30 or so years.
9. Nirvana: Depends, by critics yes but they have a whole lot of haters, and a lot of people who completely miss the point of their music. I still think they would be a hugely popular band today even if Kurt was still alive.
8. 2 Pac: I don't really care for him, he has some good stuff but overall I think he's one of the most overrated rappers and he doesn't compare to Biggie or Nas.
7. KISS: Yet another band that is hugely popular but not many people will admit to liking them. I think they were an average garage band who just got really lucky because they had a cool image. They do have some pretty good songs like Black Diamond and I'm Going Blind but overall there's a lot of superior bands of the same mold.
6. Dave Matthews Band: Not really, they have always been a niche band much like their heroes The Grateful Dead, they have their fans and yeah these fans can be annoying but it's not like I constantly hear from people how great they are, because I don't.
5. White Stripes: By the critics? Hell yeah. They're a fantastic group but Seven Nation Army does get played way too much and I'm not too fond of the garage rock revivalism movement they started. And hearing critics go on about how they saved rock music from nu metal gets really annoying.
4. Prince: Only when people say he's better than Michael. But he does have some legendary pop records to his credit.
3. Bruce Springsteen: Absolutely. He's someone I admire more than I actually enjoy listening to. I can appreciate the passion the guy puts into his music (if he's faking it he's really damn good at it), but he really is a guy who markets himself to a specific group of people and I'm not part of that group, maybe if I was a hard working blue collar man I'd like him more, who knows? I have nothing against his fans but I do despise how the critics put him on such a high pedestal.
His music is so bombastic and over the top, and when critics lash out against bands like Yes and Genesis for being pompous and self serious and then say Springsteen is rock n' roll when it's really wagnerian theater masquerading as rock n' roll it f*cking pisses me off, prog bands never gave a sh*t about being rock n' roll, why fault them for not being something they are not trying to be?
Contrary to popular belief, most prog bands had a sense of humor. More than Bruce anyway, Bruce takes himself very seriously and DOES want people to think he's rock n roll and he really isn't, surely I'm not the only person who realises this.
2. U2: Overrated by critics but very underrated on this forum. Everything from the last few paragraphs on Bruce also applies here, they are way more bombastic than any prog band could hope to be, but hey I like bombast, and I like U2, well up until their last 3 records, which are so crappy but the critics love them and continue to go on about how they are the best band in the world and for that they are certainly overrated but at the same time, annoying critics and Bono's smugness can't completely overshadow the fact that U2 have some great records to their credit.
1. Mariah Carey: I think the only people who are crazy about her are young undiscriminating pop fans, and people with a hard on for vocal chops. She is not overrated, no one rates her THAT highly and she's picked on by the media all the time. By pop standards I think she's decent, compared to many of the other pop divas out there at least she CAN sing.
After a while I'll make my own list.
