We’ve had more than a few threads/diatribes concerning people’s distaste for certain musical acts…I’d really like to hold this one to bands you actually like, but don’t understand the (extreme?) fanaticism for.
For me?
Pink Floyd
I like most of their material, even the earlier stuff…it’s unique, ethereal, thought-provoking and well-crafted. On the other hand, their tunes are almost always plodding, sometimes boring, and don’t really hold up well to repeated listenings. Despite this, I am amazed at certain individuals’ out-and-out adoration for this group, especially among people I know who’ve never done any drugs in their lives ;).
Even though, like most good classic rock fans, I do indeed enjoy most of their catalogue*, I still and will always cannot help believing Led Zep to be the most overrated classic rock band in the world. I’ve never known any other band to have at least two, if not three or four tracks played every hour on every classic rock station, or at least the ones I’ve listened to on/off throughout my life anyway.
Including the entirety of Houses Of The Holy, IMO Zep’s best album with nary a bad tune on there, despite my utmost favorite LZ song, “Kashmir”, not being among the tracks (making for the only one instance of my utmost favorite album not having my utmost favorite song from a band/artist).
The Beatles. Yeah, the had some good songs, but in general, I can’t stand male vocals. Maybe if they had some female singers I would give them a second chance. I’ts a bit sad that so many critically acclaimed bands seem to be dominated by guys.
Elvis is the King of Overrated Rock’n’Rollers. His early stuff at Sun was pretty great, admittedly, but he still wasn’t Johnny Cash or Roy Orbison then. He wasn’t even Carl Perkins. Then you hear the stuff he was actually famous for (Love Me Tender, Teddy Bear) and the whole idea that he was anyone’s favorite artist at all, let alone the biggest act in the industry for ~25 years, starts sounding like a strange hoax.
Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin have already been mentioned, so I’m gonna go with Rush. I’ve always liked them (well, until they started putting out crap in the 90s), but I’ve never understood the rabid fanboyism.
The only one mentioned so far that I like and think may be a tad over-rated is Nirvana. I’m not much of a fan of Floyd or Rush, so that disqualifies me from those. If you asked me a few years ago, I may have been on board with The Stones, too. In my mind, the Beatles can never be over-rated.
I own several of their albums, which I enjoy listening to every once in a while; and there’s a lot I respect about them, including the way they’ve been playing together for so long. But there’s not enough variety or versatility to their music for me to consider them a truly great band.
They successfully revamped their sound for Achtung Baby. <shrug> Yeah, they went into a long slow decline after that, but there are very few artists who can remain at the top of their game for more than a decade or so.
I actually was pondering starting a thread which would be the inverse of this one-“Bands which everybody has bashed so often that they are now underrated.” U2 would be at the top of the list.
Am not American, so don’t know what the perception of U2 in your country is, but over here (the UK), I would argue that they’re probably under-rated now. More notable for spamming people’s iTunes accounts and Bono’s crusading than music for a lot of people - at best I see them getting grudging respect for their output pre-97 and the post Pop sales renaissance being retreads of their heyday to diminishing returns. Arguably, they could be viewed much more positively.
In answer to the OP, Radiohead. I like them well enough but I definitely see them as over-rated too.