Robert Randolph and The Family Band should be a good fit for me, but he’s not. Gospel-tinged high speed blues riffs on a fuel-injected pedal steel guitar, hey, magic, right? Nah. In nearly every song, he gets to the spot where he ought to wrap it up, but instead he takes a great lick and drives it into the ground. Stop, awready, Robert!
I can’t stand U2. Their sound just grates. I think I’m the only one, though.
What makes a band or lyrics “pretentious?”
Otherwise, I submit the following:
Bon Jovi
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Shania Twain
And his intonation is painful to listen to. That’s a band I should be into, but I just can’t listen to them.
As a blues fan and an Allman Brothers fan I should probably be into Lynyrd Skynyrd, but I just despise them.
I have never liked the Rolling Stones. I’ll generally change the radio station when a Stones tune comes on.
Usually I feel 100% confident and secure in my musical tastes (unabashed Meatloaf fan), but so many other musicians love the Stones that I start to feel like I ought to.
I find most of their stuff musically bland and lyrically uninteresting. They fit right in with all the other kinda decent bands that had a few hits but aren’t particularly earth-shattering, IMO, yet, they’re constantly held up as one of the greatest rock bands ever.
(I do admit though, that I would sell my soul to have written Beast of Burden. What a tasty song!)
…except that Angus ain’t the singer.
I like a lot of Prog Rock, but I cannot get into Rush or Dream Theater.
Another vote for the Beach Boys. I love the Beatles. I love a lot of groups (Apples in Stereo, New Pornographers) who’ve claimed the Beach Boys as an influence.
Intellectually, I get why the Beach Boys were an exceptional band, and why Brian Wilson was a genius. Back in 2000, when NPR was doing their series on the greatest songs of the 20th century, their piece on “Good Vibrations” was outstanding, and really made me appreciate the songwriting and studio production that had gone into it. I gained a new appreciation for the talent involved.
But I’ve given up actually trying to enjoy the Beach Boys. I’ve never actually enjoyed any of their songs. So it goes.
I am a proud Canadian.
But…
I hate Rush and Neil Young
Never liked their whiny voices. I always get pressure as if I am supposed to like them, but I just can’t do it.
Ditto. I think some of their songs are catchy, but their weird Dickensian-era England schtick doesn’t really fly with me. But most of my friends like them.
My big one would be Belle & Sebastian. Most of my friends love them, and I like groups who sound a lot like them, but B&S bores me to tears.
While all my friends loved Depeche Mode, I couldn’t stand them. Man, I never got the love for them, but a lot of people sure do.
KISS - they’re a metal-boy-band Alice Cooper wanna be (but for some odd reason I like watching Family Jewels)
Nickelback - loathe them
Rush - the lead’s voice is like nails on a chalk board to me, I really dont know why.
Ohhhh, a thousand times yes. Then again I dislike Puddle of Mudd, too, as well as Matchbox 20 and Creed. I like some grunge, and most emo, but when you have a band that can’t decide which they should be (especially with the pseudo-plaintive whiny singing that still has echoes of dry throating like the singer is holding something back,) it leaves me cold.
Dave Matthews Band: all my kids love it, I’ve tried many times to listen to it, can’t stand it.
Tom Waits: The guy can’t sing.
AC/DC: Never liked their sound for some reason.
Bon Jovi: ditto
Bands that by all accounts I chould like based on my tastes:
Pearl Jam - Same boat as the rest of you
Tool - I just find them so bought into their own hype
Radiohead - see Tool
U2 - See Tool
Dave Matthews - He is just so bland and insipid. And I just cannot understand the legions of fans. In fact recently The Dalia Lama was in town and he was speaking before the start of a Dave Matthews concert. My work had a free ticket for our luxury box at the event center. I went to heat the Dalai Lama and left before the concert started.
I know what you mean. I love the song “Disarm” but everything else by them is lame. And I also agree that Billy Corgan looks HIDEOUS with a shaved head.
Here’s mine: bauhaus. Ok I don’t actually hate them, but I feel like I should like them a lot more than just liking a few of their songs. I don’t think I should find so much of their catalogue annoying. I like all of the various other incarnations of that grouping of musicians, so why don’t I like them more?
Which all the more demonstrates my non-fanhood with AC/DC. Whoever he is, he sounds like someone is stepping on his testicles.
Oh my. I’m feeling so very … uncool. I like Smashing Pumpkins, Green Day, and Nickleback, and U2 and Pearl Jam are two of my very all time favs. I like Depeche Mode in a nostalgia sort of way. I kind of like Panic at the Disco and will happily turn up the radio when Jimmy Eat World comes on. I see that no one here wants me to be in charge of the tunes.
The two bands that make me change the station are the Dave Matthews Band (hate Dave’s voice) and the Beastie Boys (although that no sleep til Brooklyn song doesn’t entirely suck).
Bruce Springsteen.
The rock n’ roll authorities/critics/Rolling Stone think he is the greatest ever and cannot be adequately worshipped, but apart from some of his early stuff - boring and pretentious.
The Kinks.
I like other bands of the era and want to like the the Kinks as well, but mostly Ray Davies seems to be singing the lyric “Aren’t I too clever by half?” over and over again.
KISS won my “biggest coasters in rock” thread for not having been good in the first place, and then making all that money. http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=391435&highlight=coasters