I’ve seen a couple different of these on Reddit’s HipHopHeads subreddit and on their MaleFashionAdvice subreddit and they were pretty great so I figured it’d work here. Copying the text from that post:
Post your ideas and we’ll try and change your mind. Keep everything polite and detailed.
Try to avoid flaming or drawing out an insanely long war in which no one gives up any ground.
I’ll go first: Both Elvis Presley and the Beatles are overhyped and while their contributions to music were pretty great, I don’t consider them the greatest musical artists ever and, in fact, I feel like their status as such actually hinders me from truly enjoying their music. Similarly, I feel publications like Rolling Stone overplay and circlejerk 60s and 70s rock. Again, it makes for an overplayed cliche and I feel that they don’t look accurately at more modern albums that also revolutionized music. And again, their status as such makes it hard for me to truly appreciate them when I’ve heard the entire time that these are the greatest albums ever.
Side note: Try and denote whenever someone actually does change your view on a subject. It’s nice to have some validation or recognition that we’re actually considering each others opinions
Re: The Beatles and Elvis. I’m not sure myself weather or not they’re the greatest musicians of modern time but my advice to you is if you want to truly enjoy their music you need to ignore what other people think about them.
Furryman I totally agree on Elvis and the Beatles, and I’ll add Bob Dylan. All of them had both great and awful periods, IMHO. When it comes to the Beatles, I only like their later stuff wholeheartedly. With Elvis, I’m the opposite. If it’s after Sun, it’s only good as a novelty record, Dylan is completely dependent on the song in question.
I put the Rolling Stones in the same bucket. I have a friend who thinks they “can do no wrong”. I can think of lots of wrong that I can hang on their head, but certain songs of theirs are gems.
The same thing with Clapton, and a lot of folks from the 60’s. They’re deified too much in general.
So, in terms of their broad appeal, I can’t argue with your stated views. But, if you drill down to individual songs, we can pull out the daggers!
Ellen, well it’s not prohibited. I think that until there’s some stated ground rules, have at it!
If you want to change my view, then here’s your chance: Pearl Jam’s Ten all sounds like a beer commercial to me. Partly because when “Alive” came on the radio, I honestly thought it was an incredibly long commercial for Amstel Light.* There’s other, younger, musicians I know that see this record as “formative”. Could you give me some angle to see this record in a better light?
I mean this in absolute seriousness: Ohhhoohhoohoooo ahhhhahhhh Amstel Light!
Elvis, and later the Beatles, were the two acts who created the first global musical form, rock and roll. Prior to 1955, there were no musical acts that were known to a significant percentage of the world’s population, by 1970, Elvis and Beatles music was heard from Kenya to Indonesia. This was a new experience in human history and shouldn’t be overlooked.
In addition, one of the more dominant social trends of the past 50 years has been what I call the “casualization” of society, in which a country of almost 200 million people in crew cuts, suits, dresses and girdles become, in half a century, a country of 300 million in jeans, tattoos, miniskirts, and halter tops. You can almost date the beginning of this change from February, 1964, when the Beatles landed at JFK.
As for their music? Eh, it’s a matter of taste. But their cultural and social importance shouldn’t be overlooked.
