# Formerly popular music that is the most critically reviled and publicly ridiculed **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 22, 2002, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/formerly-popular-music-that-is-the-most-critically-reviled-and-publicly-ridiculed/120297 "2002-07-22T23:38:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2002, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/formerly-popular-music-that-is-the-most-critically-reviled-and-publicly-ridiculed/120297/21 "2002-07-23T15:43:35Z")
Oasis are certainly less popular, and Liam is rightfully satirised as a boorish goon, but they can still sell out concerts and hit the album and singles charts fairly well. ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2002, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/formerly-popular-music-that-is-the-most-critically-reviled-and-publicly-ridiculed/120297/22 "2002-07-23T15:56:05Z")
I’d say Iron Butterfly’s epic **In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida** , while hailed as ground breaking in 1968, seems like pretty pretentious crap today. ---
**Author:** ![MisterThyristor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecccb3/32.png) [@MisterThyristor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MisterThyristor)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2002, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/formerly-popular-music-that-is-the-most-critically-reviled-and-publicly-ridiculed/120297/23 "2002-07-23T16:04:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by astorian \* > \*\*Well, John Denver was just about the most popular artist of the mid 70s, and sold gazillions of records… but you’d be hard-pressed to find a critic who ever liked him, and harder pressed to find people who will admit buying those albums. > > \*\* The part about the critics is not true, entirely. When he first came out, he got rave reviews from some critics. I can still remember an article from _Stereo Review_ that made him sound like the best ever. Later on, it was as you say – the critics all panned him. I would say that this is the best example of what the original poster is talking about. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2002, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/formerly-popular-music-that-is-the-most-critically-reviled-and-publicly-ridiculed/120297/24 "2002-07-23T18:34:40Z")
How about minstrel recordings? They were hugely popular in the first third of the century, but were reviled by critics (who were more interested in highbrow jazz and classical records). Now, they’re reviled by pretty much everyone. ---
**Author:** ![middleman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@middleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/middleman)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2002, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/formerly-popular-music-that-is-the-most-critically-reviled-and-publicly-ridiculed/120297/25 "2002-07-23T19:28:00Z")
The Beatles. Bob Dylan. Led Zepplin. Oh wait…I didn’t read the Op… ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2002, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/formerly-popular-music-that-is-the-most-critically-reviled-and-publicly-ridiculed/120297/26 "2002-07-23T19:39:00Z")
I started this thread. I let in run for awhile. I’ll now check in with my opinion. First off, a lot of posters have named singular artists (e.g., John Denver, Oasis, and Peter Frampton) and while it is true many acts by themselves used to be popular and are now ridiculed, this thread is concerned with whole categories of popular music that have fallen out of fashion. Also, the candidates I picked do not necessarily reflect my own musical tastes. I just selected them because they fit the subject matter of this thread. > [@](#): > > From KneadToKnow > 5. Other - Easy Listening > > I think a phenomenal number of people who consider themselves open-minded find it impossible to believe that anybody ever actually wanted to hear music by the Ray Conniff Singers, the Mantovani Orchestra, etc. Easy listening (a.k.a. elevator music, muzak) is a good choice. I would’ve included it but it didn’t occur to me until after I put this thread up. > [@](#): > > By owlstretchingtime > English folk rock eg Jethro Tull, Fairport Convention, Incredible String Band etc. > > Was phenomenally popular and is now considered a laughing stock (I like it though) I don’t know if that completely true (at least in U.S.). I think Fairport Convention is still well-regarded. > [@](#): > > Yanni, Yanni, Yanni…and perhaps Richard Clayderman, whom I cannot stand either. Oh, and while we’re at it, how 'bout Kenny friggin G! What a tosser! Add John Tesh and you’ve got New Age–the unholy, evil, and pretentious offspring of Easy Listening, Art Rock, and Light Jazz. Anyway… Of the original four selections, I think, right now, Hair Metal is regarded with the most contempt by critics and the public. Disco has been subject to critical revision over the last few years and became popular again with the general public when nostalgia for the 1970’s came into fashion. Village People are even played at sporting events now. (Whereas in the 1980’s, you could clear a room by putting one of their records on.) Art Rock still gets a lot of airplay on Classic Rock stations and still has a devoted core audience (a fact attested to by Jomo Mojo’s post). And, as stated by myself and WSLer earlier, as long as there are young teenage girls with disposable income, there will be some premanufactured pretty-boy(s) or pop songstress out there catering to them. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2002, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/formerly-popular-music-that-is-the-most-critically-reviled-and-publicly-ridiculed/120297/27 "2002-07-23T20:01:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Labdad \* > \*\*I’d say Iron Butterfly’s epic **In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida** , while hailed as ground breaking in 1968, seems like pretty pretentious crap today. \*\* It seems that almost any 60’s band/artist who wasn’t Hendrix, The Beatles, The Stones, or Cream automatically gets slammed nowadays for lack of instrumal technique. The production values get slammed because they didn’t put layer upon layer of overdubs on those old records. Sure, _Inna-Gadda-Da-Vida_ was pretentious, but those organ runs _are_ good if you listen closely. It’s not something a beginner can just sit down and bat out. ---
**Author:** ![riserius1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7ab992/32.png) [@riserius1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/riserius1)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2002, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/formerly-popular-music-that-is-the-most-critically-reviled-and-publicly-ridiculed/120297/28 "2002-07-23T22:55:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ultrafilter \* > \*\* > > David Bowie’s eyes aren’t different colors. He was in a fight way back when and now the pupil of one of his eyes is permanently dilated. Look it up over [here](http://us.imdb.com/Bio?Bowie,+David). \*\* I’m sorry, every picture I’ve ever seen of the man CLEARLY shows he has one green and one blue. I have also read a number of interviews where he mentions the two-color thing is just a genetic fluke. The “One-eye-dilated” effect makes this all the weirder, tho. IMDb, although it is a wonderful site in a lot of ways, is notorious for getting stuff like this wrong. Chris W ---
**Author:** ![bluecanary](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bluecanary/32/3614_2.png) [@bluecanary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bluecanary)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2002, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/formerly-popular-music-that-is-the-most-critically-reviled-and-publicly-ridiculed/120297/29 "2002-07-23T23:14:13Z")
1. Two words – Andrew WK. Hair metal is making a comeback, and with mainly positive reviews. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2002, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/formerly-popular-music-that-is-the-most-critically-reviled-and-publicly-ridiculed/120297/30 "2002-07-23T23:57:54Z")
Andrew WK is not hair metal in the 1980’s sense. But his music (and that of many nu-metal acts) IS an off-shoot of hair metal (like–as WSLer pointed out–dance, house, and trip-hop sprang out of 1970’s disco). What I’m referring to is a re-appraisal and appreciation of the original 80’s hair metal by critics and the public seems the most unlikely right now. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/formerly-popular-music-that-is-the-most-critically-reviled-and-publicly-ridiculed/120297/31 "2002-07-24T08:04:57Z")
**pulykamell** , you’re right. You’re right to the extent that **King Crimson** was the only other “Progressive Rock” band that could be mentioned in the same breath as **Yes** , although I still don’t rate them above **Yes**. (I also hold **Genesis** from the period 1970-1977 in high regard, but not afterward.) Thanks to **Bill Bruford** , who played with _all three of them_. Led Zeppelin? Dude, I revered Zep back in the day, I could play every note of “Stairway to Heaven” on the guitar, but hey… after 30 years I have to admit they and most other 70s music just doesn’t hold up as well. The point I was making about **Yes** music is that it has not tarnished at all with time. The same goes for **King Crimson**. _Larks’ Tongues in Aspic_—whew! As to the OP, I think this goes to show that “genre” music is a flawed concept. Anything that’s primarily identified by a “genre” is likely to be crap. If you just go by labels the way music industry businessmen and promoters do, you’ll lose the distinction between genre crap like Styx and truly fine, innovative music like **Yes** which needs no label or genre because it transcends those categories and just is what it is so superbly. FTR, I don’t care about any supposed entity called “Progressive Rock” and I don’t believe in reifying something called “Progressive Rock” out of many disparate bands that vary widely in quality. I just know that three specific bands: **Yes, Genesis,** and **King Crimson** totally rocked my world back in the day and they still do today. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/formerly-popular-music-that-is-the-most-critically-reviled-and-publicly-ridiculed/120297/32 "2002-07-24T16:16:38Z")
Well, people who hate progressive rock are free to do so. The ONLY point I’ll make in its defense, this time out, is that the great majority of the people who liked progressive/art/classical rock in its hey day still love it now. Critics may have hated it, and most still do… and the genre is pretty much moribund now. But, whereas people who once loved “Frampton Comes Alive” now laugh at Frampton, and people who bought the “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack now deny ever owning it, and almost no one will admit ever liking John Denver (guess it was aliens buying all his records), the people who loved Yes, King Crimson, ELP, et al., generally still do. Very few of them seem embarrassed to admit their devotion. Well… check that. I admit, I’m a little embarrassed that I ever took Jon Anderson’s lyrics (or Pete Sinfield’s) seriously as a teen, or that I ever imagined they held some deep meaning. Now that I’m an adult, I realize that, like MOST rock musicians, the prog-rockers were generally pretty dim bulbs! I mean, if you took everyone who was ever a member of King Crimson or Yes (that would fill a concert hall all by itself, wouldn’t it?), and calculated their combined IQs, you might crack the 100 mark. But hey, they SOUNDED great. Still do, in my humble opinion. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/formerly-popular-music-that-is-the-most-critically-reviled-and-publicly-ridiculed/120297.md?page=1)