# I Just Can't Like Jack Johnson's Music **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 24, 2006, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-cant-like-jack-johnsons-music/345974 "2006-02-24T20:32:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lama\_Pacos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Lama\_Pacos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lama_Pacos)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2006, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-cant-like-jack-johnsons-music/345974/1 "2006-02-24T20:32:27Z")
(super mundane) I just can’t enjoy this guy. His songs all sound samey to me with the same bad groove and grating melody. I don’t think it’s bad music per se but it all makes my skin crawl a little. ---
**Author:** ![Lama\_Pacos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Lama\_Pacos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lama_Pacos)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2006, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-cant-like-jack-johnsons-music/345974/2 "2006-02-24T20:33:39Z")
Ah crap, I meant to put this in MPSIMS. Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Indygrrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@Indygrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indygrrl)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2006, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-cant-like-jack-johnsons-music/345974/3 "2006-02-24T20:34:42Z")
Why are you trying to like it? ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2006, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-cant-like-jack-johnsons-music/345974/4 "2006-02-24T20:36:26Z")
I went travelling round the world last year. I took only three albums with me on my tiny MP3 player: Jack Johnson, Jack Johnson, and Jack Johnson. I really liked his songs and his music. But I needn’t have bothered: every bar, every café, every hotel, every guesthouse; everywhere that backpackers went, there he was singing about making banana pancakes or her bubbly toes. I ended up deleting them all and referring to him as Jack Bloody Johnson or worse. Now when I overheard the songs, they make me kind of nostalgic, but I will never knowingly play his music. ---
**Author:** ![Lama\_Pacos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Lama\_Pacos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lama_Pacos)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2006, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-cant-like-jack-johnsons-music/345974/5 "2006-02-24T20:39:17Z")
> [@](#): > > Why are you trying to like it? I’d rather have a pleasurable reaction to a common stimulus than a negative one. Wouldn’t you? Anyway, my point was, there’s a lot of music I don’t like, but little provokes such a strong “turn it off!!!” instinct in my lizard brain as Jack Johnson does. I don’t like Britney Spears, but having her playing somewhere in the background doesn’t bother me, it just doesn’t captivate me. Jack Johnson makes me feel kind of nauseated. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2006, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-cant-like-jack-johnsons-music/345974/6 "2006-02-24T20:39:29Z")
> [@Lama Pacos](#): > > Ah crap, I meant to put this in MPSIMS. Sorry. Actually, I would imagine this is the forum it would have been moved to had you put it in MPSIMS. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2006, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-cant-like-jack-johnsons-music/345974/7 "2006-02-24T20:42:43Z")
I’m usually pretty up on music, but who in the heck is Jack Johnson? ---
**Author:** ![TheBoneyKingofNowhere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@TheBoneyKingofNowhere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheBoneyKingofNowhere)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2006, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-cant-like-jack-johnsons-music/345974/8 "2006-02-24T20:45:34Z")
> [@Lama Pacos](#): > > (super mundane) > > I just can’t enjoy this guy. His songs all sound samey to me with the same bad groove and grating melody. I don’t think it’s bad music per se but it all makes my skin crawl a little. I agree completely. It’s like, come on, challenge us a little bit here, but ah well, his route is the road most often taken. I’m sure his bank balance doesn’t mind. ---
**Author:** ![Ponder\_Stibbons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponder_stibbons/32/343_2.png) [@Ponder\_Stibbons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponder_Stibbons)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2006, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-cant-like-jack-johnsons-music/345974/9 "2006-02-24T21:49:41Z")
What? Oh, for a second there I thought you were bad mouthing [my man](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000002757/sr=8-2/qid=1140817684/ref=sr_1_2/002-6029963-1756832?%5Fencoding=UTF8). But then I saw it was _Jack_, not Robert. Carry on. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2006, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-cant-like-jack-johnsons-music/345974/10 "2006-02-24T21:54:20Z")
Jack Johnson was a very good boxer in the early 20th century who happened to be black, so he got screwed around with for no good reason. I didn’t know he surfed and wrote music. ---
**Author:** ![raindog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@raindog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raindog)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2006, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-cant-like-jack-johnsons-music/345974/11 "2006-02-24T22:05:07Z")
> [@Ponder Stibbons](#): > > What? > > Oh, for a second there I thought you were bad mouthing [my man](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000002757/sr=8-2/qid=1140817684/ref=sr_1_2/002-6029963-1756832?%5Fencoding=UTF8). But then I saw it was _Jack_, not Robert. > > Carry on. 100 cool points for **Ponder Stibbons** Many (Chicago/Detroit/southern) blues players, including greats like Cray & Clapton genuflect at hearing his name. ---
**Author:** ![drm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e57/32.png) [@drm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drm)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2006, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-cant-like-jack-johnsons-music/345974/12 "2006-02-24T22:07:05Z")
I find his voice quite unpleasant. Whenever a song of his comes on the radio I get the shivers. I also tend to agree with the OP in that all his songs sound the same. I realise that isn’t unique to him but when you already dislike one of his songs that causes a problem for the rest of them. I don’t get him. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2006, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-cant-like-jack-johnsons-music/345974/13 "2006-02-24T22:14:38Z")
I too have never heard of this Jack Johnson. I am sure I have run across a Jack Johnson in my time because the name sounds common but it isn’t something I made note of. Who is it and what is this distinctive style you speak of? ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2006, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-cant-like-jack-johnsons-music/345974/14 "2006-02-24T22:19:00Z")
Anyone who dislikes Jack Johnson but finds the style of music he plays to be decent should listen to someone called M. Ward. He’s not very well-known but he sounds like Jack Johnson, except 1000 times better. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2006, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-cant-like-jack-johnsons-music/345974/15 "2006-02-24T22:32:34Z")
I’m with the OP. Very little musically grinds my gears, even stuff I don’t like I can tolerate for the length of a song (excluding _Milkshake_ and _My Humps_ from recent memory). I actually like Jack Johnson when I first heard his song (there is only one…with variations). His so laidback as to be comatose style now irritates me. And I still think he tanked the Willard fight. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2006, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-cant-like-jack-johnsons-music/345974/16 "2006-02-24T22:34:34Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I’m usually pretty up on music, but who in the heck is Jack Johnson? I dunno. _Robert_ Johnson of course, sold his soul to the Devil to create the Blues. ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2006, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-cant-like-jack-johnsons-music/345974/17 "2006-02-25T06:01:10Z")
> [@Argent Towers](#): > > Anyone who dislikes Jack Johnson but finds the style of music he plays to be decent should listen to someone called M. Ward. He’s not very well-known but he sounds like Jack Johnson, except 1000 times better. M. Ward is awesome, and I hear a lot of Tom Waits influence in his music (Waits is my favorite musician of all time). I rank Jack Johnson down there with Dave Matthews and John Mayer, the reigning champions of bland, unoffensive, vanilla white-man soft rock. ---
**Author:** ![Amaranta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Amaranta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amaranta)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2006, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-cant-like-jack-johnsons-music/345974/18 "2006-02-25T06:21:23Z")
> [@garygnu](#): > > Jack Johnson was a very good boxer in the early 20th century who happened to be black, so he got screwed around with for no good reason. > I didn’t know he surfed and wrote music. A couple years ago, when the white, Dave-Matthews-wannabe Jack Johnson put out his first album, everyone kept asking me if I’d heard it. “Have you heard the Jack Johnson CD?”, they’d say. “The Miles Davis one?”, I’d say. Them: “What?”. Me: “What?”. "The one with the song “Flake”. Me: “Um… and then at the end he says “I’m black, and they never let me forget it, I’m black, and I never let them forget it”? That one?”. And there’d be more staring and confused babbling back and forth, and eventually I figured out there was a not-black not-boxer who sang and played guitar and whose didn’t marry a bunch of woman, one who killed herself. It was a confusing few weeks. I find Jack Johnson to be okay background music, not annoying but not interesting. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2006, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-cant-like-jack-johnsons-music/345974/19 "2006-02-25T07:11:36Z")
Jack Johnson has apparently won the Talentless Fratboy Lotto. Lame lame lame lame lame. Well, OK, not entirely without a little empty talent. It’s just too bad that the guy he’s mostly ripping off, Will Oldham, still works a day job. I hope he sends Will a check. But I doubt it. ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2006, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-cant-like-jack-johnsons-music/345974/20 "2006-02-25T07:35:53Z")
> [@Big Bad Voodoo Lou](#): > > M. Ward is awesome, and I hear a lot of Tom Waits influence in his music Would you elaborate on this influence a bit? The only M. Ward album I’ve got is _The Transfiguration of Vincent_, and while I love it lots and lots, I hear nothing at all of Tom Waits in it. (And Tom Waits is in my top three or four musicians as well.) Re. Jack Johnson: Is he the asshole who did that “Where’d All the Good People Go” song? Lord, I hate that song; the only thing worse than being pandered to is being preached at. Not to mention its excessive, cloying grooviness; I never knew before that good-naturedness could be so in-your-face. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-cant-like-jack-johnsons-music/345974.md?page=2)