I am able to find some individual cuts that are just awful, but less so among their early stuff and rarely if ever an entire album. OK maybe The Final Cut, that was pretty awful.
Pink Floyd=plodding shite, The Romantics 1st album=guitar masterpiece, and other musical blasphemies
Instead of ripping on artists a lot of people like, I’ll go blasphemous in the other direction and praise a guy who’s usually seen as a laughingstock:
Barry Manilow is a highly talented singer, musician, songwriter, and performer, and is very much undeserving of the derision he gets these days. And has gotten for the last 20 years or so.
His problem isn’t that his songs are bad, just that they’re misplaced. They belong in Broadway musicals, not on the pop music charts. If he’d taken his music to the stage instead of the radio he’d be hailed as a genius.
Something like this? Not an earth-shattering success but it looks like it did pretty well. His Wiki says that his first successful project was an off-Broadway musical with an eight-year run too.
I think “misplaced” is the wrong word for his pop songs, though; they’re unfashionable. Abba was hated for a while too. Soft-rock stylings aren’t to a lot of people’s taste but he does write a solid tune and doesn’t seem to have any trouble selling tickets.
(Note: I knew his career as a jingle writer included McDonalds’ “You deserve a break today” tune but hadn’t realized he also did “Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there…” and “I am stuck on Band-Aid, 'cause Band-Aids stick on me!”. Man, that takes me back…)
So, ANY white guy could have done what Elvis did, right?
Go back to sleep.
The man was not untalented. But Sam Phillips was the genius, not Presley.
On rap, I find an awful lot of it unlistenable, but that doesn’t mean it’s unmusical. It’s about rhythm, and a lot of people don’t get that. The best demonstration I’ve heard was was where a rapper’s vocals were played on a drum over a beat to make an intricate cross-rhythm.
Thing is, apart from (MAYBE) the swipes at Elvis and the Beatles, I’m not seeing anything here that comes close to blasphemy.
Elvis and the Beatles are, for better or worse, true icons. So, knocking them may FEEL a bit like blasphemy.
But other than that, there are no sacred cows in music- just a lot of people that are both widely liked AND disliked.
Believe it or not, MOST people don’t like Pink Floyd. MOST people don’t like Madonna. MOST people don’t like Jimi Hendrix. MOST people don’t like Dylan. MOST people don’t like U2.
It doesn’t take courage to say that ANY of those acts stinks.
Actually Floyd is huuuuge in my particular social circle. My solid “Turn that crap off” attitude absolutely floors everyone, but they also know that I like death metal so they just figure I’m off in the head.
in the theme of the OP:
Pearl Jam hasn’t recorded anything good since their first album
Interestingly, the vocalists I enjoy the most provoke the deepest negative reactions in folks. I’m talking about Dylan, Neil Young, Elvis Costello, Joni Mitchell. I often prefer an interesting voice over a melodic voice.
I hear y’all complain about the overrated-ness of Zeppelin, The Beatles, The Doors, Pink Floyd…then I reflect for a moment on today’s outregeously popular music (Gaga, Mariah Carey, Justin Bieber) and I bow my head and weep.
mmm
I’m no fan of any of those really, but Lady Gaga has a good voice and writes her own songs, so that’s not that bad, and Mariah can sing fairly well, I don’t like her dolphin song schtick that much, but it’s hard to sing in that register.
Not paying the immensely talented Willie Dixon the royalties he was due was indeed a form of thievery ;). I got nothing against “borrowing” or paying homage in music. But pay for what you cover if you want to show respect. I’m not saying they were willfully being dicks, but they were at least careless and cavalier about using the music of some of the icons they revered. While some of the original authors may have been hard to track down, Dixon was neither dead nor hard to find in the 1970’s. Quoting:
*At other times, however, Plant used the entire lyric of a song. This was the basis for Willie Dixon’s lawsuit against Led Zeppelin over the song “Whole Lotta Love,” which uses the lyrics of Dixon’s “You Need Love” over original accompaniment. In this case Dixon deserved credit, and he received it only after bringing legal action against Led Zeppelin. Where Led Zeppelin are especially more vulnerable to criticism is in the area of compensation. By the 1970s the market for this sort of music had fundamentally changed and substantial rewards from record sales were to be had. Where many Delta blues singers struggled to make a living, Led Zeppelin became very, very rich from their music. *
From here.
Pink floyd is to the Romantics as coffee is to orange juice.
Some actual blasphemies:
- Bach is just random noodling. Might as well seat a bunch of monkeys at a pipe organ.
- Dylan isn’t just a terrible singer, his lyrics are meaningless nonsense.
- The Beatles had no talent beyond producing the odd memorable tune.
- The Rolling Stones are just recycled anemic blues.
- X-Factor is the best thing to ever happen to the music industry, bringing exciting new talent to new audiences.
- Auto-tune is our saviour.
- Hendrix’s only innovation was the invention of fretboard masturbation.
- Miles Davis and Charlie Parker are the tone-deaf and tone-deafer of music.
- The music industry is dominated by stand-up characters with the best interests of their consumers at heart.
- Punk set popular music back 20 years.
- The ballad is the one true musical form.
- Any tune can be improved with the addition of bagpipes.
- Songs in a minor key are too depressing and should be outlawed.
I’m not sure what makes you say this, but the way you expressed it has been cracking me up since yesterday.
But what’s key to this thread - do you actually believe any of these?
DB, as for McCartney - I would say that he is an entertainer in his persona and that it sometimes makes it hard for folks to see the historic artist that he is. I remember seeing him talk with Terry Bradshaw about being on the Super Bowl - Terry came across like a clueless yokle (I normally find him a wacky, but somewhat charming, character) and burst into “A Hard Day’s Night” out of sheer giddiness of sitting next to Paul. What did Paul do? Sing along :rolleyes:. He came across as, well, a smarmy, glad-handing butthole. But what can you do?
No, not really. There are a couple I suspect that might have a grain of truth to them, but no more. I just thought I’d provide some examples of what a real blasphemy would look like.
I kinda agree with the one about bagpipes.
Good for you!
If people are going to pat themselves on the back for being iconoclasts, the LEAST they can do is insult genuine icons.
Elton John, very, very, limited vocal range and songs that are as about interesting as listening to paint dry.