Self-declared Music Snobs - a challenge

I second this song’s nomination. One of the great forgotten classics of the 80s

Treviathan, if you like Semisonic, be sure to track down anything you can find by Trip Shakespeare, the band that 2/3 of them were in before (and, incidentally, part of the great tradition of Musical Groups With Wilson Siblings)—especially Lulu, one of my favorite pop albums ever.

Treviathan, if you like Semisonic, be sure to track down anything you can find by Trip Shakespeare, the band that 2/3 of them were in before (and, incidentally, part of the great tradition of Musical Groups With Wilson Siblings)—especially Lulu, one of my favorite pop albums ever.

Hanson - At a time when most popular youth acts are studio-packaged, playing whatever the suits tell them to play (and usually just singing and not capable of playing instruments at all), Hanson is the real deal. Those kids can play, and their music comes from the heart. And “mmbop” had a real Jackson-5 thing about it. Word is, their new album coming out this year is supposed to be very good.

The Eagles - For some reason, a lot of music snobs really diss this band, but no one ever did harmonies better, their musicianship is absolutely top notch, and they’ve written a lot of great songs. “Desperado” is a great album. So are “Hotel California” and “The Long Run”. As they’ve aged, they’ve gotten a little shmaltzier, but their early stuff is very good.

Duran Duran’s first two albums. I think they get dismissed by a lot of music snobs becuase they were wildly popular and they were pretty boys.

I admit their work started going downhill around the time they released Seven and The Ragged Tiger, but their S/T first album, and Rio are both just peachy with me. Great great pop songs and John Taylor could play the shit out of his bass. There are a truckfull of great songs contained in these albums: Girls on Film, Is there something I should know, Rio, Save a Prayer, Hungry Like the Wolf.

They see a lot of action in my CD player.

That, my friend, took guts. I disagree but applaud your bravery.

I looked up their album and see that it was #1 for eight weeks, sold over 6 million copies and spawned three #1, one #2, and one #4 hit singles.

Obviously, SOMEBODY liked it. At first.

I wonder how many people still like knowing what they know about its creation?

Mr. Blue Sky, popularity is a separate and distinct criteria from the quality of the music. Can you say boy bands? The fact that Milli Vanilli was popular says nothing about whether it was good or not. It was decently produced - decently - and that is ALL I am willing to say positively about MV.

Sam Stone - the Eagles - you’re right in everything you say - MSnobs dis them and they are incredibly talented. I find myself thinking of them as more of a guilty pleasure - I wish I could explain why. When I hear Hotel California, I really don’t like it, but Life in the Fast Lane or the solo in Victim of Love are really really good, but I am never quite willing to voluteer that information. I am much more inclined to say I think they are only okay…

Wow, thanks. The last time I listened to it was before I started playing guitar, so I was probably fooled… Good stuff… Now I gotta find the tab for it :slight_smile:

Perhaps it’s because I don’t really hang around many music snobs. One of my music snob friends doesn’t like them at all (though he’s more into classical stuff, he still does appreciate stuff in other genres), and the other kinda likes S&G but doesn’t think their compositions are anything to write home about (he admires their voices, but that’s all).

I’ll back up Duran Duran, and their British contemporaries Spandau Ballet, who never made it as big in America. They WERE pretty-boys, no doubt about that, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that they crafted some fantastic pop songs. (And the Spandau guys looked awesome in their sharp suits, I can’t fault them for that.)

Nick Rhodes’ keyboard work in Duran Duran was very simple and minimalistic, but he created those highly memorable lines from songs like “Rio” that just sum up the early '80s every time you hear them. On one of those VH1 “I Love the '80s” shows, someone in a more recent band made fun of Nick for “only playing with two fingers,” but damn, he did quite well with only two fingers. All those Taylors formed a fantastically tight rhythm section, and Simon LeBon’s vocals finished the package. Like mouthbreather mentioned, they came out with several enduring classics back-to-back in the '80s, and even their early '90s comeback album featured some great songs in the ballad “Ordinary World” and the haunting “Come Undone.” I’d rank Duran Duran right below U2 and REM as bands that have been huge for over 20 years because they’re just THAT DAMN GOOD, and deserving of their success.

And again, Spandau Ballet had the beautiful ballad “True,” which would have cemented their reputations by itself, but they scored some other hits across the pond: “Gold” and “Only When You Leave” are damn catchy, well-crafted, danceable pop classics that never climbed the charts in America like they should have. Singer Tony Hadley and brothers Gary and Martin Kemp just had a really great chemistry together. Oh yeah, and “True” was expertly sampled to create “Set Adrift On Memory Bliss,” a smooth, mellow early '90s hip-hop song by the underrated P.M. Dawn.

Live Better Electrically, I applaud your bravery with some of your selections, and almost suspect that we are being whooshed, I mean… who wouldn’t want to drop the giant turd of Donny Osmond in the midst of a bunch of music snobs? I agree with you on The Monkees and The Partridge Family, though. Headquarters and The Partridge Family Album, respectively, are fine albums, and well worth checking out. Hell, The Best of the Monkees contains some great, great songs, such as Pleasant Valley Sunday, Last Train To Clarksville and *(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone. If any of you has never seen their movie, Head, it’s well worth seeing, although I would suggest some kind of mood altering substances to go with it.

Snobs advocating for the Paul McCartney, Eagles, Monkees, and Donny Osmond? We are the worst music snobs ever. Where’s the Zappa fans? Television, anyone?

Just to try and get this thing back on track, I’d like to nominate the Pretenders as a woefully unrecognized band. Yes, they’ve had hits, and Chrissy Hynde is famous, but I don’t think the quality of their tunes gets proper respect. Brass in Pocket, to me, is the greatest female empowerment song ever. And James Honeyman-Scott was one of the greats.

Huey Lewis and the News

I admit that all I have to base this opinion on is their hits that get air play and the album Sports, but based on Sports alone, that band deserves serious recognition. Wonderful orchestration, catchy tunes, smart and funny lyrics, and first rate musicianship all around. They’ve put down a sound that is distinctly their own and do it with finese and humor.

Hugh Jass - the whole point to the thread is to avoid mentioning the music snob cliche choices like Zappa and Television. I may disagree with your nomination of Silly Love Songs by McCartney, but it fit the criteria of the OP - some music not normally considered worthy, but you assert should be. It’s just that in that case, you’re wrong. :smiley:

And while I am gettin’ my Snob on, Eonwe - Huey Lewis and the News??? Look, I am an SF native, root for the boys and agree that they are all talented musicians and the arrangements are catchy, but their music is commercial pap, nothing more…I would rate them a guilty pleasure at best, IMHO…

BBVLou - Duran Duran - wow, I would interested in hearing what other MSnobs think. I am really not sure - I agree with your summation of points and some songs are really good, I just never listened to them enough to argue one way or another. Same with Spandau Ballet - I wasn’t big into the New Romantics - ABC anyone?

Earlier in the post I dumped on Fleetwood Mac, and I feel the same way about the Eagles. Safe, bland…

In fairness, I felt that I should throw out one of my own for the group’s derision. Duran Duran was a pretty good choice for reasons already mentioned. The other thing I’ll toss out there is very early Billy Joel. I can’t defend too much of his work after Turnstiles (maybe The Stranger), but those first few albums had some nice piano based singer/songwriter type of stuff.

After that, things like Still Rock and Roll To Me and My Life sullied things quite a bit from my perspective. But some of his earliest work I can still stomach and can be fit into the Quality Music category…it’s a tight squeeze though.

bump just to give it a chance after the downtime yesterday…

Ummm…Semisonic? I’m sorry, the only people I know who like this ARE music snobs. I didn’t see them get much of a popular following. And I have heard stuff by them ever since they were (basically) Trip Shakespeare, and still haven’t heard anything noteworthy out of them, except “Chemistry”, which rocked.

I’d like to second Justin Timberlake, at least in as much as I’ve heard stuff by him (which isn’t a lot.) Seems rather old-school techno.

My nomination: Heart. Okay, some of their stuff is a guilty pleasure to me, and for a long time all of it was…until I found out that, contrary to my prior belief, “Dreamboat Annie” was not a compilation album! There isn’t a single bad song on that album. They show an incredible writing range, singing talent, and musicianship on that album.

Okay, some of their Led Zep covers are sort of cheesy, but what finally nailed the “guilty pleasure” theory into the coffin for me was when I heard them cover “Battle of Evermore” live. Better than the original, even if they didn’t do the climactic howl as good (although that was not entirely Led Zep, of course.)

For my part, I’d like to nominate/snobbify The Carpenters .
IMHO, they are absolutely incredible to listen to. Richard was an absolute genius at song arrangements, Karen had a voice that was as mellow and rich as your favorite cognac. They had great songwritng from Paul Williams, Leon Russell and many others. I think the main reason they are so bad-mouthed is the elitist rock and roll press is still mad because Karen Carpenter actually beat John Bonham in a Best Drummer poll.
Guilty pleasure? Hell, there’s nothing guilty about it for me.
One can only imagine what they would have come up with had Karen lived.

Chris W

Iron Maiden are my nomination for a band that always get overlooked or laughed at by so called music snobs, for the most unfortunate of reasons - countless current ‘music snobs’ grew up loving them, and are now so ashamed of their teenage tastes that they knock them at every opportunity. I know - I used to suffer from this affliction myself!

I’m talking about a specific time when they travelled side by side with the mainstream, always seeming to get into the charts, but never actually picking up many fans from the pop world. They produced, during the 1980s, a series of records which made you bang your head, made you think, and even made you search out the obscure books and films they were referencing. Their music, unlike so much heavy metal, swings, and is great for singing along to.

Sure they were cheesy at times, but any band which has released more than a few records has had some embarrassing moments. I certainly think that in a world in which disco, eighties bubblegum and Fleetwood Mac are given reassessments, Iron Maiden are more than worthy of being pulled out of their ghetto and placed up top of the slagheap, at least for a few minutes.

Let me first say that I cannot believe a poster named Mr. Blue Sky has failed to mention Electric Light Orchestra. Now there was some of the finest Pop of the 70’s. Covered the range of emotions from ecstatically happy (“Mr. Blue Sky”) to angsty and longing (“Telephone Line”). Poetic lyrics, with great hook after great hook after great hook. “Strange Magic.” “Can’t Get it Out of My Head.” “Livin’ Thing.” Not a dud in the bunch.

And I’m also in here to second (or fourth) The Monkees, especially with Mike Nesmith at the helm. Track down “You Just May Be the One” and give it a listen. Marvel as Mike gives us a brilliant pop song in 5/4 time (at least partly). That song is genius!