# The musical artist you should love... but can't get into **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [June 4, 2020, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-musical-artist-you-should-love-but-cant-get-into/855063 "2020-06-04T19:13:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2020, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-musical-artist-you-should-love-but-cant-get-into/855063/121 "2020-06-11T17:26:31Z")
Whoopsie! Have to disagree with my pals once agin…love **Big Star** and pretty much everything else Chilton. Try “No Sex.” Or this 1970 cover of “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.” [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/mfT7fhmXhvI/maxresdefault.jpg "ALEX CHILTON covers "Jumpin Jack Flash" (1970)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfT7fhmXhvI) ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2020, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-musical-artist-you-should-love-but-cant-get-into/855063/122 "2020-06-11T17:34:00Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > I’m with you guys on **Big Star** as well. I’m just not hearing anything special. Yet another vote for **Big Star**. They hold high spots on pretty much every list I’ve ever seen of Greatest Power Pop Bands or Albums, and I love power pop and many of the other bands/albums on those lists, but… meh. ---
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2020, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-musical-artist-you-should-love-but-cant-get-into/855063/123 "2020-06-11T21:29:00Z")
> [@digs](#): > > Huge apologies! Rereading everything, I sounded harsher than I meant to. And assumed wrongly that you were being sarcastic. > > Here’s how it happened: after McCartney was accused of whining, you linked to two songs without comment, so I didn’t know if you agreed, or were saying the opposite. I listened to the linked songs, didn’t hear whining, and wondered if you were saying “Whining? Oh suuuuure…” > > And here’s why I sounded pissed off. Because in the last week or so, especially in the Covid and racial threads right now, there have been so many posters saying the exact opposite of what they mean. In person, it’d work, because we’d see their shrug, their wink, their facial expressions. But on a message board, that really isn’t working. > > The frustrating thing is that it has derailed so many threads as they devolve into “I can’t believe you proposed that!” And the perpetrator doesn’t say “Oh, I’m sorry, I was just being sarcastic.” No, they see that they can pull people’s chains and double down on sounding fascist or racist. One poster, after a page of hateful accusations back and forth, finally wrote “Seriously, people, do I have to put ‘(sarcasm)’ after all my posts?” > > But you’re innocent of that, and I jumped to conclusions. So sorry! I’ll go find someone doing that in the Pit, and yell at them. Thank you very much and greatly appreciated. I used to try to be ironic/sarcastic and over many, many years realized that I’m just not good at it and I now try to be as literal as possible. And, as you alluded, it’s hard to tell what people are doing in text, which is why I asked in the first place. Again, however, thanks much! ---
**Author:** ![DrForrester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8edcca/32.png) [@DrForrester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrForrester)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-musical-artist-you-should-love-but-cant-get-into/855063/124 "2020-06-12T03:08:50Z")
I adore Pink Floyd. I have for decades. For years, everyone I knew that was a big Pink Floyd fan also really liked **Marillion**. I have always been completely unimpressed. I even went to one of their concerts and met the band. They all seemed like very nice guys. I just don’t like their music. At all. One day in the middle of the 1990s, I was accidentally exposed to [Primus](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7jnhTDg4mk). It knocked me sideways. I’ve always disliked harder rock, but Primus is something entirely different. It just spoke to me. Couldn’t begin to tell you why. I know what I like… I just don’t know why I like what I like. Lately, I have been spending entirely too much time listening to the [UOGB](https://www.ukuleleorchestra.com/). Again, no idea why… ---
**Author:** ![Ashtura](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ashtura/32/2963_2.png) [@Ashtura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashtura)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-musical-artist-you-should-love-but-cant-get-into/855063/125 "2020-06-12T14:59:17Z")
Not really. I don’t automatically love an artist of any particular genre. I will say that, if someone doesn’t stick to the sound I grew to love them for, I usually lose interest, even if I’m not against that genre. So there are a lot of bands I have loved but can’t get into any more. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-musical-artist-you-should-love-but-cant-get-into/855063/126 "2020-06-12T15:21:23Z")
As a product of my generation, I like almost all of the “Classic Rock” canon - Styx, Kansas, Tom Petty, The Eagles, so on and so on. However, Rush gives me nothing. Never has, likely never will. Further to my generation, I have never, ever, been able to tolerate punk, in any of its forms. I can _kind of_ see where the Sex Pistols were coming from, even if I didn’t necessarily dig the music. I don’t change the channel when The Clash comes on, either. But The Ramones, The Melvins, Bad Religion, Misfits, Suicidal Tendencies, etc. – none of it has ever worked for me on any level. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2020, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-musical-artist-you-should-love-but-cant-get-into/855063/127 "2020-06-15T19:44:41Z")
Agree on John Hiatt. Respect his music but his voice gets on my nerves. Foo Fighters, they are a great band and Dave Grohl seems like a good person, but I just can’t quit comparing them unfavorably to Nirvana. Nirvana had edge, had chaos. Foo Fighters is just too bland. ---
**Author:** ![BrickBat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@BrickBat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrickBat)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2020, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-musical-artist-you-should-love-but-cant-get-into/855063/128 "2020-06-15T20:14:41Z")
‘Yes’, and ELP. I was a near pariah to some for not liking the music of the above bands. It’s just me, but when it comes to rock, I just don’t care for a sound where electronic-ey keyboards are the dominant musical voice. I don’t think that makes me a philistine. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2020, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-musical-artist-you-should-love-but-cant-get-into/855063/129 "2020-06-16T02:15:14Z")
> [@lobotomyboy63](#): > > Mostly I’m not in love with his voice. > [@Joey\_P](#): > > My problem with them is, 100%, Geddy’s voice. > [@Author\_Balk](#): > > My favorites include Boston, Styx, Reo Speedwagon and Foreigner. I do not like Journey. It’s Steve Perry’s voice. > [@hogarth](#): > > His mumbly voice just turns me off. > [@minor7flat5](#): > > Why? I don’t like the whiny tone of the vocalists… Stevie Nicks’ voice gives me a headache. > [@campp](#): > > Journey. Cannot stand his voice. > [@lobotomyboy63](#): > > (I don’t love his voice but whatevs)… > Subtract out that voice and you’ve got some really good music. > [@casdave](#): > > Something in his voice a bit nasally and with a bit of fry in it too… > [@Flare4roach](#): > > His voice is too whiny to be taken seriously. > [@velomont](#): > > …[his] voice which to me is ultra whiny. Notice a pattern? What I’m building up to is that I want to yell at so many bands: “Hey! You have a whiny nasally guy, WHY have him sing lead on _every_ single song on _every album_ forever and ever? Remember The Cars? If you got bored of Rik Ocasek, you could listen to Benjamin Orr. Sick of Paul whining? Beatles had plenty of John, and even some George and a few Ringos.” A lot of my favorite bands (Dire Straits, Counting Crows, U2, AC/DC, RHCP, Bon Iver, Sabbath, Dead, Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam) have such quirky vocalists that I literally get tired of listening before one album’s over. Ok, I know that no one’s going to tell Eddie Vedder or Bono to give someone else a turn… maybe I just need to find more covers/tribute albums of my favorite artists. Or chill out and be more accepting and less annoyed… guess I’ll work on that. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2020, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-musical-artist-you-should-love-but-cant-get-into/855063/130 "2020-06-16T17:23:35Z")
The singers from the last 25 years are much worse, starting with Thomas Yorke of Radiohead. The ones you listed could, at least, pretty much stay on key. This new batch? Forget even that. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2020, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-musical-artist-you-should-love-but-cant-get-into/855063/131 "2020-06-16T17:50:24Z")
> [@digs](#): > > Notice a pattern? One thing I notice is “different strokes for different folks,” or “One man’s meat is another man’s poison.” For example, Steve Perry is considered a great vocalist by some, not without reason. And yes, I too have bands/artists where the singer’s voice seems to be the main thing keeping me from appreciating or delving into their body of work. > [@](#): > > What I’m building up to is that I want to yell at so many bands: "Hey! You have a whiny nasally guy, WHY have him sing lead on _every_ single song on _every album_ forever and ever? Well, it could be because, even if you don’t like the quality of his voice, he’s a good singer in terms of being able to hit all the notes and convey all the emotions the song calls for, or in terms of being able to consistently belt out the songs for a couple of hours and hold a crowd spellbound night after night. And, some of the worst offenders are solo artists. But, I’m totally sympathetic to this: > [@](#): > > Remember The Cars? If you got bored of Rik Ocasek, you could listen to Benjamin Orr. Sick of Paul whining? Beatles had plenty of John, and even some George and a few Ringos." > > A lot of my favorite bands (Dire Straits, Counting Crows, U2, AC/DC, RHCP, Bon Iver, Sabbath, Dead, Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam) have such quirky vocalists that I literally get tired of listening before one album’s over. And a lot of _my_ favorite bands have multiple lead vocalists. It’s a common factor I’ve noticed. (And those that don’t, often have a lead vocalist who’s very versitile, and adopts different styles and vocal personas for different songs.) If I got tired of listening before one album was over, they wouldn’t be a favorite band. ---
**Author:** ![HelenABucket](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/258eb7/32.png) [@HelenABucket](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HelenABucket)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2020, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-musical-artist-you-should-love-but-cant-get-into/855063/132 "2020-11-01T00:55:25Z")
RealityChuck, you don’t need to be high. I don’t get high, but I REALLY like the Dead. I came to them through bluegrass and jazz, especially jazz, so endless noodling doesn’t really faze me. Nobody in the band had a really great voice: One of the best Dead Head t-shirts I ever heard of said, “What has 49 and 1/2 fingers and can’t sing?” :- 😀 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-musical-artist-you-should-love-but-cant-get-into/855063.md?page=6)