# Why is Kenny G so hated? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 12, 2003, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-kenny-g-so-hated/212883 "2003-11-12T19:40:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2013, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-kenny-g-so-hated/212883/61 "2013-02-02T21:12:50Z")
> [@Doomtrain](#): > > My grocery store plays the oddest stuff. One day it’s 80s music, the next it’s classic soul (which lets me practice doing that one-step-and-clap thing the backup singers do), the next it’s country. > > And Kenny G sucks. When I worked at the local Safeway as a bagger, back in 1985, I had to listen to Kenny G type Muzak over the speakers every day. They no longer play that kind of music, but it didn’t really hit me how much had changed until a couple years ago, when I was doing my shopping and realized I was hearing to Black Sabbath’s _Paranoid_. The original version, not a toned-down cover. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2013, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-kenny-g-so-hated/212883/62 "2013-02-02T21:39:52Z")
Kenny G sounds like a zombie. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2013, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-kenny-g-so-hated/212883/63 "2013-02-02T21:58:15Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > Kenny G sounds like a zombie. A no-talent zombie, at that. ---
**Author:** ![Aquadementia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aquadementia/32/555_2.png) [@Aquadementia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aquadementia)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2013, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-kenny-g-so-hated/212883/64 "2013-02-02T23:52:03Z")
It shouldn’t be a surprise that Kenny G isn’t liked, not if you’ve listened to him. The surprise is that he was so wildly popular in the first place. It’s hard to imagine people going “That David Sanborn is nice, but I need two copies of the latest Kenny G. One for home and car each, so I don’t have to go a minute with out those ear piercing tones.” It makes one wonder if there was some sort of conspiracy. Like Columbia House kept sending people Kenny G records month after month, laughing manically, knowing there was nothing they could do about, all the while driving up Kenny’s sales numbers. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-kenny-g-so-hated/212883/65 "2013-02-03T00:53:58Z")
I’m not a music person (meaning that my CD collection is about 18 CDs total, and I have about 5 gb of MP3/AAC files, including those CDs), and while I’m not exactly a fan of Kenny G, I don’t hate on him like everyone else does. He seems to fill a certain void in relatively inoffensive instrumental music that’s handy for the same uses that Muzak is, except in his case, it’s sort of original-ish by comparison. By that, I mean that Muzak in my experience is almost always instrumental covers of pop songs or show tunes. So when you’re confronted with studio musicians playing smooth instrumental covers of “California Love” (swear to God!) or “Colors of the Wind”, I suppose by comparison Kenny G may stand out as being somewhat interesting, or at least that’s the way I always thought about it. Still don’t understand the Top 40 love for him in the late 80s though. He always seemed like something that should be played in waiting rooms, bathrooms and elevators to me. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-kenny-g-so-hated/212883/66 "2013-02-03T01:02:21Z")
The wife likes Kenny G. I got her a video of him playing some of his music once, and it was interspersed with an interview. One remark he made cracked me up. This was back when Dudley Moore was still alive, and Moore was a fair musician himself. Seems he called up Kenny G one day and invited him over to his house to jam. And Kenny G said, apparently in all seriousness: “When Dudley Moore calls, you go!” I mean, come on! “When the American President calls, you go!” “When the Queen of England calls, you go!” “When the Pope calls, you go!” Those I could understand. But … Dudley Moore? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Aquadementia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aquadementia/32/555_2.png) [@Aquadementia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aquadementia)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-kenny-g-so-hated/212883/67 "2013-02-03T01:17:27Z")
To tell the truth, Dudley Moore was probably more fun to hang out with then the President, Pope or Queen. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-kenny-g-so-hated/212883/68 "2013-02-03T02:21:33Z")
What’s the big deal with Kenny G “recording” a song with a dead singer? Don’t other artists do this from time to time? ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-kenny-g-so-hated/212883/69 "2013-02-03T04:04:53Z")
His newest album: _Kenny G Sucks For Another Decade!_ ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-kenny-g-so-hated/212883/70 "2013-02-03T04:18:56Z")
[Here is the complete text of Pat Metheny’s diatribe against Kenny](http://www.jazzoasis.com/methenyonkennyg.htm). He also doesn’t like him because he’s a bad musician. > [@](#): > > I first heard him a number of years ago playing as a sideman with Jeff Lorber… He had major rhythmic problems and his harmonic and melodic vocabulary was extremely limited, mostly to pentatonic based and blues-lick derived patterns, and he basically exhibited only a rudimentary understanding of how to function as a professional soloist in an ensemble - Lorber was basically playing him off the bandstand in terms of actual music. > > … But he did show a knack for connecting to the basest impulses of the large crowd by deploying his two or three most effective licks (holding long notes and playing fast runs - never mind that there were lots of harmonic clams in them) at the key moments to elicit a powerful crowd reaction (over and over again). The other main thing I noticed was that he also, as he does to this day, played horribly out of tune - consistently sharp. > > … we see that his saxophone style is in fact clearly in the tradition of the kind of playing that most reasonably objective listeners WOULD normally quantify as being jazz. It’s just that as jazz or even as music in a general sense, with these standards in mind, it is simply not up to the level of playing that we historically associate with professional improvising musicians. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-kenny-g-so-hated/212883/71 "2013-02-03T04:36:41Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > [Here is the complete text of Pat Metheny’s diatribe against Kenny](http://www.jazzoasis.com/methenyonkennyg.htm). He also doesn’t like him because he’s a bad musician. Harsh, if probably fair. But interesting to me for entirely tangential point, because I had no idea Larry Coryell had dubbed himself over Wes Montgomery. I haven’t listened to Coryell in years, if not decades, but he was once my gateway into fusion ( which I don’t listen to anymore either ) along with John McLaughlin. It is rather disappointing to hear about that, as it does seem to be in questionable taste and kind of egotistic/narcissistic. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_E.Nixon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8491ac/32.png) [@Richard\_E.Nixon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_E.Nixon)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-kenny-g-so-hated/212883/72 "2013-02-03T05:19:44Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Hilarious? Pathetic is more like it. > > First of all, it’s NOT as if Kenny G sullied Louis Armstrong’s legacy by adding his sax work to “What a Wonderful World.” Maybe if Kenny had added his sax to one of Armstrong’s early, seminal jazz jams, THAT would be sacreligious. But “What a Wonderful World” is NOT a cutting-edge jazz song. It’s a mainstream, maudlin, saccharine pop tune. Kenny G didn’t water it down, sentimentalize it or turn it mushy- it was ALREADY watered down, sentimental and mushy! Not everything Louis Armstrong did was innovative jazz. Not all of it was jazz, period! > > As for Pat Metheny himself… well, Metheny isn’t exactly a cutting-edge, avant-garde jazz musician, either. I hear his stuff around the house all the time, because my wife is a big fan of mellow jaz, and frankly, I consider Pat Metheny at LEAST as big a wuss as Kenny G. Metheny’s music is at LEAST as elevator-friendly as Kenny G’s! So, to me, the idea that Paty Metheny is some kind of idealist, defending pure jazz from people who want to turn it into watered-down pap is little short of hilarious. Fact is, Metheny’s audience is largely the same kind of people who like Kenny G- people likie my wife! Metheny undoubtedly knows that, and it probably drives him bonkers. Serves him right! > > Metheny is a bitter, jealous hypocrite. Nothing more, nothing less. > Commander Cody said, long ago, “There’s only one thing worse than selling out- selling out and not getting bought.” Pat Metheny has been TRYING to make a record as wimpy and as commercially successful as “Songbird” his whole life. He just hasn’t been able to pull it off! That doesn’t make him “purer” than Kenny G, it just makes him an UNSUCCESSFUL sellout. > > I don’t much like Kenny G, but I grant him this: I’ve been to one of his live shows, and while I wasn’t impressed by his music or technique, I saw about 5,000 women screaming as if they were watching the Beatles in 1964! His music isn’t my cup of tea at all, but there’s no denying, the man has SOMETHING that drives women wild. And every man who got to take one of those women home was undoubtedly VERY grateful to Kenny later that night! > > When Pat Metheny can do that, I’ll care what he thinks! Women will scream over Scott Peterson and the Menendez brothers. ---
**Author:** ![GreenElf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@GreenElf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenElf)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-kenny-g-so-hated/212883/73 "2013-02-03T07:17:14Z")
Another common denominator between Kenny G, Yanni and Michael Bolton is the poodle hairdo, the sex symbol status among fans, and the famous first names (such as Oprah, Sting, Madonna). All of these invite criticism even without a cognoscenti’s evaluation of the music itself. ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-kenny-g-so-hated/212883/74 "2013-02-03T08:46:48Z")
I’m glad this thread came back when it did. I have a friend who’s a jazz professor and is turning 60 next month. Now I know what to get him. ---
**Author:** ![Headrush042](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a5b964/32.png) [@Headrush042](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Headrush042)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-kenny-g-so-hated/212883/75 "2013-02-03T09:07:54Z")
I don’t care for any of the musicians discussed in the OP either (neither now, nor back in 2003), but I do love me some John Tesh. Not his music, mind you, I’d rather have a jackhammer on the street corner in the background; no, it’s the fist pump. It never fails to make me giggle. ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-kenny-g-so-hated/212883/76 "2013-02-03T13:53:13Z")
> [@Indygrrl](#): > > Kenny G is the Thomas Kincaide of jazz. I came in here to say Kenny G is the Ned Flanders of jazz. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-kenny-g-so-hated/212883/77 "2013-02-03T15:00:43Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > [Here is the complete text of Pat Metheny’s diatribe against Kenny](http://www.jazzoasis.com/methenyonkennyg.htm). He also doesn’t like him because he’s a bad musician. Poor Kenny. He’s probably crying all the way to the bank. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-kenny-g-so-hated/212883/78 "2013-02-03T15:41:05Z")
> [@bump](#): > > He seems to fill a certain void . . . So does fiberglass insulation. Doesn’t mean it’s not irritating when you come in contact with it. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-kenny-g-so-hated/212883/79 "2013-02-03T15:41:26Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Poor Kenny. He’s probably crying all the way to the bank. Sure, he can dry his eyes with thousand-dollar bills but it would still suck to be disrespected by other musicians to the degree he is. Look at Thomas Kincaide and how pathetic and miserable his life ended up being. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-kenny-g-so-hated/212883/80 "2013-02-03T16:25:48Z")
He’s a surprisingly good golfer-- something like a 1 handicap. Not that I’ll be looking for him, but I’ll probably see him in Carmel this week at the AT&T. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-kenny-g-so-hated/212883.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-kenny-g-so-hated/212883.md?page=5)