Music: Most Overrated and Most Underrated Rock Band in History

[Voight]

Overrated - Beatles, Tragically Hip

Underrated - Rush

 

[TheAngryHank]

I'm annoyed that the OP called Nirvana a rock band. They killed rock and I'm still bitter about it.

That's my only contribution to this thread.

They didn't kill rock ,They killed hair bands.
They pumped loads of rock bands tires like White Zombie ect.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

Overrated - Beatles, Tragically Hip

Underrated - Rush

Tragically Hip is a great call. Masterful mediocrity.

 

[Cas]

Underrated - Rush

I think Rush's "synth" period (generally considered Signals through Hold Your Fire) is actually underrated in comparison to their "prog rock" period (Fly by Night through Moving Pictures, maybe Permanent Waves if you consider MP a transitional album), at least among many fans. Since Peart died I've been listening to Rush a lot and those "synth" albums are actually pretty high quality and possibly a necessary step away from the 70's progressive rock sound (lest it grow stale - frankly, you can only do so many 10+ minute epics).

Also underrated - Black Sabbath with Tony Martin. I can't fairly say that Black Sabbath as a whole is underrated.

Overrated - Behemoth, Burzum.

 

[BSHH]

This is a nice discussion. Thank y'all for your suggestions, although I heavily disagree with many.

The Overrated label fits perfectly for Nirvana, indeed. They were a very good band, but Cobain's suicide made them an icon for Grunge and Alternative, where I prefer Alice in Chains or Pearl Jam.

Underrated to the undeserved stage of almost unknown is a British 80ies/90ies band called The Godfathers. But to give you a more mainstream name, I say Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers. They should be considered not only as greats, but as giants.

Overrated: many

Underrated: Gun Club

That was very unexpected coming from a user with a Joy Division avatar. I cannot comment on Gun Club any further, though.

Gruß,
BSHH

 

[tarheelhockey]

So, basically, if we go back to your post about what's overrated and what's not, Miles Davis is overrated, because he's both known and has undersold? Right.

No, because he had major musical influence. Point #4 (and arguably #3) on the post referenced.

Also, cutting a 5x platinum album (which is the best seller in the history of its genre and still widely known 61 years later) isn’t a small commercial achievement. It’s just small in relation to mainstream pop sales, which was the comparison being made just then.

Miles Davis would be a really bad choice for a “most overrated” list, if only for those two reasons alone.

As for the rest, yeah I do think that (a lot of) people are groomed into easy listeners, and popcorn eaters. I don't think the teens of the late 80s had a strong argument to make towards Def Leppard, just as I don't think the kids from today fundamentally relate to Drake's music. The next big star rarely appears from the shadows, it's built and branded - yes to answer to "what they want", but what they want is also mostly a construction.

I just don’t think that’s how taste works. Sophisticated taste requires cultivation and experience. Simple tastes are more of a common baseline shared by people of any age, education, background, etc.

Pop music is popular mainly because it’s accessible to anyone with the slightest inclination toward beat and melody. Avant grade genres are less popular mainly because they’re inaccessible to people who lack a serious musical background, and thus come across as “noise” to an untrained ear more often than not. I really don’t believe that people’s natural state is to listen to avant garde jazz, and that they need to be trained down into accepting Drake as an artificial substitute for enjoying themselves. I can see the appeal of that argument for fans of jazz, but it doesn’t accord with observable behavior.

 

[ManwithNoIdentity]

This is a nice discussion. Thank y'all for your suggestions, although I heavily disagree with many.

The Overrated label fits perfectly for Nirvana, indeed. They were a very good band, but Cobain's suicide made them an icon for Grunge and Alternative, where I prefer Alice in Chains or Pearl Jam.

Underrated to the undeserved stage of almost unknown is a British 80ies/90ies band called The Godfathers. But to give you a more mainstream name, I say Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers. They should be considered not only as greats, but as giants.


That was very unexpected coming from a user with a Joy Division avatar. I cannot comment on Gun Club any further, though.

Gruß,
BSHH

Completely disagree about nirvana but will agree that Kurts untimely death (which I won’t get into at the risk of being called a conspiracy theorist) definitely elevated him to an completely status, Nevermind was a huge pop culture landmark and signaled a huge turn into history

They didn't kill rock ,They killed hair bands.
They pumped loads of rock bands tires like White Zombie ect.

Yep. And even as a huge 80’s glam rock fan, it wasn’t a bad thing

Overrated - Beatles, Tragically Hip

Underrated - Rush

How is Rush underrated?

I'm not big on overrated/underrated, but the one band I've never understood the hype for is Fleetwood Mac. They have one good album - and even then, it's a real mixed bag.

Conpletely loathe the terms underrated and overrated, as badly as some around here hate the term generational

 

[Osprey]

They didn't kill rock ,They killed hair bands.

Same thing to me. No hair, don't care.

They pumped loads of rock bands tires like White Zombie ect.

Apparently not enough, since I have no clue who that is.

 

[tarheelhockey]

There is a great clickhole piece about this. You should read it. I Am The New Person You Have To Know About Now



I wonder if there's a reason why it's this way. Maybe you can reflect and get back to me.

The Clickhole piece is actually pretty infantile. I know it’s satire, and I’m not here to stan for Meghan Trainor of all people, but in January 2015 she was a really bad target for a hit piece implying that her success was arbitrary and pre-determined. I’m guessing the (anonymous) author didn’t take the extra moment to really consider how that line of argument would apply to a chubby woman singing a doo-wop style after working her way up as a songwriter in the Nashville scene after landing a full ride to Berkelee. And I’m guessing the reason the author didn’t bother thinking it all the way through, is because they judged her just as superficially as they’re assuming the record company did.

 

[Shareefruck]

Krautrock as a whole (or even just those three core bands that define the sound) is well recognized but still underrated, IMO. I'd give them the bulk of the credit for coming up with ambient, punk, and electronic (even though other pioneers basically get all the credit for them), and it's got my favorite/most immediately satisfying sound of any genre, personally. If you think of rock history as this pendulum that swings wildly from one extreme to another, each time overcorrecting from the previous thing and having its own set of flaws, Krautrock is where I would want that pendulum to optimally end up. Feels like it combines the best qualities of a ton of genres while side-stepping their shortcomings, and while feeling minimal instead of bloated.

 

[TheAngryHank]

Same thing to me. No hair, don't care.


Apparently not enough, since I have no clue who that is.

Lovely hair

 

[Spring in Fialta]

I find it hard to accept "overrated" as a label for the most commercially successful bands in the world. The basic purpose of being a musician in the public sphere is to entertain, which is quantified by how many people put their money down in order to be entertained.

A working definition of "overrated" might be a band who:

• most people on the street would recognize the name, but would be unable to name or sing one of their songs
• didn't have any special commercial impact, compared to what you expect from a household-name band
• didn't have any broad or long-lasting influence on mainstream music
• didn't have a foundational or game-changing influence on their own genre (i.e. the genre would still have existed and sounded pretty much the same if this band had never existed)
• Has little appeal for people who aren't devotees of their specific genre

I'd nominate Anthrax as a band that ticks all those boxes.

The moment I read this post I knew the thread would blow up. It has not let me down.

 

[Roo Returns]

This is a very interesting thread. I agree with what @tarheelhockey said in that there has to be a difference between a group not striking the right chord with you and actually being overrated.

I'm not a big Bruce Springsteen fan. I just don't get it. But he's sold a lot of records and influenced a lot of people.

Overrated is a very general thing. Do you mean like technically they weren't very good players? Or just you find them boring? Or do you think people kiss their behinds ("cough" Weezer "cough") when they're simple or boring?

Two bands I'm going to defend as I don't get how they fit the above criteria are Led Zeppelin and Nirvana. Led Zeppelin hit all the checkmarks. All those guys could play, songwriting, hit records, changing the genre. I mean, you literally have 1/3 of the origins of hip hop with John Bonham beats being sampled (James Brown, Bob James, John Bonham).

The whole "oh they ripped off blues musicians" that's a weak argument. You can make a case for parts of the first three records, but by the time they got to IV, that was mostly a thing of the past. The Beatles ended, Hendrix, Morrison, and Joplin all passed away. Led Zeppelin, The Who, and The Allman Brothers were essentially the three biggest bands in the world in the early 70s.

If you take one thing away from this post here's this: the most "controversial" young rock band now Greta Van Fleet takes a lot of crap for sounding too much like Zeppelin.

Nirvana...y'all must be young. I'm in my late-30s. They literally changed music overnight. There was before Smells Like Teen Spirit, and after. Any of the 80s residue was finished by October 1991. Kurt Cobain was not Yngwie Malmesteen, but he was a songwriter. You can make the argument that Nirvana finished what Jane's Addiction/The Pixies started, but in some ways Green Day was in the right place right time and took over for Nirvana not musically but figuratively (catchy trio who can write great hooks). I do agree Dave Grohl's media presence the last 3-4 years is too much. But you can't take away what he did with Nirvana.


So back to over and underrated, I'll take a crack and explain why.

Overrated:

-Dire Straits (other than Knopfler musically uninteresting and they only had two big albums the later was over produced 80s)
-Huey Lewis and The News (other than being a joke in American Psycho, they had like three hits maybe?)
-Hum (I actually like them and their new album but they fall into the Weezer category for me. Not enough material that was influential. Too few albums).
-Jimmy Buffet (is he even rock?)
-Stone Roses (One excellent and one very good album, but that's it. And Second Coming is essentially the musical version of Ghostbusters II/Predator II where it's 50/50 the fanbase will write essays defending it, or thinking it's nonsense).
-New Year's Day (one good album with a lot of potential and they turned it into a Hot Topic industrial meets trap featuring only the lead singer who is not particularly strong).
Underrated:

-Duran Duran (they get labelled a boy band when in fact they are all very talented musicians and have enough material to back it up in every decade)
-Converge (maybe the greatest hardcore-crossover metal band of all-time)
-Roxy Music (not big in the States)
-Rory Gallagher (success everywhere even in the States during his day but seems to have been forgotten)
-Harry Nillson (songwriting hero)
-Sparks (how long have the been around?)
-Killing Joke (besides being extremely influential, they had a lot more commercial success even in the 90s than people remember).
-Cornershop (Brit Pop heroes that do have a large body of work).
-Killswitch Engage (the poster child for how to be a successful band in the post MTV Era).
-311 (they have a lot more fans and a lot more hit records than meets the eye).

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Lovely hair

I love this song!

 

[Roo Returns]

I love this song!

White Zombie was the weirdest band. They remind me a lot of The B-52s or Green Day in that they had technical limitations, but were able to write some really catchy songs.

Anything on La Sexorcisto or Astro Creep is miles better than Rob's solo stuff.

 

[Osprey]

Lovely hair

Ah, yes, the lovely "I haven't washed my hair in a year" look that must've been the inspiration for this:

 

[WetcoastOrca]

For the most part overrated means bands you don’t like and underrated means bands you like but you feel they didn’t get as much recognition. It’s so subjective that I don’t think I can really give an answer.
I can tell you lots of popular bands I don’t like and lots of bands I like who weren’t as commercially successful as I think they should have been. But I’m not sure that makes any of them overrated or underrated.

 

[Smelling Salt]

-Huey Lewis and The News (other than being a joke in American Psycho, they had like three hits maybe?)

Damn dude give Huey some respect they had more like 15 top 40 hits

 

[Mikeaveli]

Love them, but I'd say they're kind of overrated by a certain crowd. They only have one album, and it's pretty uneven (the highs are way up there though).

I don't think being highly regarded by a small group stops them from being underrated in general. This also applies to groups like Can, Sweet Trip, Fishmans, etc.

As for the album, it's one of the best of the 60s IMO and that's enough to make them one of my favourite bands of that decade. The same goes for The Zombies with Odessey and Oracle (although they do have some earlier singles I like as well).

 

[tarheelhockey]

Damn dude give Huey some respect they had more like 15 top 40 hits

Damn, I wouldn't have thought that was true off the top of my head but it sure does check out.

Interesting case where thinking they're overrated might mean you've underrated them

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

I don't think being highly regarded by a small group stops them from being underrated in general. This also applies to groups like Can, Sweet Trip, Fishmans, etc.

As for the album, it's one of the best of the 60s IMO and that's enough to make them one of my favourite bands of that decade. The same goes for The Zombies with Odessey and Oracle (although they do have some earlier singles I like as well).

Love the album too, but it didn't make the cut of my top-10 from the 60s! In fact, I had it at #9 for 1968 alone, but what a great year it was, maybe the best ever (flashback to a great project that was abandoned (!!) by @Saturated Fats ;-) )

 

[NyQuil]

Damn dude give Huey some respect they had more like 15 top 40 hits

Huey Lewis and the News was my very first concert.

Yes I was with my parents, but it counts!

Basically one of the most successful bar bands of all-time.

 

[MakeTheGoalsLarger]

Overrated:
Radiohead (music critics who listened to too much music in their lifetime find them unique, hence they enjoy them, but I think they don't deserve that much success)

Megadeth: I feel like 90% of the attention they get is because of the fact that Dave Mustaine was once a member of Metallica

Underrated:

The Monkees. Yeah the dudes we saw on TV didn't write the stuff and didn't play much of the music, but the whole collective of people who worked on their records deserve more praise.

 

[Jumptheshark]

overrated

Cold Play and Radiohead

 

[Shareefruck]

I feel like the "uniqueness" of Radiohead is overstated and the plain satisfaction of their music is understated, personally. Feels like they borrowed a lot of their uniqueness from other artists that were way more unique than they were, but did it in a way that feels fuller, maybe with higher production value, and easier to grab onto, but not necessarily better.