tarheelhockey
Offside Review Specialist
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:
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