Music: What are your most overrated songs?

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana

 

[Rodgerwilco]

A kind of awful baker's dozen off the top of my head:

Halleujah, Leonard Cohen
Creep, Radiohead
Hotel California, The Eagles
Shout, Tears for Fears
Bitter Sweet Symphony, The Verve
Moon Dance, Van Morrison
Sweet Home, Alabama, Lynyrd Skynyrd
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road--Elton John

Generational list.

The fact that Creep became Radiohead’s most popular song despite being one of their lamest is almost criminal.

Not sure how Hotel California slipped my mind.

 

[frisco]

Beat It
Sweet Child O' Mine
Layla
Satisfaction
Paradise City
Welcome To The Jungle
Most Beatles
Most Beach Boys
Maggie May
Lola

My Best-Carey

 

[Spring in Fialta]

I love Yesterday because it gave way to one of the oddest videos of all-time. I still don't get what the hell this is. Hell of a whistler, though.

 

[Hockey Outsider]

Putting "Hallowed Be Thy Name" has to be some kind of blasphemy, and it's not a bad song by any means, with Bruce's vocals being quite good, the lyrics emotional and impactful, and the musicianship also good, but I think the song is just lacking something. "Run to the Hills" is also pretty overplayed, but I think I'd rather listen to it than "Hallowed..." Of course, I don't think Iron Maiden ever topped the two Di'Anno albums.

Maiden is my favourite band, and I agree that "Hallowed" is overrated. The revelation that it was (partly) plagiarized hurts its status. Also, the band's signature song should be more challenging/interesting on the bass. Still, I'd take it over "Run to the Hills", which has a cloying chorus; the band has a bunch of high-speed galloping songs that I prefer.

I don't know of anyone who actually listens to Judas Priest extensively who really likes "Breaking the Law," but I feel like its their signature song, largely for image reasons.

It's a great song, but Priest's catalogue is so varied, it's hard to choose one definitive song that appeals to everyone. Lots of ground covered between this, "Painkiller", "Victim of Changes", "Turbo Lover" and "Run of the Mill" (which are all excellent songs).

"Dead Skin Mask" is just awful, but I think it was a live staple for some unfathomable reason.

It's creepy, but far from their best. I don't see the appeal either.

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb

Sorry, its overrated. The solo especially so.

They have so many songs that are infinitely better like Learning to Fly

 

[Oxbow Lakes]

Kanye West - Runaway
Björk - Joga
Danny Brown - Ain’t It Funny
Black Sabbath - Paranoid
Nas - It Ain’t Hard to Tell
Stooges - I Wanna Be Your Dog
The Doors - Light My Fire
Radiohead - No Surprises
Smashing Pumpkins - Today
Jay Z - 99 Problems
A Tribe Called Quest - Check the Rhime
Clipse - Grindin’
Metallica - Master of Puppets

I dunno, just went off my head. All of these aren’t exactly hits or anything, but their reception among the listeners just sorta baffle me - even if I really like the song itself. The songs I underlined are really the ones I never care to listen, pretty much.

What’s up with the ’slander’ of ”(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”? ”War Pigs” got mentioned as well? Man…

 

[peate]

Overrated to some is a masterpiece to others. Stairway is definitely overplayed but far from overrated. Ask any professional musician with experience. Most will tell you it's a great piece.

Overrated? Anything by AC-DC.

 

[WetcoastOrca]

What’s up with the ’slander’ of ”(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”? ”War Pigs” got mentioned as well? Man…

I’m with you there. One of my favourite Stones’ songs. I always smile at the part:

‘When I'm watching my TV
And a man comes on and tells me
How white my shirts can be
Well he can't be a man 'cause he doesn't smoke
The same cigarettes as me
I can't get no, oh no, no, no
Hey, hey, hey, that's what I say’

 

[reckoning]

You know that scene in that movie when the DJ plays "Bohemian Rhapsody" and all those negative reviews start filling up the screen? I thought most of those quotes were right on the money. Especially the one about it being pompous.

My runner-up would be "Whole Lotta Plagiarizing" by Led Zeppelin. It's a mystery to me why so many consider it to be their signature song. I think it's one of the most boring ones in their catalogue. They've had dozens of songs that were much better.

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

Part of the reason the Beatles end up on a lot of these lists is because they are overplayed.

It's like the song Lightning Crashes by Live.

Hearing it 10,000 times kind of skews your opinion.

That could be the case with others, but personally if I love a song I don’t get tired of hearing it.

The fascination with the Beatles has always perplexed me, but to each their own.

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

Any Smashing Pumpkins song

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Lots of hot takes on The Beatles in here...

 

[Shareefruck]

That could be the case with others, but personally if I love a song I don’t get tired of hearing it.

The fascination with the Beatles has always perplexed me, but to each their own.

Completely agreed. Something good becoming bad because it gets overplayed isn't a real thing, in my view (or if it is, only to a degree that never actually gets tested in practice, like if you literally got strapped to a chair and got pummeled with it 24/7 or something). It's more that the things that become tiresome on repeat listens because they're built around catchiness tend to be the things that become overplayed, but how easily they become tiresome is also kind of indicative of their warts/limited quality to begin with (or potentially the listener's total ignorance too, I guess). To me, the whole "I love this the first time but like it less and less on subsequent listens" thing isn't the expected norm, it's just indicative of getting swept up in hype and slowly realizing what something actually was all along over time when held under greater scrutiny.

That said, I absolutely love The Beatles-- I just think the big McCartney crowd-pleasing home run ballads are among their weaker material, personally. But they've done excellent things outside of those that more than make up for them.

 

[Roo Returns]

Bohemian Rhapsody is not overrated. It just was played a lot especially after Wayne's World and the Queen movie when everyone became a Queen poser for six months.

Any real music fan and real Queen fans know that The Prophet Song > Bohemian Rhapsody

I'd say Adelle's singles are very overrated. Overplayed and just too much.

Also Just The Way You Are by Bruno Mars and any of John Mayer's dumb singles. Both musicians are much better.

RHCP are my favorite group but I do not like Dani California for about five reasons. The video was more fun than the song and they have about ten radio singles I can roll off that are much better both before and after.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

There's no artist whose face seems to match their style and sensibilities as much as Paul McCartney. He looks schmaltzy and smarmy and bubblegum.

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

Completely agreed. Something good becoming bad because it gets overplayed isn't a real thing, in my view (or if it is, only to a degree that never actually gets tested in practice, like if you literally got strapped to a chair and got pummeled with it 24/7 or something). It's more that the things that become tiresome on repeat listens because they're built around catchiness tend to be the things that become overplayed, but how easily they become tiresome is also kind of indicative of their warts/limited quality to begin with (or potentially the listener's total ignorance too, I guess). To me, the whole "I love this the first time but like it less and less on subsequent listens" thing isn't the expected norm, it's just indicative of getting swept up in hype and slowly realizing what something actually was all along over time when held under greater scrutiny.

That said, I absolutely love The Beatles-- I just think the big McCartney crowd-pleasing home run ballads are among their weaker material, personally. But they've done excellent things outside of those that more than make up for them.

Exactly.

The first album I ever bought was Songs From the Big Chair as a kid and I still never get tired of Shout and Head Over Heels, and I have easily heard them both thousands of times.

I can play a song I love ten times in a row and still want to hear it an 11th time.

Now if I just enjoy a song and don’t really love it, then ya, I would get annoyed after hearing it a few times in a row.

For me, that’s the difference when I truly love a song, I just don’t get tired of it - it becomes timeless for me.

Lots of hot takes on The Beatles in here...

Unless someone just heard the Beatles for the first time and hated them, it’s not exactly a hot take to dislike a band that was around 60 years ago...

It’s tiresome to hear how innovative they were when they “borrowed” so heavily from musicians like Chuck Berry.

I just find them extremely overrated and no one has ever been able to convince me otherwise.

Music is all individual to each of us and it’s impossible to make your mind work like another’s mind.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Unless someone just heard the Beatles for the first time and hated them, it’s not exactly a hot take to dislike a band that was around 60 years ago...

Maybe it's my English again, but I thought a hot take was just a shallow and consciously provocative argument.

Cambridge: a piece of writing or speech, especially on the internet, giving someone's personal opinions about a topic, usually strong opinions that have not been carefully thought about and that many people are likely to disagree with

 

[Spring in Fialta]

Maybe it's my English again, but I thought a hot take was just a shallow and consciously provocative argument.

Cambridge: a piece of writing or speech, especially on the internet, giving someone's personal opinions about a topic, usually strong opinions that have not been carefully thought about and that many people are likely to disagree with

I truly mean no offense, but this always happens when The Beatles get brought up around here. Save for my irreverent quip regarding Paul McCartney, what's been said about The Beatles that's so outrageous?

 

[tacogeoff]

easily most of the Beatles hits. They are the backstreet boys of the 60s.

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

Maybe it's my English again, but I thought a hot take was just a shallow and consciously provocative argument.

Cambridge: a piece of writing or speech, especially on the internet, giving someone's personal opinions about a topic, usually strong opinions that have not been carefully thought about and that many people are likely to disagree with

From dictionary.com:

a piece of commentary, typically produced quickly in response to a recent event, whose primary purpose is to attract attention.

Beatles had been around since before most of us were born, and I assume most of us commenting on them haven’t heard them for the first time.

My opinion on them has been formed over many decades of hearing them since I was a child.

 

[Ceremony]

Bohemian Rhapsody and anything by the Beatles

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

I truly mean no offense, but this always happens when The Beatles get brought up around here. Save for my irreverent quip regarding Paul McCartney, what's been said about The Beatles that's so outrageous?

None taken, don't worry (I'd be very unhappy if I were to be offended because people don't share my tastes). As for the hot takes, what about "Any song by the Beatles [is overrated]... except Yellow Submarine"? or Yesterday as the most overrated song ever? But now that I posted about hot takes, people want their share of the spotlight: "easily most of the Beatles hits. They are the backstreet boys of the 60s" or "anything by the Beatles". I get it that people need to feel different, but I mean, getting a tattoo in the face might look less dumb.

 

[Shareefruck]

Maybe it's my English again, but I thought a hot take was just a shallow and consciously provocative argument.

Cambridge: a piece of writing or speech, especially on the internet, giving someone's personal opinions about a topic, usually strong opinions that have not been carefully thought about and that many people are likely to disagree with

Welp, I certainly haven't been using that phrase correctly. I've been describing all my unpopular opinions as hot takes, even the ones that I've thought deeply about alot.

 

[Shareefruck]

I like that these two posts are back to back.

I truly mean no offense, but this always happens when The Beatles get brought up around here. Save for my irreverent quip regarding Paul McCartney, what's been said about The Beatles that's so outrageous?

easily most of the Beatles hits. They are the backstreet boys of the 60s.