To be honest? AC/DC; they’ve got plenty of good songs but plenty of duds as well. It’s pretty much become one of those bands that if you ask someone, who’s wearing their tshirt what their favourite song/album is, they either won’t be able to give you an answer, or pick a really obvious one (most likely either Highway to Hell or Hell’s Bells).
It’s the same with Metallica and, to a lesser extent, Iron Maiden.
Agreed.
I mean, I felt like AC/DC focused more on brand recognition when Brian Johnson took over after Bon Scott died. Their music were aiming for radio appeal, not that no musician should because it means being successful, but it almost was formulaic. Thunderstruck for example, became a staple for sports soundtracks and stadium like events.
And they’re a victim of their own success as you’ve talked here, where someone who didn’t grow up with the band, will only focus on the popular songs. Despite them having grown up with at least a couple albums that AC/DC did release, like their last album ‘Power Up’ was in 2020. It’s the same deal with Nirvana, always wearing that double-X smiley shirt or having the poster and only saying they cared about Nevermind. The same for Guns 'N Roses where it’s always both of the Appetite for Destruction albums and songs like Welcome to the Jungle and November Rain.
I think it honestly just speaks about a fan’s depth as to how much they like bands. An actual fan likes a band and addresses both flaw and success. A casual fan only likes what was popular and nothing else for cheap nods.
Aiming for radio appeal and catering to the masses is ok, as long as you do it from the start.
Every musician/band I know of that changed their sound to be more radio friendly has given up their own sound.
The first example that comes to mind would be Kevin Parker; the first two Tame Impala albums are amazing, but since then he went full pop. It worked for a few songs, but recently his features in other songs were better than his own stuff (i.e. New Gold by Gorillaz and Neverender by Justice) IMO.
As far as AC/DC goes, I grew up with Black Ice, which is a decent album (albeit a bit bloated) but nothing I would necessarily would want to revisit any time soon. Pretty much all of their (popular) stuff sounds so big, yet lacks real depth in my opinion.
Metallica for sure as a 42 year old I’m a fan of them or to be specific I’m a fan of 2 albums, justice for all and the black album. I never stood the long-term appeal of them. I have a friend who is the same age as me who is a diehard fan of Metallica they kind of remind me of the next generation kiss. And also on top of that, they helped destroy Napster.
Kill"em All?
I obviously never met any of them but the band itself just comes across as a bunch of douchebags, especially James Hetfield.
Imagine Dragons, ugh, music designed for car commercials and 8th graders, fucking rip my ear drums out.
I’d just add that I think part of their popularity comes from their “safe” image. You put on an Imagine Dragons song, you know you’re getting a pretty apolitical “pop-rock” song, not like those dumb hippies from the 70s or those indie-rock losers. Which I think sucks, to be clear.
whats wrong with imagine dragons?
They only seem to release music if they think it’ll do nothing but make major success through radio and appease record labels.
See their song ‘Thunder’.
Smashing pumpkins. Booooooring. And Billy is an ass.
The Ramones. If ever a band deserved to be a 1-hit wonder, this is it.
Sleep Token.
And I’m not saying that because they’re currently popular. But I’m just about done with gimmicky pretentious bands like them. All of their songs are almost 10 minutes long too. Not listening to that. President recently did debut last year but all of that hype amounted to a wet fart.
I really really loved their old stuff but I can’t even sit through their latest albums. super disappointing honestly
sundowning was the last solid thing they put out imo
Sleep token is the precursor to ai music.
I cant stand it myself.
Well easy answer is Taylor Swift, she’s a fine singer but not amazing, samey lyrics, like the McDonald’s of music. Is she a band? Idk. Agree with KISS.
It sounds like you don’t like pop music. 1989 is an objectively good album. I don’t know anything else about any of her other music, but that single album is DENSE with well executed main stream pop.
Having said that, should tickets to see her be as expensive as they are? Should people be as obsessed with her as they are? No on both counts.
I think they should be upfront with people that when they go to her concert, they’re not hearing her sing live, at least most of the time, and they are not hearing the band play live.
It should be obvious that no singer could do several 3-hour shows a week for more than a year, and not have it affect her voice.
Just check out the Wings of Pegasus YouTube channel, to see where two different concerts in different countries had exactly the same music (vocal and instrumental).
I know several people who spent thousands of dollars to see her in concert. I’m not going to go out of my way to ruin the memory for them. They got the experience they wanted. But I’m also not going to pretend that it was a musical experience.
I like a lot of pop music, mostly synth pop, Pet Shop Boys, Erasure, Duran Duran, Depeche Mode, Hall and Oates, Billy Ocean, Howard Jones, Michael Jackson (yea). I listened to the album, it’s definitely well produced and catchy but I didn’t hear anything new at all, it’s very formulaic, which is fine for pop music of course but she’s definitely not doing anything new or exciting so I don’t get the hype at all. It’s good pop music sure, but filling stadiums? People flying around the world? I dunno. It’s more a cult of personality.
Ghost. It’s just not metal. You can be into it and I’m not going to judge you or anything, but just stop calling it metal, it’s arena rock. Sticking feathers up your ass doesn’t make you a chicken.
Its arena rock for sure, but they put on a damn good show and dont use any backing tracks, so much much respect compared to all the fake ass bands nowadays !
Same thing with Avril Lavigne when she first came out I remember a lot of people on TV as well in my personal life would call her the queen of punk no, she is not punk just because somebody wears leather arm guards and has a shitty attitude doesn’t make you punk.
You just don’t get it, man, punk isn’t about rebellion, community, individualism, and anti-authoritarianism, it’s about wearing ties with wifebeaters and singing about boys!
Now I’m gonna sing about a sk8er boy and sell t-shirts at hot topic.
That’s #punkasfuck
Metal does not always need to be about screaming lyrics, fast-paced instrumentals and catchy solos and riffs. It comes in a lot of forms. If you were expecting Ghost to be yet another band where the vocalist is barking lyrics or wailing them whichever, the instrumental to be just plain heavy, then yeah I can see why you’re disappointed.
Also Arena-Rock is quite frankly a more horrible thing to classify them as. They just simply don’t fit that mold whereas Journey would.
It’s not metal. It’s definitely arena rock.
If anyone says Rush, I will find you…oh yes, I will find you.
Rush.
(Just saying that so you pop by, and we can listen to some Rush together, maybe also some Yes, Hawkwind, Floyd, King Crimson, Jethro Tull, early Deep Purple, Uriah Heep, Dream Theater, Fleetwood Mac, and Golden Earing’s Radar Love.)
Count me in, thats a great lineup
I’ll say Rush, too, if it can get me in on this action.
Not really able to be overrated anymore as you’ll be hard pressed to find an under 30 who even knows them.
But also its impossible for them to be overrated ;)
Rush is goddamn terrible. Every song changes tempo 12 times so the drummer can show off.
The Pass changes tempo?
Now tool, it can get trippy and complex. But rush has 19 albums and theyre all pretty different, not a lot of them are actually that proggy.
Coldplay.
Their music doesn’t move me in any way (except to turn it off). Can someone please point out any good bit of any song? I’m willing to try, but everything I’ve heard for years is just musical mush.
Have you listened to their first few albums? They really went down the soulless pop music route after Viva La Vida IMO
We at least got a goated meme from them…
Coldplay is a band where I can recognize that there is talent, but I just cannot like them. The songs “Clocks,” “Yellow,” and “Viva la Vida” are good. Outside of those, I just don’t like them.
I think it hit different when they were contemporary. They sounded like nothing else on the radio. Ironically their songs were a breath of fresh air.
Adding on to your three, I’ll raise Shiver… especially that riff! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8XFFTWwSvY
Maybe you find it sounds a little like some other song that came after this one.
WOW!
Their songs The Scientist and Clocks are emotive and memorable. Besides those they sound like a safe and watered-down mid era Radiohead.
Theres a remix of the song Yellow by Khost and FKYA (no idea who they are) that slaps hard. But thats it.
Coldplay is musical morphine: You’re either using it for a reason or you’re an addict.
If they put in the work establishing themselves, composing and playing music, recording, touring, and attracting a fan base, then they deserve every bit of it.
I can’t stand Kiss, and about 90% of all the other bullshit out there, but its not my place in the cosmos to harsh someone else’s buzz about the music they like. My tastes are extremely eclectic, and only a tiny percentage would be into the same stuff I’m into. I wouldn’t tolerate criticism of my musical tastes, and I’m not about to criticize someone else’s.
Like what you want, WTF should I care?
I think anther reason why I don’t like kiss is there fans. As an example I have a coworker in his late 50’s and he is a huge kiss fan. But not just he is a fan YOU have to be a fan too or he will be mad at you. You can’t say that they suck or he will yell at you like a child. And his whole wardrobe is either kiss, Harley Davison, or Trump.
That guy’s problem isn’t Kiss.
True
Why is it always KISS? People are making the mistake of treating KISS as musicians. They are showmen and good at their job. The music is just the background. I saw them live once and it was one of the best shows I’ve ever seen.
Gene Simmons is a bastard who recently played down Ace Frehley’s death.
KISS just never did it for me, I only liked maybe three songs from them. All that they were ever capable of, musically, was write songs about just plain love and cheesy at that. They were mostly a cheesy band just decked out in a gimmick more than anything and they merchandised the hell out of themselves for years. Nothing was off limits. But that didn’t make the music any better.
Also, KISS is enjoyable to listen to. I’m not putting on headphones, taking my choice of medication, and having a transcendental experience.
I’m Shouting Out Loud. I’m Lickin’ It Up. I’m Rock n’ Rolling All Nite (and Partying Every Day). I’m Detriot Rock City…ing.
To me a lot of hate comes from the showman part. They toured too long. Last time I saw them in 2014 or so, I walked out. It was awful. The music was the music. The show was painful.
For me, it’s Oasis. When they reformed recently to play some shows, it was headline news across the UK.
They’re an okay band, but far from being anything special.
Oasis always sounded like they were imitating the concept of emotion, in their music, rather than actually expressing any. I don’t believe Liam and Noel Gallagher have ever felt any emotions beyond disdain for one another
They’re musically enjoyable but I do feel like we, as a society, need to truly reckon with how bad Oasis’s lyrics are. My general thought is that they wrote the music first and then said “well let’s not worry about having coherent lyrics, let’s just have me singing words that sound good at the right time in the song”.
Taylor Swift.
Why
Sex Pistols. Don’t get me wrong I like them, but they were children who made one album and were barely a band for a year. Their hype really comes down to the story of Sid and Nancy’s deaths.
Weren’t they a manufactured boy band also? I think I read that somewhere
My understanding is that it was a more or less some kids that hung out at the same stores in a mall.
Edit: I looked it up. They hung out in Vivian’s Westwoods clothing store, Sex. Westwood and another fashion guy from those stores managed and styled them. Sounds like Westwood might have even fed them lines that became lyrics. They barely knew how to play their instruments for a solid chunk of that time.
Sounds like a boy band to me.
There is a sound bite on the pirates of destiny album where Lydon was recorded saying that sid couldn’t play anything so ig that confirms it
Sid was the OG sex pistols ultra-violent megafan. The manager put him in the band basically as fan service.
KISS was mediocre rock at best. They have a few good songs. They are/were stage performers. Same with Gwar. Same with Insane Clown Posse. And KISS have done a lot to entertain their fans. They’re fine.
Most popular music is popular because a lot of people like it. I never much cared for Taylor Swift, but I decided to try her new album. I pay for music streaming, so it didn’t cost me anything. Turns out I really like most of it! Listened to her previous album and it doesn’t hit the same. So I’m not a Swiftie after all. Same with Kendrick Lamar. He was doing the Super Bowl last year so I listened to his latest album. I still play GNX from time to time.
Find what you love but don’t yuck somebody else’s yum.
If you like GNX try going waaaaaaaay back to the old old stuff, like his K Dot mixtakes back before he went by Kendrick Lamar. I think you can still find those on DatPiff, or at least you could add of a few years ago.
