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Most overrated band ever?


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I think we need to distinguish between 'overrated by the public' (i.e. big sellers) and 'overrated by the self styled cognoscenti' (or at least vociferous fanboys). 

Hence my suggestion of The Velvet Underground. There's some famous quote along the lines of "Their first album only sold 500 copies, but everyone who bought it went out and formed a band". Quite possibly true - trouble is, they nearly all formed utterly crap bands. 

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54 minutes ago, mjmooney said:

I think we need to distinguish between 'overrated by the public' (i.e. big sellers) and 'overrated by the self styled cognoscenti' (or at least vociferous fanboys). 

Aye.

Lots of people buying something doesn’t make it good. Popularity isn’t really (alone) a gauge of quality. BigMacs are huge selling meals. Coldplay sell loads of records, but ‘the self styled cognoscenti’ think they’re bobbins.

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26 minutes ago, blandy said:

Aye.

Lots of people buying something doesn’t make it good. Popularity isn’t really (alone) a gauge of quality. BigMacs are huge selling meals. Coldplay sell loads of records, but ‘the self styled cognoscenti’ think they’re bobbins.

Yep. And it cuts both ways. I've met people who think that sales are the measure of an act's quality - "I've never heard of any of these bands you go on about, so they must be crap". And the reverse - hipsters who consider that anything popular is rubbish, and jealously guard their obscure acts (until they become famous, and have obviously sold out). 

I don't subscribe to either view. Some of my all time favourite albums never dented the public consciousness, and some are by mega sellers. 

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3 hours ago, mjmooney said:

I think we need to distinguish between 'overrated by the public' (i.e. big sellers) and 'overrated by the self styled cognoscenti' (or at least vociferous fanboys). 

Hence my suggestion of The Velvet Underground. There's some famous quote along the lines of "Their first album only sold 500 copies, but everyone who bought it went out and formed a band". Quite possibly true - trouble is, they nearly all formed utterly crap bands. 

I feel the need to stand up for the Velvets here... artistic, innovative, individual, hugely influential. They wouldn't make a dent in my personal favourites list but I can appreciate what they did. I'm not sure they can be overrated, given that the majority of people outside of yer music afficiandos have never even heard of them.

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8 hours ago, GarethRDR said:

Queen.

You're on my list.

 

For me, Rolling Stones. Could be Beatles, could Be Oasis. I like Beatles, they are/were in many ways the biggest band in the world of history, but I don't think their music is that good. Some decent pop songs, but not more than that. So in that sense I think they're overrated. And Rolling Stones more so, and Oasis is mainly just shite.

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2 hours ago, blandy said:

Aye.

Lots of people buying something doesn’t make it good. Popularity isn’t really (alone) a gauge of quality.

The Eagles greatest Hits just becoming the biggest selling album in America of all time is a prime example of this

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3 hours ago, mjmooney said:

I think we need to distinguish between 'overrated by the public' (i.e. big sellers) and 'overrated by the self styled cognoscenti' (or at least vociferous fanboys). 

Hence my suggestion of The Velvet Underground. There's some famous quote along the lines of "Their first album only sold 500 copies, but everyone who bought it went out and formed a band". Quite possibly true - trouble is, they nearly all formed utterly crap bands. 

I'm sure I read/heard some factoid somewhere that if as many people actually bought Ramones records as they did t-shirts, they'd have outsold Michael Jackson or some such by this point.

Plus they were shite too.

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5 minutes ago, tonyh29 said:

The Eagles greatest Hits just becoming the biggest selling album in America of all time is a prime example of this

Also a prime example of my point above, that it doesn't make them bad, either. They got too big for their boots after Hotel California, but I still like large chunks of their first four albums. 

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23 minutes ago, Pelle said:

You're on my list.

I'm on my wife's as well for it.  Fun fact; she did go to an Astrophysics lecture given by Brian May at Imperial College some years back when he returned to finish his course. She said it was essentially an elaborate PowerPoint presentation sound-tracked with a lot of his incessant noodling (well, her words weren't quite as derisive as she loved every second of it, but I can only imagine the horror).

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People even uttering or mentioning Oasis just reminds me of why people who frequent message boards are massive nerds whose opinions aren't worth my time. 

I bet most of you are neck-bearded, World of Warcraft playing, fapping over Baywatch on a Sunday, IT technicians :lol: 

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14 minutes ago, GarethRDR said:

I'm on my wife's as well for it.  Fun fact; she did go to an Astrophysics lecture given by Brian May at Imperial College some years back when he returned to finish his course. She said it was essentially an elaborate PowerPoint presentation sound-tracked with a lot of his incessant noodling (well, her words weren't quite as derisive as she loved every second of it, but I can only imagine the horror).

image.png.733a43207c9d26f33a9d1b133ef7b84f.png

 

I'm not jealous. :) I'd probably not understand a word anyway.

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You know how people talk about some albums as 'growers'? You don't think much on first listen, but they end up being real favourites. 

Well, for me, Oasis were 'shrinkers'. Most of their songs, first few listens I thought they were fantastic, crank up the volume stuff. But they quickly palled, to the point I don't care if I ever hear them again. 

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3 hours ago, mjmooney said:

I think we need to distinguish between 'overrated by the public' (i.e. big sellers) and 'overrated by the self styled cognoscenti' (or at least vociferous fanboys).

I'm not sure there's any need for any distinguishing.

Surely overrated simply means something/someone about which there is a sufficiently popular opinion (be that measured commercially or critically or another way) with which one disagrees (often too authoritatively)?

 

 

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46 minutes ago, tonyh29 said:

most over rated band award can only really go to the T-Shirt band that was The Ramones

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Annoying T-Shirt issue aside, they literally invented Punk, you can't be serious (The fact I know you never are is besides the point)

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