Name a popular artist you never understood the appeal of

[mxclod]

I agree with Bruce Springsteen . He sounds like a guy who just walked off a 12 hr. shift at the loading docks and his range is pretty poor. He's tried to fool the public that he's walking in Dylan's footsteps. Tom Waits : I haven't listened to enough of his music but what I have seen makes me wonder. I saw him perform (and interviewed) on Conan O'Brien last year and it was extremely surreal. He had white powder poured on the floor and he stomped on it and kicked it into the air.

 

You seriously need to listen to Tom Waits "Nighthawks at the Diner"--I can see how one could be put off by Tom with his later stuff but this double album is incredible!!

As far as never understanding the appeal--well Barry Manilow, and Kenny G!

[DeveryHarper]

I'm gonna get flamed. . .but for the life of me I do not and cannot understand Jimi Hendrix. He had about three songs that I could tolerate, the rest. . . . .

[blue2blue]

Well... I'm probably one of the bigger Hendrix fans here, but since you guys seem to be able to let loose without getting all personal, I'm thinking the guy who is also moderator ought to be able to let that anathema slide.

 

I'll explain why I like him someplace else. Ditto Zep and Waits and early Pink Floyd. (Zep's actually a bit of a mixed bag for me. But what I like I like so much.)

 

But, hey, I like so much weird stuff no one else likes and hate so much normal stuff everyone likes -- I mean I can't believe for the life of me that we haven't seen the Police, U2, the Cars, Stone Temple Pilots, latter day Chili Peppers, Journey, Chicago (after the first two records), Doobie Brothers, Oasis, Suede, Eric Clapton (from about '73 on -- but then that just brings up more split decisions like the Stones, Dylan, some others... folks whose best work was so good and whose later work remains popular for reasons less than readily apparent to me), and... well, I got another 40 or 50 I've put out of my mind but could probably dredge up after some more coffee.

 

 

PS... I'd actually kind of burned out on Tom Waits in the 80s and had all but ignored him but I stumbled into some stuff from 2006 and ended up really kind of liking it. It was stupefyingly lo fi, though. And I had to laugh at his apparent tribute to Captain Beefheart (though I enjoyed it)... he could back that up to a Louis Armstrong tribute and have a hot collector's single.

[Lee Knight]

Kid Rock is a good call... the guy can't sing. But not being able to sing is fine when you've got great songwriting. But he... uh... doesn't. So it's the showmanship? That would work, sure. But, I've seen live footage and I'm still not getting it. So is it the hat?

Iron Maiden I never got. There were so many better metal bands at the time.

Jack Johnson's another good call. He's from Hawaii I believe but really got started in my neck of the woods in North County San Diego Coastal. He played a ton of free shows at the infamous Lou's Records and it just snowballed. Sometimes I'll hear a little snatch of his music and for second think, "Hey, that's kind of cool in a laid back kind of way..." but after 10 seconds I start to cringe and it hits me... "That's Jack Johnson!" Notice to cringe first, then the recognition of who it is. Facelessly pleasant, then grating, then... THAT'S JACK JOHNSON!!!

[eeglug]

Iron Maiden I never got. There were so many better metal bands at the time.

 

 

I'm not much of a fan of Iron Maiden or metal in general but I would say that Bruce Dickinson was a powerful metal vocalist and possibly better than any other metal singer in the early 80s IMO.

[Lee Knight]

I'm not much of a fan of Iron Maiden or metal in general but I would say that Bruce Dickinson was a powerful metal vocalist and possibly better than any other metal singer in the early 80s IMO.

Sure, to each his own, and I'm sure you're right. But I hate it and don't get it. It's fantasy metal that makes me "Run For the Hills!!" or whatever the name of their tune is. Queens and horses and BS sung in quasi-operatic cock rock style. I like my aggressive music with out batwings or vibrato-ed falsetto.

[Tullsterx]

KID ROCK!

 

The Stones

 

Dylan

 

Elvis

[Eminence_Front]

Elvis Costello

 

Weezer

[kurdy]

Elvis Costello

 

 

Elvis C. has one really great song that just rocks, "Pump It Up". Everything else I've heard from him, I'm kinda indifferent to.

[Swingfinger]

Hawthorne Heights

[BushmasterM4]

Bob Dylan !!!!! He is the Willie Nelson of rock. Sounds like chalk on a chalk board !!!!!

[eddieboston2]

Hmm, well, there's a difference between not liking an artist and not understanding the appeal. For example, I would never choose to listen to techno music, but for those who enjoy rolling on Ecstasy and bopping around a dance floor for hours on end, it seems like the perfect thing. Same for the "jam band" music of Phish and the like, which seems to have found its niche among the pot-smoking crowd.

 

One I don't understand is Bob Dylan. I like a bunch of his songs, but I don't get the bowing and worshiping that seems to go on towards him. He's good, but he's not that good. I suppose it was a cultural thing having to do with the time period and some good marketing.

[iamgodsvek]

Hawthorne Heights

good call

[kennychaffin]

Dave Matthews.

 

Most of the Rap "artists."

[Lee Knight]

Dave Matthews! Yeah. The very first time I heard him I liked it. The second time... not so much. It kind of went in that direction with each successive listen.

[Geno_xl]

I never got the appeal for Nirvana. The singing was bad, the playing was bad, the songs were depressing. I still don't get why people love em. The only thing I can think of is that they were different than everything else out at the time when they broke through.

I agree on the Bob Dylan thing. He had a huge career and wrote some good songs but his voice was terrible. Still some people seem to like it. I don't get it at all. Kind of the same thing with Neal Young. I mean his voice was terrible yet he has/had a strong following.

The one I'm almost embarresed to admit is Jimi Hendrix. I know I'm supposed to bow down to his "great" guitar playing but I just don't get it. Maybe it's one of things where you had to be there. I don't know. He had a few songs that I thought were catchy but for me it always comes back to the Star Spangled Banner which was out of tune and just a mess all over. I'd like to get him, but I just don't

[Nick*]

I gotta agree with some of the people here..

Coldplay - sure, maybe they have a couple of soothing melodies...but do they have anything else working for them?

Dave Matthews - feel like having the gravedigger dig my grave when he comes on.

All Emo - doesn't every song sound the same? 1 chord banged out behind the whinniest voice you've ever heard.

All Hair Metal - I'm interested in hearing good music..not about guys who drink all night and get laid 24/7.

[Nick*]

The one I'm almost embarresed to admit is Jimi Hendrix. I know I'm supposed to bow down to his "great" guitar playing but I just don't get it. Maybe it's one of things where you had to be there. I don't know. He had a few songs that I thought were catchy but for me it always comes back to the Star Spangled Banner which was out of tune and just a mess all over. I'd like to get him, but I just don't

 

 

I know a lot of people who weren't into his music....but you still have to admit he was a great guitarist.

[Geno_xl]

I know a lot of people who weren't into his music....but you still have to admit he was a great guitarist.

 

 

yeah, see here I am again. I would like to say that he was great but I've just never heard anything that I thought was all that great-songwise or guitar wise. I just was never all that impressed. Sorry, I just can't. I really think it was one of those things you have to put into perspective of the time he was playing in. And I missed out on that.

[Swingfinger]

Obviously, I touched a nerve here. Believe me I'm not sticking up for the 80's hair metal. I'm just saying I didn't get Nirvana at all. I don't see how they "cared" for the music when alot of it was done off key and the instruments where not played well.

 

 

Have you listened to the Nirvana unplugged concert? a lot of the nirvana shows are poor recordings where Kurt was just {censored}ing around. There unplugged show was really quite good, the best offerings from the show are covers though.

[blue2blue]

Bob Dylan !!!!! He is the Willie Nelson of rock. Sounds like chalk on a chalk board !!!!!

 

OK... not going to quarrel with someone else's likes -- but I sure don't get the analogy.

 

Willie Nelson is a hell of a singer. I mean, I can understand how someone might not dig him but I don't get how he can be used as a benchmark of bad singing.

 

The man is made out of pitch finesse and timing. I don't think Wynton Marsalis would have stepped out to work with a country guy any other way.

 

 

PS... I never thought of Dylan as a rock guy. Sure he did some rock in the mid-60s and, in the sense that at one point, rock was seen as a nearly all-encompassing classification that streteched from the newly psychedelicized Temptations to King Crimson, I guess you can make a case. But for me he's mostly been working the folk angle with a dollop of country and blues thrown in on the side.

 

 

PPS... jumping over to the Nirvana/grunge thing. I thought I was gonna love grunge at first. I was sick of formula, cookie-cutter punk and grunge looked like a fairly legit attempt (at first) to recapture some of that first wave punk legitimacy. But then the first thing a lot of grunge bands did was pick another grunge band to copy. I never saw a scene cannibalize itself so fast. People couldn't rip holes in their jeans or buy flannels fast enough. Mind you, the leading lights had their merits, for sure. I liked Nirvana, or at least some Nirvana. Alice in Chains was interesting, adventurous. A couple others had some good moments. But most of the genre put me to sleep.

 

PPPS... ditto the indie rockers... with a few exceptions, I found it all to just be so boring and derivative of the past. Emo and screamo never did much of anything for me, either.

 

 

PPPPS... I'm surprised no one has mentioned Modest Mouse, I don't think. I love MM but it seems to me a lot of folks hate them. Weird voice. Weird lyrics. Weird instrumentation. Banjo. Tough sell for those raised on musical Wonder Bread.

 

 

PPPPPS... I really liked Dylan's singing during the 60s. Not when I first heard it, maybe. I was listening to bossa nova and jazz when I first heard Dylan and if I had thought the Beatles couldn't sing for {censored} I really was scratching my head over Dylan (after his first album, anyhow -- the first one he's surprisingly nuanced and calm... even his bleating, rip-my-ears-off-and-hide-them-under-a-pillow harmonica playing is relatively palatable). But I got to like it. Later, it seemed like he was often alternately trying to sing straight (not a good idea for him) or just doing a parody of himself. But stuff like Highway 61 slays me. I don't confuse it with technically good singing, of course. But it talked to me. No puns intended.

[Ides of March]

Grunge was awesome until major corporations and fashion editors turned it into mainstream bull{censored}. Alot of those bands were on small labels, and until Nirvana broke through they were just regular bar bands. I never understood the idea of buying a pair of jeans and ripping them apart to look cool. And I never got the flannel thing either. But there were alot of great bands that came from that era besides the regulars

Screaming Trees
Mudhoney
L7
Hole
Babes in Toyland
Tad
Skinyard
Paw
Mindfunk
The Melvins

At least I think so.

[blue2blue]

I grew up wearing flannel and worn out jeans... very much a Southern California thing. I was wearing them in the 60s, the 70s, the 80s, and -- then -- I actually stopped wearing them for a while because of grunge. (I'll admit, though, on the way, I used the early days of grunge as an excuse to wear the {censored} out of my old Levis. Since I was playing an Ovation a lot in those days, the right thigh of my jeans was always worn out... sandpapered away by that odd flake-like texture on the back of the Ovation.)

[Nick*]

yeah, see here I am again. I would like to say that he was great but I've just never heard anything that I thought was all that great-songwise or guitar wise. I just was never all that impressed. Sorry, I just can't. I really think it was one of those things you have to put into perspective of the time he was playing in. And I missed out on that.

 

 

Hmmm....interesting.

[Nick*]

Grunge was awesome until major corporations and fashion editors turned it into mainstream bull{censored}. Alot of those bands were on small labels, and until Nirvana broke through they were just regular bar bands. I never understood the idea of buying a pair of jeans and ripping them apart to look cool. And I never got the flannel thing either. But there were alot of great bands that came from that era besides the regulars Screaming Trees Mudhoney L7 Hole Babes in Toyland Tad Skinyard Paw Mindfunk The Melvins At least I think so.

 

 

 

Screaming Trees had some nice tunes. I think Chris Cornell helped produce one of their albums or something. And Mudhoney - WOW...they were grunge. They were pretty much the definition of grunge.

 

The clothing aspect of the grunge scene is so misunderstood. The idea is not to buy ripped jeans and flannel shirts...the idea is to just not give a {censored} about your appearance and just focus on your music. Personally, I LOVE wearing flannel shirts...seriously, what's more comfortable than flannel shirts??? But I haven't wore jeans in YEARS. The only pair of jeans I owned were cargo jeans, but I can't find cargo jeans anywhere now. I finally wore that pair until they ripped apart. Anybody ever see cargo jeans anywhere? I could sure use a pair for the winter...I need those extra pockets.