I’m definitely another who thinks Oasis are a bit shit. I’ve genuinely heard pub bands that were much better. A whiny cockbag of a frontman with a terrible voice, music aping every band from the 60’s and 70’s skirting way past being influenced by and wandering in to Jive Bunny territory. Terrible lyrics too. So many better bands from that period.
The one that stands out to me amongst all others is Coldplay. It's bland, middle of the road shite - Chris Martin isn't a great vocalist and the song writing is painful at times. Personally, I don't get them at all.
Other stuff I can put down to like/don't like, but Coldplay just make my teeth itch. Oh and Robbie Williams
Oasis > Blur BTW IMO. Liam and John Squire's new stuff is bloody awful though, like a child wrote it - guess that'll be Liam then.
Taylor Swift, I don't have to like her to understand why she's so popular - although her initial rise to fame was probably/definitely assisted by having loaded parents
As an aside, rather than just being a sheep and lambasting Beyonce's Country Carter album, I decided to listen to it in full on a drive home the other day.
I was actually quite surprised tbh
It's way worse than I was expecting
I sometimes wonder at folks who profess not to like the sorts of music that thousands, sometimes millions of others really really like and whether they ever think to themselves "I wonder if its me that has the shit taste in music?"
Def Leppard
Just .. because, ok? : )
But yeah.. hard to say why I like low-brow poodle rock. Motley Crue can be the same kind of awesome turned up a level. It has energy and I'm not a music snob. Sometimes I just react to music like Beavis and Butthead.
Happy Mondays
Deserved all the success and excess their creativity brought them imo, they were something new and came out of the beginnings of a scene that became huge. Sean Ryder's lazy lyrical genius... brilliant.
Coldplay's first album was good. The rest was bland schmaltz and sounded like it was driven by money.
I don't understand all these bands and singers now that all seem to hit the same long mid-high note in emotional songs that are weirdly devoid of emotion (to me), but hey.. if you like it, great. Hurts my ears but some people hate heavy metal for the same reason, thankfully I'm not one of them.
Ooh! The Sex Pistols. Shite manufactured boy band. Punk my arse.
Jones and Cook had been playing together since 1972. Jones and Cook are the Sex Pistols sound. Pretty Vacant has the elements that defined the punk rock sound: thundering drums, slide in power chords, picked chords and simple but effective fills and solos. As a guitarist I love playing it. They are very good musicians, Matlock was pretty good too. The last to join the band was Rotten and he added the scowl that made punk complete. I did it at a now-closed pretentious blues rock venue, the crowd loved it, the venue owner less so.
Oassis? Don't forget Noel provided the vocals of some of the classics such as Don't look back in Anger. And he can strum a guitar beautifully. Whenever there was a guitar around I picked it up to entertain the highly international collection of pilgrims on the way to Compostelle, Oassis and the Beatles were guaranteed to get people of every generation singing along instantly, anything else they had to find the lyrics on their phones.
Oasis
A jukebox without any Oasis albums is a sign of a rubbish pub.
Oasis are a good example. I liked them when they started as they seemed fresh but time showed it was rehashed Beatles, 70s rock etc.
The quality of their output went downhill quickly ironically as they got huge and did Knebworth as they were declining
Their later work and solo stuff never matched Definitely Maybe. It could simply be timing that made the 1st album appear different. Liam is a poor singer, Noel has a weak voice but they seemed to work for a year or two.
Their "swagger" was really down to being 5 rough lads from Burnage. Any 5 youngish lads from there would have a similar attitude. Mancs are vocal, cynical, gobby, arsey, angry at times. (That's my excuse)
The Beatles, never understood their success
Surprised this took so long! 🙂
Interesting comment earlier about Frank Turner, who is insanely talented and amazing live, but certainly not successful in terms of mainstream success, I would have put him in the earlier thread about bands that never quite made it.
Lucky there’s no right or wrong where tase is concerned!
Not really. Very basic playing. Relies heavily on his looper. He’s a very basic player
Sheeran doesn't even claim to be a great guitarist:
Ed Sheeran popped in on the Howard Stern show on Sirius XM recently and discussed his guitar playing influences and, in particular, his love of Eric Clapton’s Layla.
Talking about the influence of the blues guitar hero, Stern asks Sheeran if he can shred.
“That’s the one thing that I can’t do,” says Sheeran. “I sort of made a choice when I was younger, like, ‘If I wanna be John Mayer or Eric Clapton, I learn all this sh** and if I wanna be Damien Rice, I learn four chords.”
and from his recent court case:
Ed Sheeran questioned his own music skills during a Marvin Gaye plagiarism trial.
Sheeran briefly performed lines from the song, explaining his songwriting technique to the court, saying: “When I write vocal melodies, it’s like phonetics.”
Sheeran claimed he often writes up to 10 songs in one day. He co-wrote “Thinking Out Loud” with Amy Wadge.However, according to AP, Sheeran, who has won dozens of awards and headlined Glastonbury, apologised after accidentally hitting the mic with his hand, and told those present: “I’m not the world’s most talented guitar player.”
However he is someone who knows what he's good at (and he's very good at it), is commercially very astute, is a seemly very nice person and has an incredible network of other very talented and influential people. Some of his songs are great, others less so, but I don't think he's looking for critical acclaim. Took my kids to see his concert a few years ago at Wembley, it was fantastic.
Oasis are great in spite of Liam, not because of him. The power in their biggest tracks ia/are from the music, not the vocals. Noel has some real skill, is seemingly quite intelligent and has a dry wit...when he's not trying to be a dick.
Noel's Teotihuacan from the X-files album is still phenomenal:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/NGm6C7ILK3Y?si=1oC2Ikj_Yzw-X3GI
The Killers
Not because of their music which peaked in Hot Fuss and immediately waned. But because there are now kids graduating university who were born after Mr Brightside, and that just makes me feel unacceptably old. And for that I can't forgive them.
Coldplay.
Well the Beatles had their moments, but it's not difficult to make the case for them being overrated.
The Stones on the other hand, I've come to appreciate a lot more.
Some artists are huge despite not being great singers, musicians or dancers.
Absolutely. Almost as if those aren’t the only things that can make a great artist.
Someone already mentioned both New Order and Happy Mondays… if you can write songs that good, and deliver them in a way that so many people can hook into… then success is warranted.
Interesting question, define "unwarranted".
Most of the bands mentioned in this thread have genuine talent, whether you like them or not. Never really got Simple Minds or Def Leppard but the members of those bands are far better musicians than I'll ever be.
Oasis were a bit of a one trick pony but they have a big enough fan base to warrant their status, ditto the perennial music snobs' favourite targets Coldplay. Not sure how you can say someone's success is unwarranted when they have built and more importantly maintained a loyal fan base.
Ash. not great songs and the lead singer can't actually sing.
I've never understood why Pink Floyd are so massive. I can appreciate the quality of their musicianship but their not known for their banging choons are they?
Pink Floyd are pretty much the only band who's music I have a visceral dislike for. I really, really, really hate it. But that's music innit, There's stuff you like, stuff you don't like, and stuff you can take or leave. Criticising other people's taste in music is both pointless and dull.
I’ve never understood why Pink Floyd are so massive. I can appreciate the quality of their musicianship but their not known for their banging choons are they?
I'm not really sure either, but it might be that (post-Sid) they made psychedelic music for people who didn't want anything too challenging?
I find them dull AF personally.
ditto the perennial music snobs’ favourite targets Coldplay. Not sure how you can say someone’s success is unwarranted when they have built and more importantly maintained a loyal fan base.
Whilst you are clearly correct in stating this fact, I really, really cannot understand their continued success (I loved Yellow but everything else since has left me cold). As far as I see it, Coldplay make music for people that don't really love music.
Coldplay’s first album was good. The rest was bland schmaltz and sounded like it was driven by money.
I agree. They were students when they started out and got big straight after graduating IIRC. I've never listened to anything after their second album, but I find it odd how much hate they attract. I knew the drummer (hockey player in the Union drinking every Wednesday night) and his brother (worked with him) and they're lovely blokes. Never met Chris but people I knew that did said he is a great person.
I never liked U2 or REM, but I guess I get why people do.
I’m not the biggest fan of Coldplay but I did see them live just before Shiver was released and Mark and Lard had played them a bit on 6 Music. In a room of 30 or so people they were really good live and his voice was amazing. There are plenty of terrible and very famous bands and I’m not sure it’s fair to include Coldplay in that. Their first album in particular is a decent piece of work in my opinion.
Just to drive the point home:
Coldplay.
Kings of Leon. Thought I like them, then went to see them live. OMFG. Get in the sea!
Kings of Leon. Thought I like them, then went to see them live. OMFG. Get in the sea!
I was the same with The Killers - saw them live and it put me right off them.
Respectfully, get over yourself.
Why? It is my opinion and I am perfectly entitled to have it.
"Unwarranted" is interesting.
I mean: my level success as an internationally famous musician is entirely warranted given my lack of recorded output, non-existent touring schedule, and exceedingly limited marketing strategy.
For everything else, it's just, like, your opinion, man.
And obviously artistry *isn't* about raw skill. I bet everyone who plays an instrument will know of at least a handful of virtuoso players of that instrument whose music you just wouldn't want to listen to once the initial admiration of their virtuosity wears off.
Music geeks might enjoy the subtleties of complex time signatures, or find the use of the Lydian mode endlessly captivating, but there are loads of people who won't be that arsed and that's fine too.
Why? It is my opinion and I am perfectly entitled to have it.
Because anyone who thinks they have a greater or more worthy love of music than someone else, because they don't like the music that the other person likes, needs to get over themselves.
Because anyone who thinks they have a greater or more worthy love of music than someone else, because they don’t like the music that the other person likes, needs to get over themselves.
But that is the entire purpose of this thread.
Well true, you're not the only one who needs to get over themselves, I'll grant that. You just put it very succinctly 🙂
"music for people that don’t really love music."
They even have their own radio station called Radio 2.
“music for people that don’t really love music.”
They even have their own radio station called Radio2.
How do you know a 6 music listener? Don't worry they'll let you know.
U2, I just get them or Bono and his stupid glasses.
paddy0091 Free Member
There are many, but a couple immediately come to mind:Frank SHOUTY Turner. Thought I’d heard the back of him until he appeared on 6 recently.
Frank Turner is great live, he tours relentlessly, apparently he'll be playing his 3,000th show as a solo artist in February next year, which equates to about 150 shows a year. I think he's put the effort in for the level of success he has.
Frank Turner's a funny one, he's not done a really good album since Love Ire and Song and he's released some absolute crap tbf, but he's absolutely superb live. And not just one-note superb, he can get you kicking in heads at a full band punk rock show or he can make you cry with a solo acoustic set. And like CHrisL says, nobody can say he doesn't do the hours.
I'm still more of a metal guy, and succesful metal's weird... Because every town of more than about 100000 people has at least one better unsigned metal band that are better than the most succesful metal bands in the world. You have to be a weird mix of solid and competent, but also completely unchallenging, to be a big metal band in 2024. You have to have singles that people listen to for 10 seconds and say "oh yeah, it's exactly like an mid-album forgotten Machine Head song from about 2002" or "I'm actually pretty sure this is Alice Cooper?". Or you can be symphonic of course. Meanwhile, actual great metal music is still under every stone and just totally ignored while people buy ****in Asking Alexandria records.
chakapingFree Member
Well the Beatles had their moments, but it’s not difficult to make the case for them being overrated.
In 7 years or so of being active they had 'their moments'? Jeez, I wish I had the occasional moment at any point in my life. 😀
Ash. not great songs and the lead singer can’t actually sing.
Is this the answer to a different question? They had some success about 25 years ago and then disappeared so successfully that when I've seen them live nobody knows who I'm going to see, never what they play. I like Ash, and saw them on my birthday once for an awesome gig - the birthday celebrations may have helped - but to describe them as strangely successful when they now play small local venues is odd.
Ah, middle aged men complaining about ‘music these days’.
'music these days' being music from decades ago plus Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran, both having being around long enough to register on the elderly radar. 😀
“ dismissing Taylor Swift as untalented or that her success is unwarranted.”
I’m not saying she is untalented - she clearly is very talented in lots of ways from music to singing to business and marketing. And actually I don’t think her success is unwarranted - she’s clearly figured out exactly what a large portion of the target population wants
It’s the bland saccharine pop that I don’t understand it. It’s kind of the beige background music that I’d have thought kids would be railing against.
It’s the bland saccharine pop that I don’t understand it.
I'm not a massive Swifty, but TBF this phrase is more cliched than any of her music.
Her sound is quite varied, she's a good songwriter and only maybe a third of her stuff is what I'd call bland.
So anyway on the talents or otherwise of Game O'Thrones' ginger minstrel, he's clearly super able at writing songs that millions of people like and I don't, but find myself humming them. He's also obviously super talented at the people stuff and making his way in a difficult industry. And he's good enough at guitar looping to keep an entire backing band band on the dole or stacking shelves .
All this stuff is a lot harder than "shredding", which is actually not all that difficult anyway. Which sadly brings me to this video, which I watched all the way through....
...so you don't have to. I was pretty sure it would contain tell tale evidence of guitar twiddliness but to my surprise no, despite significant temptation to to put a foot on the monitor he remains strictly rhythm, he doesn't want to make you cry or sing. Just buy his stuff.
And now I've got that bloody darkness song in my head. And didn't he do something with bring me the horizon too?
Anyway, as any musician knows these differences between genres are barely skin deep. It's all got the same harmonic and rhythmic DNA, just dressed slightly differently. As Louis Armstrong said when asked if he liked folk music, it's all folk music, he ain't never heard a hoss sing.