Bands/musicians you know you "should" like but you don't

[Recursion]

My list:

Built to Spill
The Doors
Yo La Tengo
Frank Zappa
Rush

Any other confessions out there?

[Smarmie Doofus]

1. Pink Floyd. And it has nothing to do w. their politics. Lots more. n/t

[Tom Ripley]

2. Buzzcocks, Neutral Milk Hotel, Sleater-Kinney, Grateful Dead, James McMurty

[Recursion]

3. I love NMH, but I get people who don't

Sleater-Kinney I'm OK with. The Dead kind of bore me.

[Demoiselle]

9. Stevie Nicks' voice.

There, I've said it. Try to be kind.

[KamaAina]

23. Three degrees of Neutral Milk Hotel

and all three have Wikis!!

My dear artist/grad student friend Sunaura Taylor

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunaura_Taylor

's sister Astra, a filmmaker

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astra_Taylor

is married to.. drum roll, please!...

Jeff Mangum!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Mangum

SNAP!

edit: The odd thing is I've never heard NMH.

[Tom Ripley]

25. I knew Sunny!

She is a wonderful person and a fine artist.

[KamaAina]

26. Ain't it the truth.

I was eviscerated here at DU because a BART strike threatened to keep me away from her farewell party (she moved to NYC for grad school ), and my posts were, um, not exactly union-friendly. Mercifully, they settled the day of the party!

[LynneSin]

4. I just do not like the Rolling Stones. I know I should but I'm just not impressed

Last edited Fri Sep 5, 2014, 01:59 AM - Edit history (4)

Yes there are a few of their songs that I love very few like 'You can't always get what you want'. And I have a couple of their albums in my collections because I feel I would be scorned as a collector of great rock music to not include the classics from the Rolling Stones. I even saw them in concert back in 1989 (was not impressed).

But personnally - I think they suck - BIG TIME.

Here's the thing, they haven't done a decent album since 1980's 'Some Girls' (and that was an OK album at best - it was no 'Sticky Fingers' or "Exile on Main Street' or 'Beggar Banquet'). Yet the Rolling Stones keep doing these massive tours and people keep paying outrageous ticket money in hopes to see this band that once put out these legendary concerts. But to me seeing the Rolling Stones in concert today is like shopping at Wal-mart - it's just all generic and commonplace. However, there are alot of people out there who like shopping at Wal-mart just like there are alot of people who will still buy Rolling Stones tickets thinking it will make them somehow hipper when what they are doing is just watching a band that should have given it up about 20 years ago.

In the end I think that Led Zeppelin was smart to stop touring after the death of John Bonham because it has put them at a level that the Rolling Stones will never achieve. I think that's one of the reason why when LZ's Robert Plant and Jimmy Page toured in the mid-90s they didn't call themselves Led Zeppelin or invite John Paul Jones. They knew if the tour bombed it would sully the Led Zepplin name. The Beatles are the same way - there is mystical aura about them because they were only there on the earth for so long until they ended the band and toured no more.

In the end I am the first to admit that perhaps if the Stones had pretty much retired back in the 80s I would have been a huge fan. The fact that they keep touring and replaying the same songs and putting out subpar albums again and again - I am so over them.

BTW same for Aerosmith.

[BlueJazz]

32. Lynnesin: We must have been separated at birth 'cause I couldn't have said it better.

[Enthusiast]

41. Surely this one?

[Enrique]

44. just pretend they broke up in 1973

then they remain a great band. That's what I do. Same with Rod Stewart.

[Tom Ripley]

79. That's what I do!

[MH1]

75. LOL I just listed the Stones, Zep and Aerosmith.

Although I take it Led Zeppelin is not one of your answers to the question posed.

Anyway you explained it with much more musical sophistication than I can muster. I just know what I like and what I don't.

Reading the rest of the thread, reminded me that I have to add Yes to my list as well.

[Coventina]

5. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Everyone I'm close to thinks they're great.
To me, they are nails on a chalkboard. I don't get it.

PS: In response to your list - nobody should like Rush.

[2theleft]

6. Nobody should like Rush... 100% agree n/t.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

7. When I first heard Rush, I thought they sounded amazing - and then the singing started

[reflection]

61. Seen them well over 20 times

Flew to London to see them last year.

It takes all kinds...

[Tom Ripley]

87. I was really prepared to dislike the Yeah Yeah Yeahs...

they presented as some dressed up straight out of Williamsburg hipster bullshit Siouxsie and the Banshees with a brain tumor product, but found that I really liked everything I heard by them.
Amazing.

[2theleft]

8. Blushing in shame here...

I like Miley Cyrus "Party in the USA" and "The Seven Things I Hate About You". They are in regular rotation on my music playlists. Oh, and Avril's "I Don't Like Your Girlfriend".

[KamaAina]

27. What? No sk8r boi?

[Arugula Latte]

10. I'm with you on the Doors, Zappa and Rush, but I haven't heard enough of the other two

(or, really, any of Built to Spill) to judge.

I only like Radiohead's melodic stuff, like "Fake Plastic Trees."

[cemaphonic]

11. Most Jazz bores me

I usually like that intellectualized approach to music, and I appreciate strong musicianship and virtuosity. And it's basically America's version of classical music. But other than a handful of albums, it puts me off pretty quickly.

I'm mostly talking about bebop and beyond - I like the earlier swing and big band styles.

as far as rock goes:

Modest Mouse - lots of critical acclaim, and they're from the town where I grew up (If I hadn't moved, I would have gone to high school with them).

Decemberists - Don't hate them, but don't get the praise either. Most everything I've heard from them doesn't really grab me, and the few songs that do, sound like early REM. Though they did do that video a few years back that was a perfect filming of the Eschaton section of Infinite Jest. But that's more on the video director than the band.

[Iggo]

12. I'm supposed to like The Rolling Stones.

But I just don't.

[Throd]

13. As an old punk fronm the 80's I'm supposed to love The Clash.

And yet I don't even like them.

[Tom Ripley]

24. Same situation here...

however, I have discovered that Sandinista (believe it or not) is surprisingly enjoyable...if I am smoking copious amounts of weed.

I know he is a revered figure and all, but I find Joe Strummer's voice to be atrocious; he sounds like a cartoon bulldog wearing a sergeant's or state trooper's uniform. Call me a heretic.

[hibbing]

14. Radiohead

Critical acclaim, I gave it a try and it just didn't work for me.

Peace

[Inkfreak]

52. I feel like Radiohead is a perfect example of hipster culture.

Make music that appeals to a smaller audience. Get a buncha critics to sign off on it. Then bask in the glory of "to cool for mainstream.".

[Ron Obvious]

15. Nirvana

What a load of whingeing crap.

And I've lived in Seattle since the 80's.

[fizzgig]

18. i loved them when i was a teenager

but can barely stomach them now.

[KamaAina]

28. I'm more of a Pearl Jam guy myself.

[arcane1]

29. Pearl Jam knew more than 3 chords

[progressoid]

16. Paul McCartney/Wings....

My wife loves him. Most of his stuff, I'm like...meh.

But a couple of his songs immediately have me reaching for the dial. Ebony and Ivory. Someone's Knocking on the Door. And that Christmas Song. Gaaaah!

[BeyondGeography]

49. I almost got into a fight over Someone's Knocking on the Door once

The thing was played on the radio incessantly and, at a gathering, it came on and I yelled turn that shit OFF, I fucking HATE that song. Next thing I knew, the host tried to tackle me. I was, like, what about Uncle Whoever and Auntie Mim?

He was a Beatles and McCartney loyalist; couldn't say no wrong about Paul. And there were millions like him. Paul took full advantage, imo, putting out 20 uninspired songs for every decent one.

[Mike Daniels]

19. Bruce Springsteen

I like his first two albums but just can't handle anything that comes after The Wild, The Innocent....

Besides Bruce I'd day pretty much anything that came out of the grunge era.

[geardaddy]

20. Black Sabbath

and other metal type bands or death metal. I have friends who are huge fans of that kind of music. I just can't stand it.

Also, I do not get the hype over The Jayhawks. I'm from Minneapolis and I think they're good musicians, but I don't get the extended hype over them.

[graywarrior]

21. U2

And lately, Red Hot Chili Peppers. Used to like them, now I can't stand them.

[Xyzse]

30. Same here, and I went to a concert of theirs.

[bigwillq]

38. Me too for U2

[kentauros]

22. Music of the Boomer Generation

That is 99% of the music from the 1960s, early to mid-1970s, as well as the music of their kids' generation, or modern rap and/or hiphop, grunge, top-40 pop & rock, and basically almost anything ever played on commercial radio.

Some of y'all may understand why I can't stand such genres, especially if you have ever paid attention to the majority of the music played over the speakers at restaurants, retail shops, and even outdoors. Has no one heard of electronic, jazz, art/progressive rock, or even public radio for that matter?

Technically, I'm a boomer, too, born near the end of that period. The muzac of the time is more enjoyable as a genre than everything the rest of the boomers shove at us all.

[politicat]

35. With you on Boomer pop and really wanting something else on muzak.

I've got no love of my parents' collections. I just can't get there. Maybe it's over exposure (I got it from all directions -- the stoner aunt & uncle's Dead through metal, mother's Elvis-Beatles-country, father's classic rock) but most of it makes me want an ice pick to shove through my ear drums.

Not so much on the Xer music, though. Being an Xer, there's a lot that definitely pings Sturgeon's Law (90% of everything is crap), but that 10% is some of the most interesting stuff because the evolution of instrumentation and the advent of cheaper computing and mixing meant a shift that hasn't happened since the invention of polyphony. Give me Reed, Anderson, Art of Noise, Elvis Costello, some synth pop, through industrial and electronic any day. (Not so much the Primus, though I can take it in short doses if I work from the extremely progressive jazz POV.) I also am very much appreciating the folk-punk trend and the acoustic electronic sidebar (reworking EBM, Industrial and future pop with either acoustic instruments or electronic replication of acoustics, which often means making dulcimers, harps, harpsichords, strings and double-reed winds do things they were never meant to do.) On behalf of my generation, I apologize for the Hair Bands. All I can say is we were really young and stupid.

And while I'm not big on the performance of much rap (I'm a little old and grew up where Tejano was the dominant underclass music), and the feminist in me has issues, I find the poetry of the lyrics to be fascinating, since this is the first point in history where non-aristocratic literature has become a dominant form of culture. There is a subset that runs parallel to Billy Bragg, The Men They Couldn't Hang, PIL, et al (the Socialist Brit-punk scene) in terms of class consciousness, economic justice and social justice that deserves more attention.

[kentauros]

46. If you like rap and can appreciate the poetry of it, that's fine.

Just don't make me hear it pretty much everywhere (that includes modern movies, especially.) I like and will voluntarily listen to the old stuff, like from Public Enemy and the Beastie Boys. Yet, I don't like them enough to buy their music.

The only type of music from that genre that does compel me to purchase their art would be from the turntable-artists such as Q-bert and Kid Koala. I've been listening to the whole evolution of electronic music ever since Kraftwerk's Autobahn. None of today's music would be what it is without the existence of Kraftwerk. They influenced almost everyone.

If you're not familiar with it, I highly recommend this site: Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music

Basically, my music tastes have been sculpted by public radio. Without it, I never would have heard much more then the few electronic bands I picked up at stores. I wouldn't have had my eyes opened to the likes of Philip Glass and Steve Reich, or negativland and Zoviet France, to Throbbing Gristle and Einsturzende Neubauten, to The Shoulders and Alpha Team, to Oingo Boingo and Bebop Deluxe, to PDQ Bach, to radio theater, and on and on. Commercial radio won't touch anything that isn't a guaranteed top sell, and all too often that means it's been "manufactured" to sell to an uneducated public.

Now, if the aging boomers would just stop controlling the airwaves everywhere (and get enlightened by such online radio stations as WFMU and somafm) I'd be far happier!

[Blue_Tires]

31. Justin Timberlake

Drake
Rick Ross
Tyler the Creator (and by extension Earl Sweatshirt...Their lyrical flow is very creative, but their beats are shit -- Nothin' but clicks and whistles)

[retread]

33. Led Zeppelin. Overindulgent, self-absorbed, rip-offs.

[blue neen]

34. The Who.

Their music is just boring to me...except for the rock opera "Tommy". Now that is fantastic.

[BeyondGeography]

36. The Eagles

Yawn. Ditto The Dead.

Billy Joel.

Turn it off.

[Recursion]

40. I think the Eagles are the only multiplatinum band that nobody likes.

It's not like anybody really likes the Eagles, but at one point their Greatest Hits album was mandated to be in every car's tape deck, so we all have it...

[Enthusiast]

42. The Dead?

[BeyondGeography]

47. Yes, and I'm not alone in this thread

[Throd]

53. The Dead is simply Country Bear Jamboree on acid.

[Mr.Bill]

77. Perfect description.

I'm going to remember that one.

[Tom Ripley]

80. Perfect and hilarious

Nicely done!

[bigwillq]

37. The Beatles (nt)

[Populist_Prole]

39. Yes, ELP, Bob Seegar, Bruce Springsteen

I caught all kinds of static from my peers back in the day. "Everybody" thought they were great. "They put on a great show". I'm supposed to like them.

I'm not saying they had no talent in some ways: It's just the sound does nothing for me. The first two are too keyboardy/synth for me; the latter two are too commercially "slick" sounding. Safe for radio. The "everyman" salt of the earth persona cut no ice with me.

[Enthusiast]

43. OMG! Even this?

[reflection]

67. Early Yes is almost unbeatable.

It's beautiful.

[Enthusiast]

69. Thank you. Pink Floyd too.

[Enrique]

45. too keyboardy lol

I know what you mean but it sounds funny. Like saying Jimi Hendrix is too guitary.

I'm surprised to hear there was pressure to like them, I always thought they were kind of cult bands, but they are a little before my time so I wouldn't know.

[Populist_Prole]

54. But that's just my taste

I like the hard rock sound of guitars, especially power chords/palm muting with distortion. There are lots of tunes with some keyboard accents that sound good, but I absolutely hate a keyboard dominated sound. It's just not for me.

I must have been one of 13 kids in my high school that didn't walk around wearing a gaudy 'Yes' concert shirt. "They put on a good show". Yeah yeah yeah. They got talent. I know that. I just don't like their sound.

[Go Vols]

63. Get out of Denver

[progressoid]

50. Bob Segar.

Yuck.

That is all.

[yuiyoshida]

48. DIR EN GREY

Kyo, the lead singer is a jerk... He has a great voice, but he's a total ass to most people and would rather sit in his room under guard than meet anyone. He thinks his fans are trash and preforms for his own amusement. Even some of the top performers in the business can't stand his arrogance..
(Though given a choice between him and Ted Nugent, Kyo wins hands down.)

[opiate69]

59. I love Dir en Grey.... had no idea their singer was such a jackass though... that sucks.

[Initech]

65. They do rock but I had no idea that their singer was such an arrogant jerk.

[Inkfreak]

51. The Beatles. I dislike their music.

And boy oh boy does that seem to set some off. I'm 35 and have a pretty wide range of tastes. But they ain't one of em. My stepdad loved em and I'd listen to them all the time as a kid. Maybe that has something to do with it. Not him but the hearing it so much. Blah.

Oh, and I'm totally with you on The Doors. Hated their music the very first time I heard it. Nails on chalkboard.

[MADem]

55. I am an old fart who likes OLD SCHOOL MOTOWN...

So much of the popular music of the past four or five decades just never appealed to me. I will listen to it, but I won't pay for it!

I'll listen to Elvis, even though I know he was copyin'...!

[hifiguy]

56. I have always had an abiding

dislike bordering on hatred for the Velvet Underground and everyone who was ever in the band except for John Cale, of whom I am very fond. Can't stand them.

[opiate69]

60. You and me both, hifi.... in fact,

I've never quite been able to figure out how a band who sold so few units is somehow "the most important band in the world, EVAH!!!!!" - at least, that's how the music "press" seems to treat them anyway... And I still say, if Lou Reed had never recorded the line "but she never lost her head, even when she was giving head", nobody outside of a handful of self-important, Greenwich Village goobers would have ever known his name.

[Tom Ripley]

62. I love the Velvets and Reed, but I HATE...

reading about them. People just project so much mythology, nonsense, and bullshit onto them.
My advice is always to just listen to the records and ignore the commentary. The genius is in the grooves.

[cemaphonic]

84. Hah, that line is the worst.

I like VU and Lou Reed just fine (although I would agree that both are overpraised) but that line is some "Take the Money and Run" level rhyming.

This line makes up for it though:
"Does anyone need yet another politician
Caught with his pants down and money sticking in his hole?"

[Tom Ripley]

86. I've always assumed the line was intended to be brilliantly stupid/stupidly brilliant...

akin to:
Just like poison in a vial
Hey. she was often very vile...
from "Caroline Says"

Damn it! There I go with that Manhattan exegesis I deplore in others!

FWIW, I also enjoy Ozzy's rhyming of "masses" with "masses" in "War Pigs"

[Kingofalldems]

57. Boston

[geardaddy]

58. My List

The Hold Steady
Pearl Jam
Soul Asylum
The Jayhawks
Metallica
Guns -n- Roses
Stevie Ray Vaughn
Eric Clapton

There are probably more, but that's all that comes to mind right now

[Initech]

64. Linkin Park

Just never been a big fan, even though I like a lot of the music that gets played on most modern rock stations.

[Number9Dream]

66. Bob Dylan... I know, sacrilege!

His voice wasn't very good in the sixties, and now it's almost unlistenable. I like some of his songs, but there are other songwriters of his era I prefer... Paul Simon, John Lennon, Ray Davies, and others.

[Mr.Bill]

78. Dylan is a great songwriter and poet.

Not so good at singing or playing guitar. That's why whenever someone covers his songs, it almost always sounds better.

[BeyondGeography]

85. No one else can sing Sara though

The greatest song ever written to save a marriage (but didn't).

[reflection]

68. I never really got into these guys.

[hifiguy]

81. I will see that and raise you

HEINO!!

Imagine going into a wigwam and finding Heino inside.

[mvd]

70. Hmm I'm so diverse it's hard to say who I am supposed to like

One possibility could be I'm not crazy about Colbie Caillat and I tend to like female singer songwriters.

Not crazy about Earth Wind and Fire and am a big classic rock fan.

[GoCubsGo]

71. Lorde

How the hell she got a record contract, let alone 2 Grammys is beyond me. She makes me want to poke sharp pencils through my ear drums. Ditto for Suzanne Vega.

Also on the list:
Coldplay, or as I call then "Overplay"
Arcade Fire
Billy Joel
Bruce Hornsby--even when he played with the Grateful Dead

[Jamaal510]

72. As a 24 year old I'm supposed to like today's mainstream hip-hop and R&B, but

it's so watered-down that I now mostly listen to either old school songs or other genres like jazz and metal.

[kentauros]

83. See if there's anything on this station you might like:

http://somafm.com/




By the way, I'm normally considered "too old" for those genres I do like. The ones I'm "supposed" to like for my age make me want to EMP Adult-Contemporary off the face of the planet!

[Chan790]

73. I really like Adam Levine as a person and think he's talented...

I hate Maroon 5. I think they'd be better with a different frontman that stylistically matches their music...Levine doesn't...and he'd be better with a backing band that better reflects his taste...which does not coincide with what Maroon 5 does.

[MH1]

74. Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, Aerosmith

to name the ones that come immediately to mind.

Oh, each of them have one or two songs I do like. But in general they are channel-changers for me.

Edit to add Yes. And I can't think of a song by them that I like. Not any that are frequently played on the radio, anyway.

[Mr.Bill]

76. Prince

Competent musician? Sure. Music I like to listen to? No.

[hifiguy]

82. I met him about the time his first record came out.

He used to bring stuff into the dry-cleaning shop I worked in before I went to college.

He was an arrogant asshole of indescribable dimensions even then and once told one of the girls I worked with not to look at him.

It is also a fairly open secret in Minneapolis music circles that Desmond Dickerson, the Revolution's lead guitarist, wrote many of the early hits. They were published under Prince's name and Desmond was very handsomely compensated therefor.

[Dpm12]

88. The Beatles

Sue me. I can't STAND them. They took themselves too seriously (mostly their music) and I just don't care for their songwriting.

[GOLGO 13]

89. The Dead, Dylan, Zappa, Doors,

Not too crazy about Springsteen either.

[Generic Brad]

90. Coldplay to start

They sound like a high school U2 tribute band trying to palm off their own material.

Radiohead - WTF is that noise?

Metallica - They killed Napster are persona non gratis.

Any band with Chris Cornell or Chad Kroeger in it. Most annoying voices in the world.

[Tobin S.]

91. Being a trucker, I'm supposed to like country music.

I dislike the entire genre.

I was in my 20s in the 90s so I'm supposed to like Nirvana, but I don't.

Ditto for Rage Against the Machine.

I enjoy new alt rock the most, but judging from outward appearances I'm not supposed to.