Most overrated music genre

[UdoKier]

Poll question: Most overrated music genre

Most overrated music genre

It's a tie between Reggae and Punk for me. How to vote?

[TlalocW]

1. Other

Surf rock. Hate it, hate it, hate it, hate it. I know I'll get flamed for this, but 90% of all Beach Boys songs sound the same.

TlalocW

[tuvor]

3. Surf rock to me is Dick Dale, Duane Eddy, Link Wray

and the VENTURES!

Surely you don't mean THEM, do you?

DO YOU??????????

[TlalocW]

5. The only name I recognize is the Ventures

Let's say Beach Boys, Jan and Dean, and any band with the word "Del" in it.

TlalocW

[tuvor]

8. Think Pulp Fiction soundtrack

and you'll have a better idea what I mean.

[TlalocW]

9. Okay, if there's one thing I hate as much as Surf Rock

It's Quentin Tarrantino (sp?). I've never seen "Pulp Fiction."

TlalocW

[tuvor]

16. Just listen to the soundtrack then.

Minus the dialog interludes. That ain't no damn Beach Boys.

[derby378]

7. Don't forget Man or Astro-Man?

Dick Dale's a friggin' genius. I love his riff on Hava Nagila.

[tuvor]

10. Dick Dale played guitar on Lawrence Welk

But it wasn't THE Dick Dale. Freaked me out when I first heard Larry tank da boy by name.

[Wickerman]

13. Yes, lets leave Dick and Man or Astroman

out of this. No place on a worst of...

Dick Dale, whose fans actually think its a compliment to be called Dickheads.

[ZoCrowes]

49. Dick Dale Roooolz

I saw him on a car commercial not to long ago and I was glad to see it the dude deserves to be making some money

[Patiod]

64. And I suppose that includes "Los Straightjackets"

How can you not love Los Straightjackets?

[OldLeftieLawyer]

79. A little Dick Dale.......

......... sure goes a long way.

[susanna]

2. Other for me, too...

Ska.

I've just never "got it." And I "get" most music. Dunno, I guess I'm missing the "ska" gene.

[SweetLeftFoot]

42. Ska

This is because ballbags in California insist on using the term "ska" to describe the crappy sort-of-punk they play.

Proper ska was only ever played by English people and West Indians during the period of the early 60's to early '80s.

Proper ska - Skatalites, The Specials - is great.

[Califooyah Operative]

44. yea, well....

some people also consider the punk/ska that happened back when i was in high school "third wave" ska. Original ska was jamaican. 2nd wave was the 2tone british stuff your talking about. Its all ska just different waves.

[SweetLeftFoot]

47. You'll note

That in my post I said real ska came from West Indians and Brits in the period of the early '60s to early '80s. That encompasses the Jamaican angle you are talking about.

[toddzilla]

4. ok who voted blues..

i'm gonna kick their ass

[tuvor]

6. Rap. Where's Rap???

If I had to pick, I might pick that one. A friend who's opinions I respect really likes the Beastie Boys. I conceded that perhaps I'm simply missing the Rap appreciation gene.

[derbstyron]

14. Exactly!! n/t

[UdoKier]

22. Well, it's about being overrated...

and tons of people still dislike rap & R& B despite its popularity.

[Kire]

41. what kind of answer is that?

why can't you just say that the editing time expired and that's why you can't add Rap and/or R&B?

[proud2BlibKansan]

84. I agree

Rap is the most overrated art form ever.

[Rowdyboy]

11. Jazz

Total waste of time, ugly, unpleasant noise....

[mtnsnake]

18. Same here. It sounds awful, you can't dance to it, & it's hard to play

Why do some people like it so much?

[Rowdyboy]

19. I've really tried to like it, but I can't seem to wrap my head around jazz

Its blaring and discordant. It makes me queasy and I can't find an excuse to keep listening.

[Connie_Corleone]

62. You're not supposed to dance to jazz.

My aunt can't stand it when some people in a jazz club get up and start trying to "dance" to it.

[Ron Green]

33. Jazz is music that requires some time and care to understand. It's got a

long history of development and artistry. Jazz was the popular music of the nation at one time, when the music was simpler and people were more skillful dancers than they are now. As jazz grew in its artistic ways, the masses were left behind as they settled for rock and roll for their dancing needs, and the market shrank to the more discriminating listeners.

[Rowdyboy]

34. I really tried to give jazz a chance some years ago....

I had a close friend at the time that I wanted to impress. Sadly, jazz just didn't work for me and it still doesn't.

[Ron Green]

36. Well, it takes lots of listening and study to put it all in perspective.

The body of work is huge, and now goes back almost a hundred years. It's the only true American art form, and yet American audiences have never dug it as much as have international audiences. I suspect our national attention span is now just too short for jazz ever to have popularity as it did in the '30s and early '40s.

[Rowdyboy]

37. I understand your argument, and you're right...but

it (jazz) just doesn't move
American audiences. I have
no idea why, but it doesn't.

[Ron Green]

61. Americans don't take the time to understand and appreciate jazz for the

same reasons, perhaps, that they don't take the time to appreciate public transportation or environmental responsibility or many other things that require thought and reflection.

[ZoCrowes]

52. Only true american art form?

The blues and country music are both uniquely american art forms. Granted both have their roots in the music of Africa and Europe however I doubt they would have developed anywhere BUT America. Hell it could be said that both represent America because they took something from the old world and made it undenianly American. Blues and country musicians also have had a major impact on each other. They also have had a much greater impact on american popular music. The fusing of electric blues and hillbilly music lead to the creation of rock n roll.

I love Jazz but the whole "only true american art form" thing is BS. Anybody who says Hank Williams, Robert Johnson, Merle Haggard and Lightnin Hopkins are not uniquely AMERICAN artists is either a snob, an idiot or both.

[Ron Green]

59. You're right that those forms of music are all uniquely American;

I suppose I was consigining blues, country and rock forms more to commercial and folk forms than to art. This is elitist, I know, but I suggest that jazz has a place in the tradition of art, due to its depth and artistry, that the others do not. And I say this as a life-long fan (and performer) of blues, folk, rock and country music.

[ZoCrowes]

66. Art is something that is created

Jazz is just like any other form of popular music. It is in the same vein as rock n roll, gospel, bluegrass, R&B, folk etc etc. They are all uniquely american ART forms. Now you may prefer jazz over other types of music but that does not make it any better.

I've only really been into music for 9 years (I'm 20) but in that amount of time I've played in jazz combos, sat in with a few blues bands, play actively in a rock band and work at an indie record store with the largest jazz selection in my state. I've seen snobbery of every kind. I say fuck that. Music is music is music and one style is no more worthy of praise than the other.

[Ron Green]

70. I have to disagree that jazz is just like the other popular forms.

It has a tradition of notation, study, theory and performance that the other genres don't have. It requires a significant amount of background in listening just to hear what's there. The other forms are primarily folk forms in that they are (usually) not written down, and passed from one musician to another by tradition. Jazz musicians are for the most part trained musicians who are grounded in the pedagogy of their instruments, while this is not generally true for popular-syle players.

None of this is to say that jazz is "better" than the other forms, but it is far richer and artistic, and therefore will not be as popular as the music that's easier to get into.

[ZoCrowes]

73. Eh

Jazz started out as a popular form of music. Very few of the early jazz artists wrote anything down. If you study any of the early jazz combos they were mostly just guys who got together with whatever instruments they could scrounge together and played. Over time its recieved the scholastic treatment but its origin is just as populist as any other. One of my all time favorite guitarist was Django Reinhardt who could not sightread to save his life. Nowadays most jazz musicians are highly trained but it did not start out that way. Most of the first few generation of jazz piecess are fairly simple with improv based around a straightforward riff or theme and was passed on by ear. I dig Bix Beiderbecke and appreciate his style of music which relies more on composition than improv but that is not the original basis of jazz.

Which brings up an interesting point: What are you calling Jazz? I dig both Cole Porter and Grant Green and both are usually found in the Jazz section of a record store. However one is tin-pan alley pop (VERY GOOD tin pan alley pop) and one is Bop.

So many things are put under the label of Jazz I don't think you can honestly say it has a "tradition." Its probably the most disjointed musical form around.

I know that does not make any sense because I am a horrible writer but I am sure you get the jist.

On Edit: And musical mastery is very important in the folk music forms as well. I know VERY few guitarists who can play a Blind Willie McTell, Lightnin Hopkins or Robert Johnson song correctly. They may be able to get something that sounds close but very few can play it note for note. It requires incredible physical dexterity and knowledge of the instrument to pull it off.

[Ron Green]

77. First of all jazz is indeed a large scope of musical activities, and not

all of it has to do with notated music, but almost all of it does. Most of the early jazz players, at least the ones who later made up the swing bands of Fletcher Henderson, Jimmie Lunceford and of course the white swing groups, came out of a school music background. In the very earliest days, yes, some of the New Orleans guys were unschooled players who got together with scrounged instruments, but remember also that a hundred years ago all music was live, and many households had a piano or guitar and someone who played and read music. The band tradition in New Orleans was of military and concert music, and this, combined with the flatted third of the blues, was the wellspring of jazz. Blues is still a folk music, and it makes no sense to write it down; same with country. Jazz, on the other hand, has become an Art, with the capital "A," because it has evolved a methodology and a body of work that is organized, studied and taught just as classical music is.

The "tradition" of jazz, as I understand it, is blues based or pop-song based, but allows for all kinds of forays into many directions (such as Ornette Coleman or Roland Kirk, or later Weather Report and Mahavishnu). But the center of the tradition is a blues or song form, and some room for improvisation.

I think my only disagreement with you is that jazz is different in kind from the other forms we've talked about. And I love 'em all. And I don't think you're a horrible writer.
:-)

[ZoCrowes]

78. Scholarship of Jazz

Jazz has become a scholarly form which I personally feel is for the worst. Much of the jazz that I hear today is crap with a capital C. Of course the same could be said of blues and most forms of music.

Blues and Rock N Roll are quickly going the same road as jazz in terms of scholarship. I was a music major my first year of college and I mainly took music history and analysis classes. We spent quite a bit of time analyzing Rock N Roll (mainly the Beatles) and blues form and the nuances of each.

I think that Jazz was so quickly adopted by the the establishment was because it was so easily adopted by whites. It started out at as 5 or 6 black dudes in a club smoking reefer and they were demonized. That is one of the reason for the ridiculous marijuana laws that exist today. Those demon jazz musicians were stealing our white women from us! (There is a great book on this called Waiting For The Man.) However, you soon had people like Irving Berlin and Cole Porter taking elements of Jazz and combining them with big band elements came from military marches and the trad music of the urban south and you have something that is palatable to the white audiences. While the brother of Jazz, the blues, is still considered the devils music until white boys like Elvis make it pallatable. Jazz was just the first of the popular musical styles to be co-opted by mainstream america and scholasticized.

Personally I think all of this has changed music for the worse. You now have musicians have chops with no heart. I get invitations to jam with people and I am always open to making music. The most boring to play with are those with formal musical education. A perfect example of this is my buddy Aaron. He used to be an EXCELLENT bassist until he majored in music and was taught the "correct" way to play. Now his technique is fucking horrid and he is concentrating so hard on playing the "correct" notes that he is not playing the RIGHT notes. If you can't HEAR the music in your head before you play it, if you can't FEEL what you are going to play you have no business making music. I'm not the best guitarist in the world by any stretch of the imagination. As a matter of fact I HATE my playing. But I get invited to jam sessions all the time and to sit in with bands because I am adaptive. I can play damn near any style because I have a good ear. Also have written some decent songs in the past too lol

Here is a song I truly think deserves the designation of art written by a poor white boy with no musical education

I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry

Words and music by Hank Williams


Hear that lonesome whippoorwill
He sounds too blue to fly
The midnight train is whining low
I'm so lonesome I could cry

I've never seen a night so long
When time goes crawling by
The moon just went behind a cloud
To hide its face and cry

Did you ever see a robin weep
When leaves begin to die?
Like me he's lost the will to live
I'm so lonesome I could cry

The silence of a falling star
Lights up a purple sky
And as I wonder where you are
I'm so lonesome I could cry

[Ron Green]

80. Agreat song. A folk song. Close to the roots, which is where music ought

to be. The nice thing about jazz is that, no matter how far out you take it, it's close to the roots, because the roots are about improvisation. Not so with "country" music (Shania Twain) or many other forms that got so far from their roots they lost all meaning.

And I'm not denying Hank Williams his art. But I'm still saying that country music is a folk form, as opposed to an art form, just as folk painting is different from conservatory art.

[ZoCrowes]

87. And I'm saying

art is art is art is art with very few distinctions between them. I respect ol Hank just as much as I do Irving Berlin (if not more but thats just personal preference.)

I think we are both on pretty much the same page I just tend to hate catagories. I really don't like the question "what type of music do you like." A much better question is "What musicians do you like?"

[Ron Green]

91. I don't want to argue back and forth, that's for sure.

And I agree with you on all the music you've talked about so far. Obviously for a young guy you have done your work learning about this Cruel Mistress called music. My original response was to someone who just "couldn't get into" jazz, and that's so widespread an attitude in this country. I mean, when Elvin Jones passes away and there's hardly any notice of it underneath all the Madonna-Britney Spears crap, I know that we truly have no music education in this country. We need lots more people like you who can advocate for Hank Williams and Tin Pan Alley at the same time.

[ZoCrowes]

93. Thanks

Yeah when Elvin passed away I was pissed that it barely recieved a mention. I must have played Larry Young's Into Somethin about 20 times that day just to remember the guy. I play drums on the side (my main love is guitar) and I can't even BEGIN to do what he did. Completely blows my mind.

I try to keep an open mind about everything. Most music someone put there heart and soul into creating and it genuinely means something to them. I tend to appreciate that type of thing which is my big problem with the industry now. You have people churning out CRAP to uphold an image. But you have amazing bands that don't conform to that image and they dont get the exposure they deserve (My Morning Jacket, Spearhead, The Plant Life I could go on and on and on.)

I am actually compiling right now a whole bunch of CDs for my cousin for Xmas. The kid is 16 and is getting heavily into music so I see a lot of myself in him and he started out at about the same place I did (Zeppelin, Beatles, Dylan etc.) so I am making a bunch of mixes. Everything from Outkast to Jelly Roll Morton. I'll post the setlist when its finished.

[Ron Green]

71. Dupe.

[eyepaddle]

94. I'm with you,

I support almost any pretention you'd care to name, but oooff, I just can't bring myself to not be annoyed with jazz.

And here's where I might get lit up; I live in the Twin Cities and oh man, oh man do I get so sick of the half-assed college-rock alterna-tripe that the music critics up here are SOOOOOO in love with. The Replacements had their shot--everybody else knock it off. That goes double for straight-ahead country-inflected roots-rock-from-the-heartland. End the JayHawks and give me Run Westy Run.

[Boswells_Johnson]

90. Charles Mingus was one of the greatest American musical talents

of the 20th century.

[Wickerman]

12. Progressive Rock

If I hear another Rick Wakeman organ chord I'm gonna choke on my hurl

[DrGonzoLives]

69. Damn straight

To hell with Dream Theater and their ilk as well.

Of those on the list, those, I choose Techno. It's fucking garbage.

[SKKY]

15. If Corporate hacks like Green Day still pass themselves...

...off a punk, it seems like the obvious choice to me.

[tuvor]

17. The other day I heard them refered to as something like

the grandfathers of punk. I think it was on some Canadian tween pop show.

:wtf:

[SKKY]

30. Well, not to bag on Canada, but I think the Bare-naked Ladies...

...even qualify as Alternative. Although, yes, I agree with you- calling Green Day the "grandfathers" of punk is like calling Christina Aguilera the "Queen of Soul".

[tuvor]

32. Don't get me started on BNL

They're more annoying than popcorn husks between your molars.

If THEY were a genre I'd've voted for them in a second.

[susanna]

57. You have got to be kidding me.

That's insane. Green Day? :wtf: is right.

On edit: my 666th post, thankyouverymuch.

[Boswells_Johnson]

20. I had to go with Punk, but only what passes for punk

nowadays. It dreadful pap.

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

21. Who voted againt folk???

...I hope his roof doesn't have a hole in it and the rain isn't falling.

[welshTerrier2]

55. folk is by far the most underrated genre ...

folkies should check out: www.folkAlley.com and www.wumb.org ...

[Boswells_Johnson]

85. Richard Thompson is God

Well, maybe not, but I bet God couldn't play as well:)

[AngryAmish]

23. Reggae hater here

Hate the Grateful Dead also. Prove me wrong.

[chaska]

28. D'accord.

yuk

[livinginphotographs]

63. I'm with you all the way.

Old joke, but it seemed appropriate.

Q. What did the Deadhead say to the other Deadhead when they both ran out of drugs?
A. "Man, this band sucks."

[Patiod]

65. I'm with you on the Dead

But I love reggae

[livinginphotographs]

92. Yeah, I have no problem with reggae.

Just the Dead..

And modern country music. Blech.

[aQuArius]

24. Where's COUNTRY? The Freeper genre

:puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke:

[UdoKier]

25. Country isn't overrated.

80% of people I knew, even growing up in Texas, did not like country.

And Johnny Cash was badass. Most of it sucks, but not all.

[ragin_acadian]

31. yes,yes,yes,yes,yes,yes,yes,yes,yes

there are only three public outlets for howling toothless inbreeders: country music, c-span call ins, and the british monarchy.

and apparently kobe teeth and the dixie chicks are having some sort of feud. can someone lock them in a condemned building scheduled for demolition, and put them out of my misery?

here is my list for crappiest music genres in descending order:

rap
swing music
nu metal
insane clown posse
country

[rug]

26. rap

[GoddessOfGuinness]

27. Sorry, but I suggesting classical music is overrated

is like suggesting that food is overrated.

There may be foods that you don't like; but you can't write all dishes off on the basis of tasting a few.

Most of the people I've met who "didn't like classical music" had listened to little beyond the Pachelbel Canon. Some of them had even heard classical compositions that they liked, but had never considered part of the genre.

[Ron Green]

35. I agree, Goddess. People who put the "thumbs down" on classical music

(which I imagine includes everything from late Renaissance to contemporary orchestral, piano and choral music) are saying much more about themselves than about the music.

[njdemocrat106]

38. Classical music is like good manners

You can live perfectly well without either, but you'll be perceived as a boor without them, as some person once said.

BTW, I do like classical music.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

81. That's interesting...

I'd never heard that before. Though I've met a few people who would look down on those who don't listen to classical music, most (myself included) would just really like to turn them on to it.

I once had a student, around 13 years old, who came to her first violin lesson defiantly declaring that she only listened to heavy metal. So her first homework assignment was to go to the library and check out 5 classical Cds. I gave her a variety to choose from, and was sure to include some pretty bombastic material. The next week, she said she'd decided that she only listened to heavy metal and classical.

[tjwmason]

46. It's pretty much all I listen to but...

To consider it a single genre is perhaps slightly misleading. The great divide between sacred and saecular music, chamber music and symphonies. To put Livre d'Orgue by Olivier Messiaen (currently playing - nobody else in my office today - hurrah) in the same place as Eine Kleine Nacht Music by Mozart seems bizzare to me.

On the other hand, one does still encounter extreme musical snobs who disregard anything other than 'classical' as worthless - this to me would be over-rating classical music.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

83. I've met some who disregard anything

written between Beethoven and Stravinsky as trash. Still others whine about avant garde classical music. I consider them to be as ignorant as those who consider classical music to be snooty. The only difference is, the classical "snobs" intellectualize ad nauseum, attempting to justify their bias.

Aren't we silly creatures?

[ZoCrowes]

51. It is in certain respects

more snobbery is associated with classical than any other form of music and much of it bores the shit out of me. However when a classical piece is good its DAMN GOOD. I could listen to Bach all day long especially his pieces for cello and violin. Even better when they are played on guitar.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

86. The fact that snobbery is "associated" with an art form

is not the fault of the music. Certainly there are "classical snobs", just as there are "snobs" of any genre and subgenre (even rock). But I believe the association of prudishness with classical music to be a 20th century advertising invention, designed to sell more pop recordings.

Personally, I think it's a shame that people feel the need to put down any kind of music in order to justify their dislike for it. Certainly there are artists I don't care for, songs I'm not wild about, and genres that just don't do anything for me. But I don't see any point in getting bent out of shape about them and sniping them at every opportunity. Seems like a waste of energy.

[mitchum]

29. Modern mainstream country AKA lame pop for really white people

[JohnKleeb]

39. agreed

God a lot of people in class like that shit, and I hate it, now Ive listened to some of Dylan's Nashville Skyline which is sort of a country sound to it, and I like it, but pop country and asshole country like Toby Keith is jsut agh.

[skygazer]

67. I would agree with that

Older country music was more akin to bluegrass and folk music than what is now called country. This stuff is like a bastard offspring of country and commercial pop and it sucks badly.

I enjoy much of the older stuff that my dad listened to when I was a kid - there was some great stuff. The stuff you hear now is simply re manufactured crap for mass consumption.

[Undercover Owl]

40. Here's music I hate.....

Who here, besides me, dislikes:

John Mayer?
Switchfoot?
Maroon5?
Jason Mraz?

x(

[SweetLeftFoot]

43. Maroon5

Should be shot then hung from a bridge Fallujah style.

[Guitarman]

48. That would be me...

John Mayer. OK guitarist. Horrid vocalist IMHO. What is his vocal range? 1/2 octave, maybe.

[ProfessorGAC]

74. I Don't Think He Can Play Guitar None Either

Pedestrian, derivative, and boring. That's not the way to catch me ear, i can tell ya!
The Professor

[ZoCrowes]

75. What he said

Everybody raves about what a great guitarist is and I just dont hear it.

However he actually seems like a pretty cool guy who genuinely loves music...he just makes crappy music to get the pussy. Thats all it is

[catbert836]

89. Me too

Along w/ a bunch of others like
-Usher
-Ja Rule
-Evanescence
-Ashlee Simpson
-Alicia Keys
and many many other stupid bands.

[Seabiscuit]

45. Other, besides "Punk": Rap shit.

Call it what you want, but DON'T call it "music".

[ZoCrowes]

50. I can find good stuff in any genre

I think the only thing I don't have in my collection is polka. I have everything from Gregorian Chants to NWA to The Beatles. That being said I fucking DESPISE all of these whiny shithead motherfuckers that pass off their music as rock n roll these days. Bands like Simple Plan, Linkin Park, Yellowcard etc are all the downfall of western civilization. You got picked on in high school? Big fucking deal get over it and stop clogging up the airwaves with your whiney bullshit. If I want to be miserable I'll go listen to The Cure or The Smiths at least then I would enjoy being miserable.

On a side note I really liked the Jay-Z vs. Linkin Park collaboration on MTV2. As long as they keep their glorified choir boy's mouth shut and stop the "rapper" from uttering anything the music is pretty fucking good.

[henslee]

53. Syrup?

[NashVegas]

54. Why is "Rock" Not In the Poll?

that would get my vote.

[AntiCoup2K4]

56. Late 80's cheese ballad producing hair farmer "metal" bands....

...most of whom never made an actual heavy metal song, and the ones who did selling out for the quick cash. Only difference between these clowns and N'Suck/Backshit Boys/etc. is that they played their own instruments. (Very poorly in most cases)

[American Tragedy]

58. Where the hell is rap on this poll?

Or would that be more appropriately considered "spoken word" rather than music?

Real punk rock can be good, obviously when it's not over-produced movie soundtrack shit, but also still not completely discordant. I'm sorry, but once you get beyond the anarchism and shock factor of his live performances, actually listening to the music on a GG Allin record is invariably like hearing nails down a chalkboard.

[ZombieNixon]

82. Wait. GG Allin? Music? ???

GG Allin didn't make music, he just did unspeakable things on stage.

[HEAVYHEART]

60. Hmm

Overrated is in the eye of the beholder. I like ALL good music regardless of genre.

[devilgrrl]

68. Fuckin' 'Hip Hop'/'Rap'/DJ's

:boring:

BTW, Punk & Reggae: Two of the best genres!

[opiate69]

72. Gotta be a tie between punk and indie.

[WMliberal]

76. Other. Country

Then again, we do rate it pretty low, wich is where it deserves to be.

[baba]

88. You forgot the cheesy crap that passes for R&B these days.

Overproduced schlock-I swear every song sounds EXACTLY the same. Gangster rap is a close second. Right wing country-really bad. And lets not forget Britney and her ilk.