Bands and performers who are really popular, but you just don't get it

[evo]

For me, it's the usual suspects - Coldplay, Foo Fighters, The Strokes, The Killers, Fleet Foxes.....most of the JJJ dreck. Just not my thing I guess.

same. Plus Radiohead

 

[Bomber32]

Coldplay
Oasis
Red Hot Chilli Peppers
Metallica
Nirvana

 

[MrBrightside94]

Find this thread and the comments really interesting. Mainly because I'm a big fan of the group of bands most of you are talking about but hopefully can shed some light, but obviously this is only my opinion.
I'm 18 and i don't listen to the radio at all but with that being said i love Coldplay, Bon Iver, The Killers, KoL, Muse etc. Although these bands are 'mainstream,' they're nothing compared to 'artists' who sing about clubs, drugs, getting drunk, having sex etc with an auto tuned voice and a laptop.
Although it'll sound blasphemous and impossible for some to understand, Coldplay and the like are 'the modern rock acts' of the 21st century. If a massive band from the 80's or whatever were on the radio today, as much as i would love it, they wouldn't get half the reception they would've back then. At the end of the day most bands today would've been influenced by acts in the past but in order to make music for a living they need to appeal to a wider audience, hence the 'poppy' sound.
And while some may think it's boring/sappy/'gay,' if you listen to a song like 'Fix You' - Coldplay the lyrics and musicality etc is amazing and is an anthem for millions of people and there's nothing better than singing that with 20,000 others who feel the same. Trust me, i've experienced it.
Sorry for the ramble/rant!

 

[Fossie 32]

M Jackson first to come to mind.


just about everything post 70s

 

[bunsen burner]

Find this thread and the comments really interesting. Mainly because I'm a big fan of the group of bands most of you are talking about but hopefully can shed some light, but obviously this is only my opinion.
I'm 18 and i don't listen to the radio at all but with that being said i love Coldplay, Bon Iver, The Killers, KoL, Muse etc. Although these bands are 'mainstream,' they're nothing compared to 'artists' who sing about clubs, drugs, getting drunk, having sex etc with an auto tuned voice and a laptop.

It seems you are trying to compare them to bad pop music. There is other stuff available.

Although it'll sound blasphemous and impossible for some to understand, Coldplay and the like are 'the modern rock acts' of the 21st century.

We get it, but these bands are bland. There's nothing cutting edge about them/

If a massive band from the 80's or whatever were on the radio today, as much as i would love it, they wouldn't get half the reception they would've back then.

Because they'd sound old. It's sort of like Jet - they might have been semi popular if they came out in the 70s because they would have seemed somewhat original. But now they just sound like 70s try hards.

At the end of the day most bands today would've been influenced by acts in the past but in order to make music for a living they need to appeal to a wider audience, hence the 'poppy' sound.

Correct. I wouldn't so much say "poppy" but more "bland and generic".

And while some may think it's boring/sappy/'gay,' if you listen to a song like 'Fix You' - Coldplay the lyrics and musicality etc is amazing and is an anthem for millions of people and there's nothing better than singing that with 20,000 others who feel the same. Trust me, i've experienced it.
Sorry for the ramble/rant!

20,000 boring people in one place at one time doesn't make them unboring.

I bet after the concert they went and jumped in their station wagons with "my family" stickers on the back windows and drove home. Probably ate pre-packed white bread samwiches on the way home too.

 

[bunsen burner]

M Jackson first to come to mind.

Yep. I remember Thriller came out and it was huge and i was thinking "f***ing homo wears white socks".

 

[S120]

Radiohead, Kasabian, Arctic Monkeys, Muse.

I don't hate any of these bands by any stretch of the imagination (Muse would definitely be my least preferred but the others are about level for me) but the way they are talked up by some of my friends and generally people I hear is just something I have never understood. Like some tracks but not heaps.

In the wake of Radiohead tickets coming out, my life is filled with people jizzing their pants over them to which I am forced to say that I don't really enjoy them and hear back how misinformed I am.

It's not that I have a problem with the post-Brit pop genre at all (there are some Brit pop bands I love like The Cure and Smiths) but these bands, as the thread title suggests, I just don't really get.

 

[thurmanmunson]

I saw Radiohead in about 1994 in a shitty nightclub in front of about 50 people. Not a big fan, but they've improved with age.

 

[La Dispute]

Yep. I remember Thriller came out and it was huge and i was thinking "f***ing homo wears white socks".

Wearing white socks is homo?

Your obsession with what is considered gay is strangely bizarre and quite frankly, a little incriminating.

 

[RedmanWasHere]

Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Adele, Justin Bieber, James Blunt and Miley Cyrus off the top of my head.

Honourable mentions to One Direction, The Jonas Brothers and The Strokes.

 

[policegetthatman]

I hated coldplay before it was cool to hate them.

 

[bunsen burner]

Wearing white socks is homo?

Your obsession with what is considered gay is strangely bizarre and quite frankly, a little incriminating.

You should stop wearing white socks then.

 

[bunsen burner]

Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Adele, Justin Bieber, James Blunt and Miley Cyrus off the top of my head.

Honourable mentions to One Direction, The Jonas Brothers and The Strokes.

Apart from The Strokes, any chance you can mention someone who is respected?

 

[Cthublhu]

Jeff Buckley - Lose respect for anyone that plays him

Wouldn't go that far, musical tastes being personal and all that.

But geez, I just don't get the love for Jeff Buckley. Over on the best albums of the 90s thread "Grace" came in top 5. A lot of people like that album, but I don't get it at all.

Add: RATM - one great song doesn't make a good band.

 

[Cruyff14]

+1 Nick Cave

And if people think Bon Iver is mainstream, well I have heard it all.

 

[Eddie Dingle]

Just checked out the youtube lnks of ed kuepper and xtc. Both very mundane and boring. Can completely understand them not being well known

If those songs were recorded and released by James Blunt or Coldplay the whole world would be falling over themselves to proclaim them the greatest songs ever written.

 

[simba_]

Foo Fighters - Mum and dad rock

hahaha that's great. i just thought of jock rock because that's how i saw the foos at school. all the meathead simpletons thought foo fighters were sincerely the best rock band out there, they think pearl jam are just amazing, they are obsessed with nirvana, the libertines, muse, all this s**t. these same guys are now into radiohead, and they were just into soundgarden for half a year because of BDO.

when i was at high school radiohead were awesome, inventive, influential to me.. now they are almost cringe worthy.. a little boring.. but now they have become the band that all the meatheads are going crazy over.

 

[Cursed Cat]

If those songs were recorded and released by James Blunt or Coldplay the whole world would be falling over themselves to proclaim them the greatest songs ever written.

XTC are brilliant, have 'always' been aware of them but I only recently started listening to their catalogue in entirety - *love* English Settlement, would rate that one of my very fave albums ...

 

[Papa G]

Surely only bands that have any street cred to hetrosexual blokes aged 16-45 with some form of idea are worth mentioning on this thread, which of course automatically knocks out Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Adele, Justin Bieber, James Blunt and Miley Cyrus and bands like Creed, Coldplay and Bon Jovi?

Any rate

Radiohead x 100
The Smiths x 1,000,000

 

[Cthublhu]

Surely only bands that have any street cred to hetrosexual blokes aged 16-45 with some form of idea are worth mentioning on this thread

I always chuckle at pretentious w***ers who think the bands they listen to gives them some sort of "street cred" or "proves" how hetero they are.

 

[thurmanmunson]

Effeminate all-male bands should be outlawed and punishable by death

 

[Papa G]

I always chuckle at pretentious w***ers who think the bands they listen to gives them some sort of "street cred" or "proves" how hetero they are.

Honey, you've missed the point, it's not that they give me street cred or prove my own hetrosexyness, there are bands that clearly do not have street cred and listing ones that are obviously aimed at teenage girls, middleaged women or just plain s**t to anyone who has any musical taste is just a waste of time.

 

[Trewth]

I've got a bunch of friends who's musical opinion I respect highly who all love Animal Collective. I. Just. Don't. ****ing. Get. It.

Oh and that beard folk nonsense like Horse Feathers, Midlake, Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes etc etc

 

[Hue_Jars]

Amen to that beard folk tripe.

 

[Hue_Jars]

Hipster indie bands like San Cisco, Vampire Weekend, Florence and the Machine, Fleet Foxes, Arcade Fire, Foster the People I despise cos its all airy fairy shallow soul less bum fluff and I think their songs are actually really awful and poorly written. Its more about having a fringe, tight jeans and wearing vintage piece of crap clothes.This is my opinion but. The lyrics and song structure is awful. I think this is why these bands are coming through and then forgotten about in 5 minutes. No one can realte to their songs, and Triple j backs this, and it seems that the quality of music is waning horribly.

Come on, a song about texting??? That awkward song is horrible. Again, my opinion.

The last two hottest 100's were unlistenable.

Now they are getting played on mainstream radio like Nova. Did you know everytime Pumpked Up Kicks is played on Nova a hipster falls off his fixie?

Rock n roll is dying, and The Black Keys seem to be the only band holding things up.

We need a new Rolling Stones.

Again, just my opinion.