Most Overrated and Underrated Musical Artists...

[bayoubill]

The Kinks are vastly underrated.

They virtually invented the power chord. How many rock and heavy metal bands don't play power chords today? zero? or maybe... zero?

History of the Power Chord........

There is disagreement over which was the first record to feature power chords. Link Wray is commonly cited as having introduced power chords with his 1958 instrumental hit "Rumble". Wray used a pencil to punch holes into the loudspeaker of his amplifier in order to replicate a distortion effect first improvised at a show in Fredericksburg, Virginia.Wray pioneered electric guitar distortions, like overdrive and fuzz, and was the first guitarist to use power chords to play a song's melody.

However, power chords can also be found in earlier, less commercially successful recordings. Robert Palmer has argued that blues guitarists Willie Johnson and Pat Hare, both of whom played for Sun Records in the early 1950s, were the true originators of the power chord, citing as evidence Johnson's playing on Howlin' Wolf's "How Many More Years" (recorded 1951) and Hare's playing on James Cotton's "Cotton Crop Blues" (recorded 1954).

A later hit song built around power chords was "You Really Got Me" by the Kinks, released in 1964. This song clearly demonstrates the fast power chord changes that would become typical of heavy rock riffs:

Early heavy rock bands such as Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple also helped to popularize power chords. Examples include Deep Purple's "Smoke On The Water" while examples from other genres in the 80s include the Cars' "You Might Think". In these genres rather then being emphasized through distortion the "austerity" of a power chord may be emphasized, "by muting the strings and plucking the chord repeatedly."

Pete Townshend, having been influenced by Link Wray, is often credited for introducing the term and the power chord in general and is an avid user of them. "My Generation", live versions of "I Can't Explain", and "Baba O'Riley" are good examples of the sound produced.

lol... did somebody mention "Rumble"...?

here's the song done right ... Brownsville Station...

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4eRO_Z86RI]Rumble Brownsville Station - YouTube[/ame]

 

[bayoubill]

I'll start with a few on my list of Most Overrated... in no particular order...

Bruce Springsteen... yeah sure... he put out a few great tunes... but the "Boss"...?! nah...

Paul McCartney... put out a few pleasant tunes summa those times when he took the roll of lead composer back when he was with the Beatles... but then there were all those other tedious tunes he was guilty of... yeah, he was fun from time to time with Wings... but "Sir Paul"...?! gimme a break... St. Pauly = weak beer

Moody Blues... had a coupla good Top 40 tunes early on... but then they launched into tedious pompous pretentiousness... killed it for me...

Paul Simon... great composer early in his career... went off on a boring tangent soon after going solo... and sucked as a live performer...

Bob Dylan... another great composer who lost his way after the mid-70's... and sucked big time as a live performer...

Rolling Stones... one of the all-time great acts of the 60's... became parodies of themselves after the mid-70's... shoulda gone down in a plane crash after Exile On Main Street... Bill Wyman had the right idea gettin' out while he still had something left of his self respect...

Neil Young... was always a full-of-himself pain in the ass... and after Harvest, wasn't worth the plastic he was stamped on... gimme my money back, MasterCard...

Elvis Presley... will always rightfully have a special place in the pantheon of 50's rock 'n roll greats... but he really sucked in the 60's... and I don't even wanna talk about the 70's...


eta... feel free to disagree with me... that's what I'm here for...

i only disagree with ya about the Moody Blues and Neil Young.....

hmmm... so, according to you, I'm battin' 0.750... not bad... I can live with that...

 

[JamesInFlorida]

i dont feel Deep Purple get the respect they should get.....
Layla was tremendously overplayed and there are some other songs on the LP that are much better that never get played.........
all the so called experts always talk about Fleetwood Mac with Stevie Nicks forgetting about the fact that the Original group was one of the best Blues bands ever 68-70.....most people think Santana did the Original "Black Magic Woman"..........
Foghat i feel is underrated.....
Grand Funk Railroad was creating waves in the hard rock world in the early 70's with very little airplay....yet they dont get mentioned much...
Johnny Winter i feel is underrated....
Love was pretty Influential....but you dont hear about them to often....

Me neither. They played in a way that nobody before them did, Ritchie Blackmore wrote memorable riffs and is a very good all-around player, Gillan is a great singer, everybody in the band is top-notch at what they do. Not to mention in my opinion they have the best live album out of any band (Made in Japan).

And Grand Funk is also def. underrated as well.

 

[bayoubill]

i dont feel Deep Purple get the respect they should get.....
Layla was tremendously overplayed and there are some other songs on the LP that are much better that never get played.........
all the so called experts always talk about Fleetwood Mac with Stevie Nicks forgetting about the fact that the Original group was one of the best Blues bands ever 68-70.....most people think Santana did the Original "Black Magic Woman"..........
Foghat i feel is underrated.....
Grand Funk Railroad was creating waves in the hard rock world in the early 70's with very little airplay....yet they dont get mentioned much...
Johnny Winter i feel is underrated....
Love was pretty Influential....but you dont hear about them to often....

Me neither. They played in a way that nobody before them did, Ritchie Blackmore wrote memorable riffs and is a very good all-around player, Gillan is a great singer, everybody in the band is top-notch at what they do. Not to mention in my opinion they have the best live album out of any band (Made in Japan).

And Grand Funk is also def. underrated as well.

I listened to all this stuff as it came out back then... and, sorry y'all, Deep Purple and Grand Funk definitely sounded second-rate compared to the awesome stuff put out by others...

I hesitate to say Deep Purple and Grand Funk sucked... but they sorta did... 'specially Grand Funk...

 

[Sarah G]

Have to go with Elvis as the King

The King of overrated

He had four good years of Hillbilly Rock where he was cutting edge. From there he sold out to Hollywood and Vegas

By the end he was just a cartoon character

Agree. I just saw Million Dollar Quartet:

Million Dollar Quartet takes audiences back to the night of December 4, 1956. The musical follows four young musicians, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins, on the day they gathered at Sun Records in Memphis for what would be one of the greatest jam sessions ever.

The music was wonderful, I actually liked Jerry Lee the best.

Overrated:

Eagles
Guns N’ Roses
Metallica

Underrated:

Journey
Tears for Fears
Simple Minds


[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljIQo1OHkTI]Simple Minds - Alive And Kicking - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Skull Pilot]

Most overrated

The Beatles
U2

Underrated

Frank Zappa
Heart
Velvet Underground
I will say that Pink is very much underrated. She can sing the sultry bluesy stuff with the best of them

 

[Harry Dresden]

I'll start with a few on my list of Most Overrated... in no particular order...

Bruce Springsteen... yeah sure... he put out a few great tunes... but the "Boss"...?! nah...

Paul McCartney... put out a few pleasant tunes summa those times when he took the roll of lead composer back when he was with the Beatles... but then there were all those other tedious tunes he was guilty of... yeah, he was fun from time to time with Wings... but "Sir Paul"...?! gimme a break... St. Pauly = weak beer

Moody Blues... had a coupla good Top 40 tunes early on... but then they launched into tedious pompous pretentiousness... killed it for me...

Paul Simon... great composer early in his career... went off on a boring tangent soon after going solo... and sucked as a live performer...

Bob Dylan... another great composer who lost his way after the mid-70's... and sucked big time as a live performer...

Rolling Stones... one of the all-time great acts of the 60's... became parodies of themselves after the mid-70's... shoulda gone down in a plane crash after Exile On Main Street... Bill Wyman had the right idea gettin' out while he still had something left of his self respect...

Neil Young... was always a full-of-himself pain in the ass... and after Harvest, wasn't worth the plastic he was stamped on... gimme my money back, MasterCard...

Elvis Presley... will always rightfully have a special place in the pantheon of 50's rock 'n roll greats... but he really sucked in the 60's... and I don't even wanna talk about the 70's...


eta... feel free to disagree with me... that's what I'm here for...

i only disagree with ya about the Moody Blues and Neil Young.....

hmmm... so, according to you, I'm battin' 0.750... not bad... I can live with that...

well i feel the Moody Blues had some pretty interesting Albums.....and i feel Neil Young was one of the better Song Writers in Rock......

 

[Harry Dresden]

i dont feel Deep Purple get the respect they should get.....
Layla was tremendously overplayed and there are some other songs on the LP that are much better that never get played.........
all the so called experts always talk about Fleetwood Mac with Stevie Nicks forgetting about the fact that the Original group was one of the best Blues bands ever 68-70.....most people think Santana did the Original "Black Magic Woman"..........
Foghat i feel is underrated.....
Grand Funk Railroad was creating waves in the hard rock world in the early 70's with very little airplay....yet they dont get mentioned much...
Johnny Winter i feel is underrated....
Love was pretty Influential....but you dont hear about them to often....

Me neither. They played in a way that nobody before them did, Ritchie Blackmore wrote memorable riffs and is a very good all-around player, Gillan is a great singer, everybody in the band is top-notch at what they do. Not to mention in my opinion they have the best live album out of any band (Made in Japan).

And Grand Funk is also def. underrated as well.

and to show how ridiculous the so called Rock n Roll Hall of Fame is.....DP has never even been nominated......while a whole bunch of Bands who cite them as a major influence.....are in.....each one of their players are usually in the top 20 greatest players on their instruments list.....but yet Grand Master Flash.....a hip hopper is in....some hall of fame....

 

[Harry Dresden]

i dont feel Deep Purple get the respect they should get.....
Layla was tremendously overplayed and there are some other songs on the LP that are much better that never get played.........
all the so called experts always talk about Fleetwood Mac with Stevie Nicks forgetting about the fact that the Original group was one of the best Blues bands ever 68-70.....most people think Santana did the Original "Black Magic Woman"..........
Foghat i feel is underrated.....
Grand Funk Railroad was creating waves in the hard rock world in the early 70's with very little airplay....yet they dont get mentioned much...
Johnny Winter i feel is underrated....
Love was pretty Influential....but you dont hear about them to often....

Me neither. They played in a way that nobody before them did, Ritchie Blackmore wrote memorable riffs and is a very good all-around player, Gillan is a great singer, everybody in the band is top-notch at what they do. Not to mention in my opinion they have the best live album out of any band (Made in Japan).

And Grand Funk is also def. underrated as well.

I listened to all this stuff as it came out back then... and, sorry y'all, Deep Purple and Grand Funk definitely sounded second-rate compared to the awesome stuff put out by others...

I hesitate to say Deep Purple and Grand Funk sucked... but they sorta did... 'specially Grand Funk...

well thats your opinion and with Deep Purple you are in a big Minority there......Grand Funk in spite of so called "Music Critics" who felt the same way you did packed every Arena they played in and their records sold very well in spite of very very little airplay in their first 3 years......i hope your not comparing the Grand Funk who went Commercial (72-74) with the Band from 69-71.....there was a Difference....

 

[JamesInFlorida]

i dont feel Deep Purple get the respect they should get.....
Layla was tremendously overplayed and there are some other songs on the LP that are much better that never get played.........
all the so called experts always talk about Fleetwood Mac with Stevie Nicks forgetting about the fact that the Original group was one of the best Blues bands ever 68-70.....most people think Santana did the Original "Black Magic Woman"..........
Foghat i feel is underrated.....
Grand Funk Railroad was creating waves in the hard rock world in the early 70's with very little airplay....yet they dont get mentioned much...
Johnny Winter i feel is underrated....
Love was pretty Influential....but you dont hear about them to often....

Me neither. They played in a way that nobody before them did, Ritchie Blackmore wrote memorable riffs and is a very good all-around player, Gillan is a great singer, everybody in the band is top-notch at what they do. Not to mention in my opinion they have the best live album out of any band (Made in Japan).

And Grand Funk is also def. underrated as well.

and to show how ridiculous the so called Rock n Roll Hall of Fame is.....DP has never even been nominated......while a whole bunch of Bands who cite them as a major influence.....are in.....each one of their players are usually in the top 20 greatest players on their instruments list.....but yet Grand Master Flash.....a hip hopper is in....some hall of fame....

Not to mention Rush (in my opinion another very underrated band)...the hall of fame is a total joke.

 

[Harry Dresden]

Me neither. They played in a way that nobody before them did, Ritchie Blackmore wrote memorable riffs and is a very good all-around player, Gillan is a great singer, everybody in the band is top-notch at what they do. Not to mention in my opinion they have the best live album out of any band (Made in Japan).

And Grand Funk is also def. underrated as well.

and to show how ridiculous the so called Rock n Roll Hall of Fame is.....DP has never even been nominated......while a whole bunch of Bands who cite them as a major influence.....are in.....each one of their players are usually in the top 20 greatest players on their instruments list.....but yet Grand Master Flash.....a hip hopper is in....some hall of fame....

Not to mention Rush (in my opinion another very underrated band)...the hall of fame is a total joke.

check out this list James....now some of the people on it i dont feel deserve to be there,but many should be there......

List of the Biggest Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Snubs | Future Rock Legends

 

[rightwinger]

and to show how ridiculous the so called Rock n Roll Hall of Fame is.....DP has never even been nominated......while a whole bunch of Bands who cite them as a major influence.....are in.....each one of their players are usually in the top 20 greatest players on their instruments list.....but yet Grand Master Flash.....a hip hopper is in....some hall of fame....

Not to mention Rush (in my opinion another very underrated band)...the hall of fame is a total joke.

check out this list James....now some of the people on it i dont feel deserve to be there,but many should be there......

List of the Biggest Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Snubs | Future Rock Legends

I can't believe Jethro Tull are not in

 

[Harry Dresden]

Not to mention Rush (in my opinion another very underrated band)...the hall of fame is a total joke.

check out this list James....now some of the people on it i dont feel deserve to be there,but many should be there......

List of the Biggest Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Snubs | Future Rock Legends

I can't believe Jethro Tull are not in

yea but Grandmaster Flash is in.....

 

[J.E.D]

Overrated:

Oasis

Hootie and the Blowfish

Sugar Ray

Coldplay

Radiohead

R.E.M. after "Green"

Phish

I agree with your list (especially Phish - I can't stand them) with the exception of Coldplay and Radiohead.

I agree that Coldplay, the band, is a bit overrated; but their first album, Parachutes, is damn good. I lost interest after that, but I give them credit for that one album.

Radiohead put out two of the best rock albums ever - The Bends and OK Computer. Those two albums are phenomenal. After Kid A - which was a pretty good album - they started going downhill. Their die hard fans will never accept it, but they haven't put out anything decent since 2000.

 

[J.E.D]

and to show how ridiculous the so called Rock n Roll Hall of Fame is.....DP has never even been nominated......while a whole bunch of Bands who cite them as a major influence.....are in.....each one of their players are usually in the top 20 greatest players on their instruments list.....but yet Grand Master Flash.....a hip hopper is in....some hall of fame....

Not to mention Rush (in my opinion another very underrated band)...the hall of fame is a total joke.

check out this list James....now some of the people on it i dont feel deserve to be there,but many should be there......

List of the Biggest Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Snubs | Future Rock Legends

I've never given much thought to the Rock N' Roll HOF, but after reading some of the names on that list, I'm inclined to think that they have about as much integrity as the Emmys or the Oscars.

Big Star snubbed for 13 yrs

The Cure 7 yrs

Gram Parsons 18 yrs

XTC, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Nick Drake.

Ridiculous.

 

[Harry Dresden]

Not to mention Rush (in my opinion another very underrated band)...the hall of fame is a total joke.

check out this list James....now some of the people on it i dont feel deserve to be there,but many should be there......

List of the Biggest Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Snubs | Future Rock Legends

I've never given much thought to the Rock N' Roll HOF, but after reading some of the names on that list, I'm inclined to think that they have about as much integrity as the Emmys or the Oscars.

Big Star snubbed for 13 yrs

The Cure 7 yrs

Gram Parsons 18 yrs

XTC, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Nick Drake.

Ridiculous.

yep.....and Parsons was like a seminal figure in the creation of Country Rock.....and Stevie Ray would have been huge if he wasnt killed......but hey ....Grandmaster Flash is in....

 

[Oddball]

Definitely underrated

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38Vun2LYnoY]Cracker - Eurotrash Girl - YouTube[/ame]

 

[techieny]

Underrated: Sonny

Overrated: Cher

 

[Harry Dresden]

Underrated: Sonny

Overrated: Cher

lol....does it work like that with Simon & Garfunkel?

 

[mudwhistle]

I'll start with a few on my list of Most Overrated... in no particular order...

Bruce Springsteen... yeah sure... he put out a few great tunes... but the "Boss"...?! nah...

Paul McCartney... put out a few pleasant tunes summa those times when he took the roll of lead composer back when he was with the Beatles... but then there were all those other tedious tunes he was guilty of... yeah, he was fun from time to time with Wings... but "Sir Paul"...?! gimme a break... St. Pauly = weak beer

Moody Blues... had a coupla good Top 40 tunes early on... but then they launched into tedious pompous pretentiousness... killed it for me...

Paul Simon... great composer early in his career... went off on a boring tangent soon after going solo... and sucked as a live performer...

Bob Dylan... another great composer who lost his way after the mid-70's... and sucked big time as a live performer...

Rolling Stones... one of the all-time great acts of the 60's... became parodies of themselves after the mid-70's... shoulda gone down in a plane crash after Exile On Main Street... Bill Wyman had the right idea gettin' out while he still had something left of his self respect...

Neil Young... was always a full-of-himself pain in the ass... and after Harvest, wasn't worth the plastic he was stamped on... gimme my money back, MasterCard...

Elvis Presley... will always rightfully have a special place in the pantheon of 50's rock 'n roll greats... but he really sucked in the 60's... and I don't even wanna talk about the 70's...


eta... feel free to disagree with me... that's what I'm here for...

Elton John.

Started doing movie soundtracks.