Unpopular Musical Opinions: What are Yours?

[AndyTravis]

I listened to Exile on Main Street today.

 

apart from Tumbling dice it’s a right turd of an album 

[TheLowDown]

I like virtually everything from classical to jazz to hiphop to pop to country. But there are exceptions.

 

-metal is as pretentious as prog rock is, being complex for the sake of being complex with a host of talented players wasting their talents. 
-the Beatles would not have been anything without George Martin. 

-bass solos that fit in as many notes as possible are like slap. Neither are musical to my ears, but more about ego and showmanship.

-Fender are an overpriced brand name that know that they can churn out overpriced half decent basses and people will still buy them. In most industries you get your brand names that become lazy, and Fender are just one example.
-the bass is the most important instrument in a standard 4 piece band IMO. 

[JottoSW1]

5 hours ago, TheLowDown said:

I like virtually everything from classical to jazz to hiphop to pop to country. But there are exceptions.

 

-metal is as pretentious as prog rock is, being complex for the sake of being complex with a host of talented players wasting their talents. 
-the Beatles would not have been anything without George Martin. 

-bass solos that fit in as many notes as possible are like slap. Neither are musical to my ears, but more about ego and showmanship.

-Fender are an overpriced brand name that know that they can churn out overpriced half decent basses and people will still buy them. In most industries you get your brand names that become lazy, and Fender are just one example.
-the bass is the most important instrument in a standard 4 piece band IMO. 

This apart from Metal and Beatles.

My exemplar of the irksome soloist is Mohini Dey. The facility with which she plays. Awesome.

Musicality Groove , not from what I've seen. Will have to see what the band with Marco Minneman is like, we shall see.

[xgsjx]

5 hours ago, TheLowDown said:

-Fender are an overpriced brand name that know that they can churn out overpriced half decent basses and people will still buy them. In most industries you get your brand names that become lazy, and Fender are just one example.

Think that’s bad, look at rickenbacker!  😂

[Newfoundfreedom]

Another one. I could go all day on these but I'm trying to ration myself.

 

Eric Clapton is the most overrated guitarist of all time. Absolutely dull as dishwater. 

[JottoSW1]

30 minutes ago, Newfoundfreedom said:

Another one. I could go all day on these but I'm trying to ration myself.

 

Eric Clapton is the most overrated guitarist of all time. Absolutely dull as dishwater. 

Good in the 60s at what he did. More and more substance addled and tending towards lucrative pap to support the lifestyle.

All this is apart from his spouting racist crap , being a nasty piece of work and becoming an anti-vaxxer.

See also van Morrison and the gink from Stone Roses (last also a mystifyingly overrated band)

Edited May 19, 2022 by JottoSW1
Vaxxer NOT Cancer

[Guest]

(a) the only good song on Sgt Pepper is For The Benefit Of Mr Kite

 

(b) Paul McCartney making John Lennon play a hundred takes of Ob La Di Ob La Da was a piece of performance art far greater than anything Yoko Ono ever produced 

 

(c) no one has sung Helter Skelter better than Noel Gallagher, whose voice circa 2000 was in fantastic nick

[Ed_S]

Led Zep and Steely Dan irritate me intensely, as does that 'Black Betty' song.

I don't get all the hype around Ghost - for my money they have about four catchy songs.

Arch Enemy - I significantly preferred Angela to Alissa, especially live.

Fear of the Dark was the best Iron Maiden album until Brave New World was released.

Load is the best Metallica album and Risk is the best Megadeth album.

 

Learn an instrument by playing songs, don't just play an instrument by learning songs.

[Len_derby]

I don’t know if it’s an unpopular opinion but it’s caused a few ‘discussions’.

 

There’s no such thing as good music. There’s no such thing as bad music.

There’s just music you like and music you don’t like. That’s it.

[Crusoe]

45 minutes ago, Ricky Rioli said:

(a) the only good song on Sgt Pepper is For The Benefit Of Mr Kite

 

(b) Paul McCartney making John Lennon play a hundred takes of Ob La Di Ob La Da was a piece of performance art far greater than anything Yoko Ono ever produced 

 

(c) no one has sung Helter Skelter better than Noel Gallagher, whose voice circa 2000 was in fantastic nick

(a) Are your ears broken?

 

(b) fair enough

 

(c) Siouxsie Sioux

[rushbo]

6 minutes ago, Len_derby said:

There’s no such thing as good music. There’s no such thing as bad music.

There’s just music you like and music you don’t like. That’s it.

This x 1000

 

Here’s a true story:

A guy comes into my record shop and pre-orders a CD. Not a new one – a cheap re-issue. He’s super-excited. On the day of it's release, he’s outside the store when I arrive, almost hyperventilating with excitement. I open up and dutifully trudge to the back of the store (slightly peeved that this guy has delayed my morning coffee by 10 minutes) to retrieve his disc. He rips off the cellophane. His hands are trembling. And then he bursts into tears. Unselfconsciously, a grown man is so happy to purchase this music that he is weeping in front of a sales assistant. Being an Englishman, I have NO CLUE what to do in this situation, so I go to the other end of the counter and avoid eye contact while he gets it out of his system. Eventually (10-15 minutes later) he is composed enough to pay me and leave.

 

The music that reduced him to tears was... 

 

‘The Very Best of a Flock of Seagulls’.

 

I have sold thousands of releases by ‘Good’ artists - everyone from Nick Drake to Radiohead, from Bach to Coltrane, but the only person who ever wept for joy on purchasing a recording was the guy who bought ‘The Very Best of a Flock of Seagulls’. I dare you to tell him he's wrong.

[Guest]

You know you're playing an Unpopular Opinion thread right when you get personal insults in response

 

[Bagman]

@rushbo

 

if that hat happened to me I Ran away as well

 

difficult situation 

[tegs07]

1 hour ago, Newfoundfreedom said:

Another one. I could go all day on these but I'm trying to ration myself.

 

Eric Clapton is the most overrated guitarist of all time. Absolutely dull as dishwater. 

Yet Cream were founded well over 50 years ago! A few years before there was basically no such thing as a teenager and Max Bigraves  would have been fairly risqué.

Edited May 19, 2022 by tegs07

[T-Bay]

Mustang Sally and Shotgun are the two worse songs ever written. I cannot physically listen to either as it genuinely offends my soul that such travesties exist.

[BigRedX]

21 minutes ago, rushbo said:

I have sold thousands of releases by ‘Good’ artists - everyone from Nick Drake to Radiohead, from Bach to Coltrane, but the only person who ever wept for joy on purchasing a recording was the guy who bought ‘The Very Best of a Flock of Seagulls’. I dare you to tell him he's wrong.

 

He's wrong.

 

In the early 80s it seemed as though every third gig I went to had A Flock Of Seagulls as the main support band. It was obviously a strategy that ended up working well for them, but in my case I wasn't particularly impressed the first time I saw them (before, what was even by the standards of the day, the adoption of the ridiculous haircut) and I was no better disposed towards them or their music by the 6th time, by which time they were also on heavy rotation on the radio.

[musicbassman]

4 minutes ago, T-Bay said:

Mustang Sally and Shotgun are the two worse songs ever written

 

Mustang Sally was actually a great soul song - but it's been completely murdered by so many bands over the years that it's now well and truly dead !  😳

[Newfoundfreedom]

I couldn't tell him his wrong. I couldn't even name one of their tracks. 😆

[Rich]

4 minutes ago, musicbassman said:

 

Mustang Sally was actually a great soul song 

 

And the punters, bless 'em, don't they just love it? Guaranteed floor filler.

[MacDaddy]

32 minutes ago, rushbo said:

This x 1000

 

Here’s a true story:

A guy comes into my record shop and pre-orders a CD. Not a new one – a cheap re-issue. He’s super-excited. On the day of it's release, he’s outside the store when I arrive, almost hyperventilating with excitement. I open up and dutifully trudge to the back of the store (slightly peeved that this guy has delayed my morning coffee by 10 minutes) to retrieve his disc. He rips off the cellophane. His hands are trembling. And then he bursts into tears. Unselfconsciously, a grown man is so happy to purchase this music that he is weeping in front of a sales assistant. Being an Englishman, I have NO CLUE what to do in this situation, so I go to the other end of the counter and avoid eye contact while he gets it out of his system. Eventually (10-15 minutes later) he is composed enough to pay me and leave.

 

The music that reduced him to tears was... 

 

‘The Very Best of a Flock of Seagulls’.

 

I have sold thousands of releases by ‘Good’ artists - everyone from Nick Drake to Radiohead, from Bach to Coltrane, but the only person who ever wept for joy on purchasing a recording was the guy who bought ‘The Very Best of a Flock of Seagulls’. I dare you to tell him he's wrong.

 

 

I've got that CD. Though it didn't make me cry.

[Crusoe]

14 minutes ago, musicbassman said:

 

Mustang Sally was actually a great soul song - but it's been completely murdered by so many bands over the years that it's now well and truly dead !  😳

I was in a bar in Barcelona once, where a band played it, although in the local accent it sound like Moostahng Sallee. That amuses me to this day.

[rushbo]

16 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

He's wrong.

Maybe as an experiment, in the midst of this gentleman weeping hot, fat tears of joy as he held the music that had enhanced his life and possibly soundtracked a number of his significant life events, I should have said, "Sorry mate, that music is sh!t." I'm sure he would have agreed with me and we'd have a good ol' laugh at the whole thing.

 

Or I'd end up picking up my teeth with a broken arm.

[Daz39]

12 minutes ago, rushbo said:

Maybe as an experiment, in the midst of this gentleman weeping hot, fat tears of joy as he held the music that had enhanced his life and possibly soundtracked a number of his significant life events, I should have said, "Sorry mate, that music is sh!t." I'm sure he would have agreed with me and we'd have a good ol' laugh at the whole thing.

 

Or I'd end up picking up my teeth with a broken arm.

I too would have been extremely awkward and self-conscious but I guess I might have offered a high-five or asked how long he'd been into the band, or what significance it held. Depends on how busy the store was and if you;'re prepared for a 20 minute tale of teenage angst and nostalgia

I'm not sure I've cried over a long anticipated release but some purchases have left me silent in awe on first listening, so I can see the importance of music to people as touchstones in their life - good on him for being able to express himself.

[rushbo]

57 minutes ago, Bagman said:

@rushbo

 

if that hat happened to me I Ran away as well

 

difficult situation 

Well played Bagman -that took a minute or two to land.

[Guest]

20 minutes ago, rushbo said:

Maybe as an experiment, in the midst of this gentleman weeping hot, fat tears of joy as he held the music that had enhanced his life and possibly soundtracked a number of his significant life events, I should have said, "Sorry mate, that music is sh!t." I'm sure he would have agreed with me and we'd have a good ol' laugh at the whole thing.

 

Or I'd end up picking up my teeth with a broken arm.

 

When YouTube was first a thing, I took the opportunity to listen to a song that I had liked when I was about 11 for the first time since then. The song was as good as I remembered, but with it came an intense and undiluted insight into 11 yr old Ricky's soul. I was absolutely floored.