Coldplay: The Most Overrated Band Ever.

[Lone_Wolf_Moderate]

[Tyrone Slothrop]

1. Where's the "True, with the possible exception of Dave Matthews Band"

option?

Cause that's what I'd have to pick.

[tatertop]

60. I like that selection. That Cold Play singer cannot sing.

At all. Ever. And he is not nice to watch, either.
That is one irritating dude.

[ghostsofgiants]

2. No, I think Green Day should get that honour

[BillZBubb]

7. Them's fighting words!

Green Day is simple fantastic for what they are--a neo-Punk group. "American Idiot" is a classic album. They've worked hard for a long time to get where they are. Billie Joe Armstrong can write some terrific songs. How someone could say they are overrated at all is simply beyond my comprehension.

[ghostsofgiants]

8. Because they put out slightly above-average pop-punk...

But are heralded as saviours of rock and roll. That is why they are overrated.

[SteppingRazor]

9. Agreed...

American Idiot was one of the best rock albums of 2004, and Green Day is pretty much responsible for half of the major contemporary rock acts around today. Everyone from Fallout Boy to Good Charlotte to every other pop-punk/emo band to come down the pipe has Green Day to thank for its existence -- or at the very least, its success.

Given that, one can hardly call Green Day "overrated" in terms of their influence. They're actually an incredibly influential, if somewhat derivitive, band.

[hobo_baggins]

24. but is being responsible for fallout boy and good charlotte a good thing?

[SteppingRazor]

29. Oh, I'm not saying whether its good or bad...

Just saying that it's the case. And given the degree to which they've influenced contemporary rock, I don't think you can call them overrated. That's all I'm saying.

[Taverner]

11. No way! Green Day is quality Punk Pop

Not the Beatles, but they never claim to be the Beatles. Just good, straight forward punk pop.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

14. "punk pop" is the part I have a problem with.

Punk, by very definition, is SUPPOSED to be anti-pop, and thus, I have to vehemently dislike Green Day.

[Taverner]

19. But everything comes full circle

Punk became Pop in the 80's, went underground again in the 90's and became pop once again in the 2000's.

Whereas prog rock is the true anti-pop ;)

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

21. Leave Progmom out of this!!

:hide:

[SteppingRazor]

27. I gotta agree, except the problem with that is...

Prog rock tends to throw away everything that makes pop good. No hooks. No clever lyrics. Plenty of bloated, meandering guitar histrionics.
There is such a thing as good prog rock. But it's even rarer than good pop.

[Taverner]

43. I dunno..ELP, Triumvirat and King Crimson had some good hooks

Goblin wasn't half bad

[SteppingRazor]

23. Oh yeah? Tell that to the Buzzcocks...

One of the holy trinity of British punk -- along with the Sex Pistols and The Clash (runner-up: The Damned) -- and yet an incredibly poppy act. Almost every one of their songs could be termed a "pop song," certainly by today's standards and, really, even by the standards of their late-1970s hey day.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

26. This is what I call punk

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00000DC10/103-7578094-2501400?v=glance&n=5174
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00004SWGK/qid=1136411498/sr=2-2/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_2/103-7578094-2501400?s=music&v=glance&n=5174

[SteppingRazor]

32. I like Dennis Lxyzen's stuff too...

I'm just saying that punk, as it initially sounded, is hardly anti-pop. The Ramones, certainly the first major punk band, were anything but anti-pop. A lot of their stuff was just sped-up retreads of glossy, poppy 1950s tunes.

The Refused, on the other hand, take a lot of their cues from the hardcore scene, which is not representative of the initial wave of punk rock.

Lxyzen's next band, INC, though, I think you could hardly call "anti-pop" as well. It's certainly got some pretty poppy elements. I mean, Armed Love (a freaking AWESOME album) could practically be termed punk-soul, yeah?

[Cats Against Frist]

56. To add to my other post

I too, like Refused, and the problem is that they're not "punk," in the punk sense of the word, but like a punk/prog/art metal fusion, but even they aren't really that good, compared to say, Yes, The Mars Volta, King Crimson, Zappa and someone like Pat Metheny.

[Cats Against Frist]

55. I have a problem with pop and punk both separately and together

Half the punk catalog consists of other artists' songs played really fast, and the rest of it is pretty dull, IMHO. Punk was always pop -- meaning that it was shit -- so you play the three chords louder and scream some "really offensive" stuff. And, as I stated, above, pop is just shit. I prefer that my musicians play their instruments.

[kmla]

3. Don't care what the result is...

I like 'em.

Nyah.

[BillZBubb]

4. What, you've never heard of Kiss?????

Put makeup on a bunch of semi-talented guys, put them in spiked heels, and let them stick out their tongues! Wow, that's a real "supergroup".

[KamaAina]

5. True, with the possible exception of Oasis

:evilgrin:

[LoZoccolo]

40. Oasis was more popular than the Beatles in the 90s.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=2509947

A band can have too much critical acclaim, but they cannot fake record sales. Not of this magnitude.

[Beaverhausen]

45. The Beatles broke up in 1971- this is hardly a good analogy

Oasis sucks...get over it!!! :P

[Cats Against Frist]

57. That's what I would have voted

Shitty music, gawd-awful lyrics -- and what was with all the ghost of the Beatles stuff? WTF?

[SteppingRazor]

6. They're overrated, but I had to vote false...

In a world that boasts Dave Matthews Band, Matchbox 20, Elton John, ad infinitum, Coldplay is hardly the most overrated band EVER.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

16. Someone told me with a straight face that the guy from Matchbox 20

was the greatest songwriter of our generation.

Since she was family, it was all I could handle to keep myself from manually dismembering her.

[SteppingRazor]

17. BWAHAHAHAHA!!!

Dude! Rob Thomas? The greatest rock songwriter of his generation? A generation that includes Beck, Wayne Coyne, Zach de la Rocha, Ben Harper, Conor Oberst, Chris Cornell, Eddie Vedder and Kurt Cobain? PUH-LEEZE!

I mean, none of them are Dylan, Jagger/Richards or Lennon/McCartney, but each and every one is LIGHT YEARS beyond Rob freaking Thomas.

[hobo_baggins]

28. Elton John overrated? you're insane...

that mans wrote some of the coolest synchopated rhythms around...although he has gone downhill recently...

[SteppingRazor]

34. I'm insane?

Because I think Elton John sucks? No, that just makes me a half-bright rock critic -- which, in fact, I am.

First almost all rock music is syncopated -- that is, to use 4/4 time as an example, stressing the second and fourth beats instead of the first and third. But if you think Elton John is a great example of syncopation, I suggest you put down that "Bennie and the Jets" single and throw on some Miles Davis. THAT, bubba, is great syncopated rhythms. :evilgrin:

[hobo_baggins]

36. bah, bennie and the jets is just the start

honkey cat is as syncopated as they come...miles davis is a hack...his idea of music is taking a theme, then transposing it a half step to make it seem "jazzy"

[SteppingRazor]

38. OK, so... Miles Davis is a hack, and Elton John is a brilliant songwriter?

I hereby declare victory :evilgrin:

[hobo_baggins]

50. miles davis is a step above kenny g

deal with it

[Taverner]

10. More overrated than Oasis? More than Staind? More than Creed?

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

15. Staind and Creed are rated at all still?

:shrug:

[Bombtrack]

52. oh just shut the fuck up w/ that baseless, underhanded way to attack Oasis

including them with fucking CREED. Staind is about halfway between the worst suckiness imaginable that is creed, and one of the greatest bands of all time that is Oasis.

All 3 of them aren't "rated" very relatively highly. Not in the US press.

[JAbuchan08]

12. I voted True, but then I remembered the Beatles and U2

I like all these bands I just think they're all overrated.

On edit: Most bands are overrated. I remember when I thought No Doubt was the greatest thing since sliced bread, but they kept moving further and further from their rock roots, then Gwen dumped the musicians and went all pop princess.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

13. The correct answer is "True", but I would also accept...

False, because U2 exists.

[CanuckAmok]

18. "Over-rated"? That crown belongs to U2 or maybe Oasis.

U2 gets it by default, because nobody seems to remember Oasis, this century.

[alkaline9]

20. False...

Just because there's a lot of underrated bands out there doesn't take away from Coldplay. Are they overrated? Maybe... but not "the most overrated band ever"

[Loonman]

22. That's "Guided By Voices"

Led by drunken moron Robert Pollard. Coldplay is just banal.

[SteppingRazor]

42. Yeah, cause anybody who writes several thousand songs...

in a career -- most of them annoyingly catchy -- must be a complete moron... oh, and also a drunk. Say what you want about Pollard, he deserves plenty of credit just for sheer prolificness.

[HughBeaumont]

25. False, only because

Tool, RATM, The Grateful Dead, The Smashing Pumpkins and Kurtvana are already way ahead of them on the vastly overrated scale.

[XemaSab]

31. I don't know what to say about this....

I think my head just exploded.

[HughBeaumont]

33. Sorry.

I just find RATM to be extremely annoying. It sounds like the same three songs played over and over and over . . .

Tool is OK, but the way their fans make it sound, you'd think they deserve to be sainted. Of course, if your tastes in extreme music only run as far as Rammstein and White Zombie, naturally one's mind would be blown by them.

Gish was the only album by Billy Egghead and the Addicts that I was into.

The Dead is a drug thing. I'm on the other side of that green cloud. Tepid, Cali-country over-indulgence.

And GOD I am so fucking SICK of the martyrdom and accolades heaped upon Kurtvana. Every goddamned guitar magazine, every music magazine, every TV show, those fucking four Smells Like Teen Spirit chords, ENOUGH ALREADY!!!!! He's not even that talented a player. Yeah, THIS is my generation's ICON: a puppet controlled by a drug-addicted and seriously-in-need-of-a-boot-in-the-ass amazon.

I'm not a hero killer, I just think there are much better bands. People need to understand that it IS possible to hate music because it plain and simple doesn't sound good to your ears.

[SteppingRazor]

35. Given the disparity of the bands you're knocking about...

I'm curious who you're a fan of. Tell it!

[HughBeaumont]

41. Here goes -

Husker Du, The Melvins, High on Fire, Black Sabbath, Sleep, Sunn o)))), Neurosis, PFM, Godflesh, Isis, Voivod, The Bad Brains, Le Orme, The Clash, Isaac Hayes, most anything written/produced by Gamble and Huff, The Who, Napalm Death, some Hawkwind, Van Der Graaf Generator, film scores, Dalek, Fantomas, Mr Bungle, Naked City, Aphex Twin, Lightning Bolt, Ruins, Today is the Day, Herbie Hancock (old and new), pre-Genesis Genesis, ELP, Steve Roach, Rollins Band, Mastodon, Ministry, Elton John, Miles Davis, Dave Brubeck, Kayo Dot, Enya, Clannad, 70s pop, 80s No- and New-Wave, Residents, ELP, mostly older David Bowie, Roxy Music, The Ramones, The Dead Kennedys, Jesus Lizard, Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Pink Floyd, Burning Witch, Electric Wizard, Dead Can Dance, Hella, Dillinger Escape Plan, The Bar Kays, MC5, SOD, DRI, Forbidden, DBC, Primus, Prong, Agnostic Front, early Sick of it All, Tub Ring, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, godspeed you black emperor, Refused, His Hero is Gone . . .

There's more, but that's all I feel like typin' for now.

[SteppingRazor]

44. I can actually get behind a lot of that...

incidentally, if you like the older Bowie, check out his last two albums, especially Heathen. Quite the renaissance.

And I dig a lot of the punk you've got on there, though when it starts swaying into seriously hardcore, I find it unlistenable (Most Prong, Agnostic Front, and Sick Of it All). As for Godspeed! You Black Emperor, what was it you said about being able to call out bands because they just don't sound good to the ear...?

But for the most part, we actually agree on quite a bit.

[HughBeaumont]

49. I think musically, they've painted themselves into a corner somewhat,

Live, they're one of the loudest and most moving & cathartic acts I've ever seen. I think they appeal to me because of my taste for film scores.

[XemaSab]

37. I totally agree with you about Nirvana

Totally.

The dead.... it's more about the scene than the actual music, but the music is for sure overrated.

The other three, I can't get on board with. Sorry.

[SteppingRazor]

39. See, I agree with the bits about Tool and Smashing Pumpkins...

Though I think the Pumpkins are fairly good, I don't think you can say they're overrated today.

For what they were, no one does or did what the Grateful Dead did better than they did it. With no pre-arranged setlists and purely improvised shows, the Dead still managed to (sometimes) effortlessly segue from song to song. They occasionally crashed and burned, but when they pulled it off, there was nothing like it, and there probably never will be again. Pure magic.

If you think Tom Morello isn't an excellent guitarist -- given that he uses no effects except a wah-wah pedal and the built-in distortion on his amp -- I'm guessing you don't play guitar. The man's a genius. He coaxes sounds out of his instrument that, until him, I did not think were possible without effects pedals.

As for Nirvana, it's not about how complicated the music was -- obviously, it was simplistic, and it was supposed to be. The band just caught the feeling of a certain time and place, and did it to perfection. I don't think, for what they were, they can be overrated. Nirvana is THE sound of rock music, 1991. The band, and the slew of somewhat similar acts that followed, rang the death knell of the bloated hair-metal acts of the 1980s. For that alone, they deserve nothing but praise.

[HughBeaumont]

48. I cannot get into the damned Grateful Dead.

I tried and did not like the music at all, scene be damned.

Tom Morello is a great guitarist (actually, he uses a Cry Baby Wah, a Digi-Tech WH-1 Whammy, a Boss DD-2 Digital Delay, a DOD FX40B Equalizer, and an Ibanez DFL-10 Flanger), but to say that what he did with guitar sounds was like an act of God when you already had guys like Thurston Moore, Steve Hillage, Reeves Gabrels, Adrian Belew, Robert Fripp, Frank Zappa and Glenn Branca already out there . . . come on. Morello deserves all of his praise, but I think that's half the worship of the band. Rage Against the Machine, the band ain't a damned thing special in my book.

Nirvana were a more accessible-sounding Pixies and Husker Du. It's funny how Bleach was far edgier and did a better job of framing that edgeiness with an accessible sound than Nevermind did, but no one paid attention to them then, sadly. And DID Nirvana ring the death knell of the hair rock acts? Poison drew 8-10,000 a night (not their past numbers, but still not bad for a hair band with nothing but oldies under their belt) years after Kurt went the way of Freddie Prinze. Not a fan of that group by any means, but he didn't end their careers. I'm just SO tired of hearing how great and moving and blah blah blah they were. It's like the people who suffer from Led Zeppelin overload - they aren't hated, but way overplayed. I haven't listened to Nevermind in 13 years because of the overplay.

[Cats Against Frist]

59. You're going to have to elaborate on this Tool thing

I don't think they need to be sainted, but for fuck's sake -- they're better than 90 percent of the acts out there, and technically better than half the people on your list. They get respect from critics, prog devotees, and yeah, your average "meathead on the street." Danny Carey is one of the best drummers in history. I think the problem is that maybe I don't see them as highly "rated," as you seem to be seeing them. Meaning that I don't feel that they're overrated, in the sense that they're hype is better than they are.

[jakefrep]

65. I also agree about Nirvana/Cobain...

...I am tired of MTV/VH1 trying to spin his death as some sort of Gen-X "Where were you when...?" moment ala JFK's assassination or 9/11. He's just another dumb wanker rock star who got high and blew his brains out.

I also thought the grunge movement was almost entirely abominable.

Therefore - "Coldplay is the most overrated band Ever!" - FALSE.

[bif]

30. Nope. Led Zeppelin was/is.

[donheld]

46. Each to their own

I like Coldplay and Dave Matthews.

[last_texas_dem]

47. Nah

When it comes to modern bands, I'd have to give that honor to Radiohead.

:hide:

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

53. wow.

:grr:

[last_texas_dem]

62. Aww man

Now I think I've pissed off one of my favorite DUers...

FWIW, I don't think Radiohead are that awful. haha In fact, I have Pablo Honey and The Bends and like them quite a bit. They just kind of lost me with O.K. Computer and beyond, and then the critics all started saying things like that it was the best album of the decade, Radiohead were "saving" rock 'n roll, etc., etc. I've never been able to figure out all the critical acclaim, I guess.

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

64. it's okay, i still love ya

:loveya:

[last_texas_dem]

66. Alright!

I am glad to hear that. :loveya:

[Bombtrack]

51. I think Gwenyth Paltrow is the most annoying person ever, but

Coldplay isn't rated any higher than they deserve. They do alot of very good songs, some crappy ones as well. Some that suck if you've heard them too many times. Some that get better after hearing them alot.

And they get plenty of badmouthing in addition to praise.

[Bombtrack]

54. It's fucking obviously the Beatles

it's orthodoxy they have to be included in every "best band ever" best _____ ever" list. Well, their shit doesn't hold up for non loser music snobs. There's nothing great to do to Beatles music these days. Driving, partying, working out, zoning out, having sex, their music is unlistenable for most all of that compared to other, less exposed tunes. Their influence isn't the question, but that isn't the same thing as who's the best.

[REDKING]

58. Coldplay

I voted no because they want be u2 and the last fucking thing the world needs is another fucking u2.
But I know why you think that,if I could just get bonzo + chris martin in the same room I could save us all.
Sweet dreams everybody I got work....take care.

[CanuckAmok]

61. I just found out Coldplay did "Yellow", the most annoying song ever.

Somehow, I managed to not put them together before this week.

Between that dreck and their latest "hit" where they totally rip-off Kraftwerk's "Computerwelt" melody, I am convinced they have the capacity only to bore and irritate.

[last_texas_dem]

63. What's funny is...

Until I found out a couple weeks after hearing it that "Yellow" was by a "new" band, I was certain that it was the new single by the Dave Matthews Band, because of the vocals on it.

I'm guessing the people who voted that Coldplay is the most overrated band ever "with the possible exception of Dave Matthews Band" really hate that song!