Dying young is usually the most surefire path to becoming overrated (see below) but in the case of Otis Redding, the 1967 plane crash that claimed his life at 26 caused the soul legend to be forgotten........



Yeah. Never heard of him.

Hi! I just praised effing Bono for saving the world, unlike that lazy, promiscuous Bob Marley. Sure, he wrote fun tunes to listen to on the beach, like "Stand Up" and "Redemption Song" but c'mon - he's no Bono.

Someone euthanize this turd, and prevent him from breeding.

Note: This article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily that of Starpulse.com

I'm sure they're glad they put that in there. Jesus.

Anytime you see the words "overrated" or "underrated", that's code for "author is a hack-journalist douche with crappy taste in movies/music/misc. entertainment".

quadropheniac: Anytime you see the words "overrated" or "underrated", that's code for "author is a hack-journalist douche with crappy taste in movies/music/misc. entertainment".

well said

Peter Gabriel is considered underrated in this douche's world?

What, never left the frat house?

I think Bob Marley's music is crap and I think John Lennon's music is crap. It's all about personal taste though.

What quadropheniac said.

I will cop to the fact that I have never understood the appeal of Joplin though.

Confabulat: Peter Gabriel is considered underrated in this douche's world?

While Gabriel has a loyal (almost religious) fan base, he's been largely ignored by the mainstream music world since the 80's.

I like it that way. And I'm sure he does too.

Carlos Santana is missing from the list of overrated performers.

Notorious BIG? Really? Are there really people out there that consider this deep-fried lump a serious artist? I thought everyone pretty much agreed that he sucked balls.

I hope feral midgets break into this guy's home and jerk off in his mouth while he sleeps.

That guy is WAAAY off when it comes to Biggie. It's like he doesn't even understand the genre (points to Doctor Funkenstein as further evidence) and was way off on the reason why Biggie was so popular. Biggie was popular because he was damn good at what he did.

Wow, this guy is a hack douche.

How in the farkin hell could anyone ever put Michael in the underrated category? This guy shut down entire countries when he landed. He "became" underrated? how in the hell? His last albums (I can't even remember the titles) weren't good. I'm hoping that the one he's working on now with a laundry list of who's who in the hip-hop world really comes off well.

I think this would be a GREAT time to get someone fired over an opinion... and use this piece as court evidence that sometimes, opinions CAN be wrong.

Dr.Knockboots: That guy is WAAAY off when it comes to Biggie. It's like he doesn't even understand the genre (points to Doctor Funkenstein as further evidence) and was way off on the reason why Biggie was so popular

I hear you. I just never understood the guy's appeal. He seemed to be a 'dime-a-dozen' guy to me. I don't understand what separates him from the rest of the crew. Frankly, I always kind of regarded him as a Tupac clone. It's just my opinion, though, so take it for what it's worth.

Paul McCartney's solo stuff is far more overrated than John Lennon's. McCartney's only really great album after the Beatles was Band on the Run. Other than that, he is going through the motions.

I agree with the author on Rakim

While I don't care for it much, I think Notorious BIG had this casual, breathy, relaxed sort of delivery - his phrasing and flow were pretty unique, I thought. I.e., I'd rather listen to him that most other shiat in that ballpark.

gterz66: I have never understood the appeal of Joplin though.

THIS. I guess she could 'belt it out', but she always sounded like a spaz to me.

Navin R Johnson: Hi! I just praised effing Bono for saving the world, unlike that lazy, promiscuous Bob Marley. Sure, he wrote fun tunes to listen to on the beach, like "Stand Up" and "Redemption Song" but c'mon - he's no Bono.

Didn't the guy watch "I am Legend"? Marley is a total saint!!! He got shot and then the next day went on stage and sang and totally saved Jamaica!!! =p

Yeah, saying that things are "overrated" or "underrated" is overrated - and should be used sparingly and only as shorthand, one should fill in or explain what makes an artist 'over or under rated. Not just state it.

Yeah, opinions are opinions, sure, but they can me more or less grounded in reality, and be more or less well-grounded.

mikemoto
Paul McCartney's solo stuff is far more overrated than John Lennon's. McCartney's only really great album after the Beatles was Band on the Run. Other than that, he is going through the motions.


Oh, here we go again.

What else have you listened to? Venus and Mars is a great album, so is Ram and McCartney. And I'm really liking Wild Life these days, too.

Still, being a Beatles freak, I can't bring myself to saying John is overrated. Although if you listen to some of his solo stuff, alot of his less-inspired work is definitely as, if not more, sappy than Paul's.

/turn off the radio and turn on the turntable

Right on Gabriel

Wrong on Otis Redding - Any one who knows ANYTHING about Redding
knows that he was one of the greatest performers of Mid-60s soul.

Right on Aretha

VERY Right on Lennon (over-rated hack)

Wrong on Marley but right on his deification

Right on Joplin - bad voice singing with bad bands - I'm still a low grade fan tho'.

I was expecting to see Frank Sinatra on the overrated list.
He has a good voice, but his range is MAYBE one octave.

I wouldn't mind people ragging on Lennon (or the Beatles for that matter) if they sounded like they'd bothered to listen to more than 3 songs.

Lennon did a lot of magnificent solo work in the short time he had after the Beatles breakup.

Comparing his work to Paul's (who had about 30 years extra lifespan to produce work) is not exactly fair, and kinda silly.

This guy is your typical 20 year old music dork who has no connection to the roots of the music he talks about. His knowledge is shaped by liner notes, greatest hits albums and documentary footage. Otis Redding is underrated because he didn't hear about him until his junior year of college.

Likewise, he assumes that the rest of the world sees things the same way. The british dude from American Idol thinks Marley is the shiat? OVERRATED BEACH MUSIC! Nevermind the fact that his much of his work was deeply rooted in the political turmoil and violence of 1970's Jamaica (See the infamous Smile Jamaica concert). The fact he then brings up Bono and Geldof just makes it perfectly clear that he's speaking entirely from a MTV influenced perspective.

And Michael Jackson is the most underrated artist of all time? He must have missed the decade where he was a living superhero.

Tony Stark: This guy is your typical 20 year old music dork...

I won't quote the rest of your post but you pretty much summed up this ridiculous article. I haven't seen such a load of garbage in a long time. When the extent of your musical knowledge is summed up by a list of 10 very well known artists and you are trying to argue that Michael Jackson is "underrated" you are a complete farking moron.

This kid needs a biatch slap off the intertubes.

Doctor Funkenstein: I hear you. I just never understood the guy's appeal. He seemed to be a 'dime-a-dozen' guy to me. I don't understand what separates him from the rest of the crew. Frankly, I always kind of regarded him as a Tupac clone. It's just my opinion, though, so take it for what it's worth.

Take opinion, folds it nicely and wipes ass with it...*flush*

The only thing that pisses me off more than people who insist that Yoko broke up the Beatles (it all started with the death of Epstein in '66, and all the Beatles, but most especially Paul, were clamoring for control of the group. Yes Yoko was there at the end of it, but seriously) are the people who, like SpyVsSpy said, only listen to two or three songs of Lennon's solo work and claim it's severely overrated. Come the fark on. Yes, Lennon-McCartney was an amazing songwriting team yet to be even closely rivaled, but each artist is pure genius In His Own Write.

As godawful best/worst sort of lists go in the music department, that was pretty spectacularly failtastic. And this is quite a difficult field to stand out in, too.

you can replace the overrated list with the underrated list and it still makes as much sense.


Writer should have been an abortion

Beatles1964t

the death of Epstein in '667

/FTFY

Actually, several factors surfacing in the span of about 18 months sounded the death knell for The Beatles. The death of Epstein, John and Yoko's heroin addiction and subsequent shenanigans, and the whole Apple clusterfark combined with four guys who were simply growing up and growing apart is what did it.

Would The Beatles have stayed together if Brian had lived? Probably not when Paul found out Brian was getting paid more than he and John were.

the different between Biggie and other rappers of his era is that Biggie is awesome and almost all of them suck. Biggie can actually do it, whereas they all embarass themselves and sound like fools. listen to things done changed, gimme the loot, etc.

rakim = mic controler

janis joplin's appeal is that she was the essence of rock and roll. a non-hot woman but blues-ed out a sucessful badass sexy rockstar. and come on. she's obviously a good singer. if you had a band you'd be pretty farking thrilled to have a singer like her.

aretha franklin again, has some of the best records in all music ever. think. yes her career didn't totally pan out, but that doesn't change how incredble she was in her prime. also writing your own songs isn't required. its nice, but again, she's one of the best performers ever.

etc.

[Bob Marley was] a rich man's Jimmy Buffet

Die.

HappyHarryHardOn 2008-05-18 03:21:57 PM
you can replace the overrated list with the underrated list and it still makes as much sense.


Writer should have been an abortion

normally i'd be against abortion but i'd have to agree with you on that.


While i dont personally like Janis Joplin's music i wouldnt call it overrated. Someone Arethra Franklin is praised for her singing abilities not songwriting abilites, and great singers are not a dime a dozen. Shouldnt michael Jackson be on the over-rated list? Bob Marley? i guess he's over-rated because his music has meaning while worthless hacks like Britney Spears are still hogging the limelight waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay after her fifteen minutes expired...

He pretty much nailed it on John Lennon, though.

I like some of Lennon's solo stuff. But as a whole, it has always been wildly overrated.

An overrated not seen again until Kurt Cobain pulled the trigger.

Dread Pirate Slasher: Carlos Santana is missing from the list of overrated performers.

Agreed wholeheartedly.

My opinion of the Beatles solo work is that John, Paul, and George are all fairly even. Paul's best albums were probably 'Ram' and 'Band On The Run', John's best were probably 'Plastic Ono Band' and "Imagine,' and George had 'All Things Must Pass' and he put on the 'Concert for Bangladesh'.

Of the 3, I think Paul's is the least memorable work, but he does have a lot more decent albums to fill out his catalog, whereas John and George are fairly spotty. Granted, Lennon had 'Rock and Roll' and 'Double Fantasy,' and George's 'Brainwashed' was pretty good, they just didn't have nearly as many albums as McCartney to build a solid solo career.

The two best albums post-Beatles by a Beatle were 'Plastic Ono Band' and 'All Things Must Pass'.

What an asshat.

I agree with the author on Rakim, and violently disagree with him on Marley and Biggie. Jay-Z is far more overrated than BIG is.

"Thriller":Black Album::"Off the Wall:"Master of Puppets"/"...And Justice for All"

"Thriller" was the beginning of the end for Michael. "Off the Wall" was a BEAST as far as I'm concerned. Michael's voice wasn't even perfect on that album, but the music was ridiculous. Major props to Louis Johnson.

Just because the 20 year-old kids don't know about Otis doesn't mean he's underrated. They're just a bunch of got'amned ingrates. Otis should be mandatory listening for any fit member of society.

I'm not really a fan of Lennon or Bob Marley's music, but I understand what they were all about and what they mean to people. I love listening to "Hammer" every so often. Wee-ooh-oooh, Ooh-ooh-oooh!

Janis Joplin was rock n' roll concentrated in female form.

gterz66: I will cop to the fact that I have never understood the appeal of Joplin though.

Ditto. I think it's okay, but I just don't get the remarkably strong attachment some people have to her music.

U2

When Janis sings "Summertime" I still get misty. I saw a dress rehearsal of "Porgy & Bess" when I was a eight, and this part stood out to me then. To allude to another play, Janis is the aural equivalent of Stanley Kowalski. She's raw, brutal, hot, passionate, sexy and steamy, yet when she's sings "hush, baby, don't you cry", she's like a mother fiercely protecting a child's dreams. And then there's Big Brother psychodelically pounding at the lovely little tune, thrashing blues played with all the frustration and angry and pain that Brando mustered when he screamed for Stella.

/besides, if you listen real closely during "Ball and Chain", you can hear a glass break.
//or was it a bong?
///explaining for the Janis-impaired

Doctor Funkenstein: Dr.Knockboots: That guy is WAAAY off when it comes to Biggie. It's like he doesn't even understand the genre (points to Doctor Funkenstein as further evidence) and was way off on the reason why Biggie was so popular

I hear you. I just never understood the guy's appeal. He seemed to be a 'dime-a-dozen' guy to me. I don't understand what separates him from the rest of the crew. Frankly, I always kind of regarded him as a Tupac clone. It's just my opinion, though, so take it for what it's worth.

Yeah its funny how every time someone remarks about someone not liking one of their favorite artists its because they don't understand the music. Amazingly enough, it cant just be because they suck.

/I agree with the writer about rakim
//rest of the list is shiat
///but rap today does suck

<i>Great singers, however, are a dime-a-dozen and great songwriters are priceless. Aretha's never touched a pen to paper, yet her recording's of other people's classics have long been held in a regard that make them seem like Aretha originals.</i>

By that same criteria, people like Elvis, Sinatra, and Ella Fitzgerald should be regarded as "dime-a-dozen" and unimportant because they didn't write any of their material either. That statement pretty much undermined whatever credibility the author might've had.

Great singers, however, are a dime-a-dozen and great songwriters are priceless. Aretha's never touched a pen to paper, yet her recording's of other people's classics have long been held in a regard that make them seem like Aretha originals.

I wonder if some will say same about Pavarotti in 20 years

I've seen Santana and Clapton. I'd go see Santana again. Clapton is a bore. I hate Chicago Blues, what is that, code for 'elevator music' ? Sounds like it's being generated by a computer program someone wrote for their thesis.

So my 5 6 over-reated are:

6. Dave Grohl/Foo Fighters. Wanker.
5. Bob Dylan - shut up shut up shut UP, I don't care.
4. Clapton.
3. Everything the Stones even thought about since 1980.
2. Bon Jovi.
1. Jimmy frickin Buffett (and his cr*pshack restaurants)

/there was NOBODY like janis back in the day

10. The Who
9. The Band
8. Roy Orbison
7. Simon and Garfunkel

Ryker's Peninsula: I was expecting to see Frank Sinatra on the overrated list.
He has a good voice, but his range is MAYBE one octave.

Range schmange.

Frank had the tone. And 100,000 bonus points for style.

As is the case with breasts, form counts ever so much more than volume. In other words, bigger don't mean better.

/Celine Dion has incredible range. And yet her voice still gives me petit mal seizures. Go fig.

Hey I just have to defend John Lennon. I love the Beatles, but I found that most of my favorite Beatles songs were written by John. I'm 22, so I didn't get to grow up in the environment and appreciate the true context of the songs relative to what was happening in the world.

I can think of 11 classic songs from Lennon's solo career:

Imagine, God, Mother, jealous Guy, isolation, Cold Turkey, Love, Oh My Love, Mind Games, Steel and Glass, and Working class Hero

When I listen to these songs, and I connect with the words and the way he sings them, its hard to imagine that people think hes overrated.

What a twit.

Bob Dylan is overrated. And in Russia, Vladimir Vysotsky is overrated.

...but [Gabriel] certainly deserves to at least be considered the best former member of Genesis.

So he's going up against Steve Hackett, Ant Phillips, John Mayhew, Chris Stewart and Ray Wilson? I loves me some ancient Genesis guitar-work too, but Pete's one-of-a-kind. What was the point of comparing him to two underrated guitarists, two Pete Bests, and the worst personnel decision Tony and Mike ever made?

...but [Aretha's] career also disappeared into a black hole for the entire decade of the 70s

"Rock Steady", "Angel" and "Until You Come Back To Me" say what's this entire shiat, whitey?