Unpopular Musical Opinions

PolarityMan

The 90s were great, what I dont understand is the seemingly 2 decades long obsession with the 80s that has been going on since the 90s. 

The 80s was a poor poor decade for music.

ICBM

There has been probably an equal proportion of great stuff and bad stuff in every decade from any period in history, at least since the styles of music started changing that rapidly. I don't think the 80s was any different from the 70s or the 90s, the 60s or the 2000s.

Snap

^ I agree. I really don'tlike a lot of 80s pop, but that decade saw a huge leap in electronic music, without which my life would be miserable.

Someof the rock, funk and soul from the 70s is peerless. Curtis Mayfield, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder and Gil Scott Heron's output in the 70s is classic.

90s had some great rock music

The 00s I struggle with, but again, some cracking electronica.

I think writing off any decade as total musical shite is impossible.

viz

ICBM said:

There has been probably an equal proportion of great stuff and bad stuff in every decade from any period in history, at least since the styles of music started changing that rapidly. I don't think the 80s was any different from the 70s or the 90s, the 60s or the 2000s.

The 2 decades between 1890 & 1910 were pretty amazing!!!

ICBM

viz said:

The 2 decades between 1890 & 1910 were pretty amazing!!!

I bet there was a vast amount of drivel written at the same time as well .

I know I've said this before, but I never realised how much utter crap was produced in the 'golden decade' of the 1960s until I got a compilation called 1000 Hits Of The 60s. Only about 10% were the classics we all know and love. It took me weeks to go through it all and I ended up deleting about three quarters of the rest… total rubbish, the lot of them.

Phil_aka_Pip

viz said:

The 2 decades between 1890 & 1910 were pretty amazing!!!

Most of the music written between 1600 and 1750 was pretty good (years, not 24h clock)

Rowby1

ICBM said:

Rocker said:

Compared to guitarists endless search for the perfect sound/tone, the world of hi-fi is completely sane and logical.

Other way round…

You won't find guitarists believing that supporting the cables on little wooden blocks or drawing a green line on the edge of a CD improves the sound.

Other than Eric Johnson, possibly.

Damn, all that time spent cutting those little wooden blocks was a waste then? Thought I was on to something

Sambostar

Teetonetal said:

Sambostar said:

When I look back at '90's music it was all shit.  From Oasis to Lamb, not one of those CD's is a timeless classic that I will ever listen to again.  Ever since Evanescence came along most rock, metal and indy music is almost operatic in it's long winded, pompous, self important, ridiculousness, but not in a good, raw and exploratory way like Alice Cooper or Zappa.

90's music wasn't that bad! RATM - Alice in Chains and Portishead all released cracking albums, but I have a ton of albums from the 90's that I listen to again and again and as far as guitar based music went, we had a huge amount to choose from...

The decade that I think produced some of the worst music was the 70's -  Led Zeppelin's stolen songs and nonsense breaks, Queen's OTT theatrical nonsense that ran through the 80's. Dressing up came in two forms: Glam Rock and  Punk (or the replacement of tone and feel with "energy and passion" or I can't be arsed to practice....) oh and whilst we are at Deep Purple and their pseudo classical nonsense...

That girl from Portishead...OMG...if I ever hear her droning tunes again I will kill myself and yes I have that first album.  Nirvana and Blink 182 were good though.  I still like Blink 182 and listen to them.  There was some good dance music at the time I grant you that.  I have a lot of stuff like Juno Reactor, that I don't listen to.  The prodigy are ok too.

RE the '70's - so Cheap Trick and Warren Zevon are terrible?

 Rick Nielsen is a genius and Dream Police is an outstanding album.

hugbot

Alter Bridge are nigh identical to Creed. The fact that it's acceptable (among guitarists at least) to like one but not the other says a lot about how lame most guitarists taste in music really is.

Grumpyrocker

Megadeth have always been better than Metallica

Seven string guitars are for people who either don't know a good bass player or are to big headed to think they need one

Adrian Smith is the UK's best ever songwriting guitarist

Even one of Jimmy Page's bum notes are still better than 99 percent of anything else I've heard anyone else play

Few guitarists display the knowledge, technique and talent of your average symphony player. Being able to play the notes written doesn't make you a shred genius, just as good as a violinist.or piano player who have done their grades.

Amused to Death is better than a good half or more of Pink Floyd's albums

Slash is better than you (and me), you're just jealous

Eddie Van Halen has wasted decades playing amazingly on shite songs, thanks to never having writing partners his skills deserved

A lot of 70s progressive rock is ruined by guitar tones that sound like Kirk Hammet outtakes without the safety net of reverb

chillidoggy

70's is the best for me. What I can remember of it.

Phil_aka_Pip

Grumpyrocker said:

A lot of 70s progressive rock is ruined by guitar tones that sound like Kirk Hammet outtakes without the safety net of reverb

With the exception of Camel (Andy Latimer is Der Tonemeister) and Focus (Jan Akkerman knew a thing or two about tone as well).

Rocker

@Grumpyrocker, EVH played an amazing amount of shite on his home built guitar. Did nobody listen to music in those days? If they did, surely someone would have shouted STOP...

racefaceec90

i like limp bizkit . they did some great tunes actually (especially hold on)  

Nunogilberto

hugbot;687260" said:

Alter Bridge are nigh identical to Creed. The fact that it's acceptable (among guitarists at least) to like one but not the other says a lot about how lame most guitarists taste in music really is.

The deciding factor in this, is Scott Stapp's awful vocals - like a bad Eddie Vedder. Even if some people don't like Myles Kennedy, Stapp's voice grates a hell of a lot more...

MatthewShreddery

Classical Gas is a bloody horrible piece of guitar repertoire. Asturias not too far behind.

ToneControl

Nunogilberto said:

Okay...

The Beatles are overrated.

Paul McCartney should retire now...

Mick Jagger is a preening twat and his singing voice is awful.

Most US rock these days consists of detuned, chugging riffage with iron pumping, muscle bound Eddie Vedder clones on the mic... Crap in other words.

The art of the guitar solo is dead.

Royal Blood are shite - music for hipsters.

Kasabian are shite - music for 'lads'.

Glastonbury has become a joke.

Nirvana are massively overrated and SMTS is the most over played record of all time.

I hate 60s white boy blues - John Mayall etc.

Joe Bonamassa's tone is muddy and wooly.

Jimmy Page's tone is also shocking - scratchy as hell considering the LP he used most of the time.

Having 2/3 guitarists in the Foo Fighters is a waste of time when they don't play anything remotely melodic.

I hate singer/songwriters with Deputy Dawg style whiney, drawling voices - Passenger, Maverick Sabre, James Bay etc...

If you have a ukelele on your record, you're a trendy and you suck.

There.

and relax,

wisdom though

Philly_Q

samzadgan said:

Early influences of Doom, like Trouble, Pentagram, St Vitus etc...were really horrible. Pioneering maybe, but quality of music was shit. In fact I would say the only thing that Wino has done that i actually like is his cover of Townes Van Zandts Rake and Nothing.

I agree to an extent, although I think Trouble's mid-period albums are absolutely magnificent.  The received wisdom, the cool thing to say, seems to be that Psalm 9 and The Skull are their best albums but I really don't like them that much - lots of riffs, poor songs.

 

bluechargeboy said:

I like Slash's "World on Fire" better than "Appetite for Destruction".

I wanted to see how it looks written down. Will revisit in a few months and see if I think I was being an idiot. 

I like Chinese Democracy better than Appetite for Destruction.

Teetonetal

racefaceec90 said:

i like limp bizkit . they did some great tunes actually (especially hold on)  

One of those bands I saw at reading who I thought would be shit, but were actually really good

ChrisMusic

A note to all who have criticised the music of the 60s, 70s and 80s...

In any creative arena and in any era there will be inevitably be brilliance, and dross, and a large dose of mediocrity.  Which is which is largely dependant on personal tastes and perspectives.

Just bear in mind that this chapter in the musical 'rule book' was being written during those decades, instead of being infinitely rehashed as it is now.  That may be an over-generalisation, but I feel it is largely true.

The technology has changed and has democratised making and distributing music.  The business has slid even further down the slippery ethical slope that it was always on, and seems more unsure of what it is supposed to be than it ever was.

I personally see little in current music, either good or bad, that does not have it's roots firmly planted in the creativity of a musical world in flux and formation from that period.  It was a chaotic time, please forgive it it's excesses.  As for now, history will be the judge of that, I guess.