Underappreciated Artists

[chde]

Rolling Stone online took a poll to find out who the most underappreciated artists are. It's a pretty good list-

1-Tom Waits
2-The Replacements
6-Big Star
21-Husker Du

The complete list can be found at www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2007/04/30/rolling-stones-top-25-underappreciated-artists/

Derek

[nowwesayitoutloud]

chde said:

Rolling Stone online took a poll to find out who the most underappreciated artists are. It's a pretty good list-

1-Tom Waits
2-The Replacements
6-Big Star
21-Husker Du

The complete list can be found at www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2007/04/30/rolling-stones-top-25-underappreciated-artists/

Derek

What are we? Potted Plants?

Signed,

The Replacements Appreciation Society

[Wolfdog]

I'm not sure of their definition of 'underappreciated'

Bob Seger, Talking Heads, The Band, Alice Cooper, Tom Petty?

Millions of albums sold? RnR HOF members? Household names in popular music? I wish I could be so underappreciated.

[MikeR]

The problem with a Rolling Stone list of underappreciated artists is that for promotional purposes, they need a majority of the artists on their list to be ones most people have already heard of. They seem to be using floating criteria - bands like The Cramps and Fugazi are highly successful in the indie world but could be said to be underappreciated by the general public, whereas acts like Bob Seger and The Cars are very successful in terms of record sales but tend to be dismissed by the critics.

[cford]

miker said:

The problem with a Rolling Stone list of underappreciated artists is that for promotional purposes, they need a majority of the artists on their list to be ones most people have already heard of. They seem to be using floating criteria - bands like The Cramps and Fugazi are highly successful in the indie world but could be said to be underappreciated by the general public, whereas acts like Bob Seger and The Cars are very successful in terms of record sales but tend to be dismissed by the critics.

I had assumed the list was based on a vote of some sort... Otherwise, the list seems sort of arbitrary ('insert name of band that sold few records here')

CF

[MacGyver]

wolfdog said:

I'm not sure of their definition of 'underappreciated'

Bob Seger, Talking Heads, The Band, Alice Cooper, Tom Petty?

Millions of albums sold? RnR HOF members? Household names in popular music? I wish I could be so underappreciated.

Well, when it comes to bands like Alice Cooper, I can understand how he can be seen as 'underappreciated'. Sure, he's has mega success, but I think attention is almost entirely focused to his fantastic stage show and his 'Alice' persona. Musically speaking, he has some downright brilliant work, and is a great songwriter, but his stage character always overshadows that.

[FreeRider]

I like seeing Sleater Kinney on that list.

[randolph500]

Wall of voodoo: At least one of the people responding to the list had some taste.

[scoOter]

anyone who knows me will not be surprised by this response, but i think one of the most underappreciated bands of all time is rush. i'm not asking you to like them, but just hear me out:

22 records (all gold or better)
30 some years in existence without a line up change
STILL playing shows in basketball/hockey arenas

blah blah blah. i mean, it's weird. they NEVER get write ups in mags like rs (just in "musician" rags), have never been voted into the r & r hof (i don't think they have ever been on the ballot).

yes, i like rush, but i'm not asking you to. i'm just asking you to wonder with me about why it is this band is utterly ignored by the msm.

p.s. did you know they released a new album yesterday?

[ndesimon]

scooterboy said:

(paraphrasing, mind you) blah blah blah Rush blah blah Rush blah blah

What with Geddy Lee's unique er-um tenor and the memory of highschool burnouts in baggy army jackets and Rush baseball shirts smoking cigs by the school cafeteria dumpster...the band's allure is completely lost on me.

I remain an avid fan of scooteR, however.

[scoOter]

ignoring your paraphrase, i appreciate the following

ndesimon said:

I remain an avid fan of scooteR, however.

[kgp]

Rush makes me think of math nerds rather than burnouts.

[scoOter]

ndesimon said:

... the memory of highschool burnouts in baggy army jackets and Rush baseball shirts smoking cigs by the school cafeteria dumpster...

i meant to mention this yesterday, but i think you perfectly described the pilot episode of 'freaks & geeks'.

[Monkey]

"Katmandu" has never gotten the critical respect it deserves.

[gage]

Yeah, Rush went from being a burnout band in the 70's to some nerdy sci-fi Police influenced(mostly Lifesons's over-use of delay) thing in the 80's. I don't own any Rush, but I dig it when I hear it blasting out of some muscle car....We are the priests of the temples of.....!

[scoOter]

i'm not at all passing judgement on anyone because musical taste is subjective, but these responses sort of prove my point. or rather illustrate what i was getting at. these are the broadside generalizations we have been sold for years about this band (i mean, when the media talks about them - which is next to never). interesting.

one of the biggest mats/soul asylum/husker du/bad brains/etc. fans i ever met was the biggest mullet wearing trans am driving burnout you ever could hope to meet in 1987.

[A Regular]

mparker said:

Yeah, Rush went from being a burnout band in the 70's to some nerdy sci-fi Police influenced(mostly Lifesons's over-use of delay) thing in the 80's.

You are not implying that Battlestar Gallactica fans would like rush, are you?

humble apologies but I was not strong enough to resist.

[ih8music]

I'll freely admint that I'm close-minded and biased against Rush. My roommate in college was a huge Rush fan. No, really - a HUGE RUSH FAN. no, REALLY!!!

He had them going pretty much 24x7 (a given) but that was just the start. Dinner conversation was usually centered around either the deity of Neil Pert or the lyrical stylings of Geddy Lee. My roommate was a drummer and I'm pretty sure he ejaculated to Pert's Fly By Night solos every evening.

I mean, we all know mats fans are known for being obsessive about the band... but in my experience Rush fans are like 10x worse.

So it may be my loss, who knows... but I just can't sit down and knowingly listen to Rush without conjuring up all kinds of negative imagery and baggage.

Kudos to them for sticking around all this time... I honestly thought they had stopped releasing records quite a long time ago.

[Tarzan]

Jimmy Silva

Hasil Adkins

The Legendary Stardust Cowboy

[scoOter]

unsatisfied2 said:

You are not implying that Battlestar Gallactica fans would like rush, are you?

humble apologies but I was not strong enough to resist.

*shakes head*

some battlestar galactica fans love the clash, the replacements & x, too. i understand if this is hard to wrap your head around, but suffice it to say you would alternately wet your pants in glee & run away horrified if you saw my itunes library.

edit: and only a chimp can truly not resist.