I'm sure some of you have some artists that are generally beloved by the music community but you just can't stand them.
For me it is The Mars Volta. It should be right up my alley, I like a lot of similar music but I can't get over the vocals. They sound so emo (which kinda makes sense, given the background of the vocalist) but to me it just does not fit the music at all.
Not trying to shit talk them, just wanting to share some hot takes.
U2. From the very first time I heard one of their songs. I am quite open to music, but I recall one day it was on the radio or something and I made a point of listening all the way to the end in order to hear the announcer list the name of the song.
I have heard other songs by them. Just can't stand them.
Part of me wants to see them at the sphere in Vegas but I don't like their music. Afaik they have a great stage show though. It'd be awesome to see them live.
I feel this way about modern Muse, which is sad because I absolutely adore their older stuff. Not to mention, their recent albums are some of the most pandery, heavy-handed crap to have been released in recent memory.
My mom was way into his music. I think it was a lot more interesting in the 70s before the whole folk-pop singer-songwriter thing had been done to death.
Still...
I've seen fire and I've seen rain
I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend
But I always thought I'd see you again
Lyrics don't do it for everyone, but I think they're one of the main draws of his music.
Last.fm says my top 5 artists are, in order, Vampire Weekend, Billy Strings, The Beatles, Sufjan Stevens, and Green Day. There's a lot of context missing there, though, lol. If you go down the list, you'll find a lot of punk & punk-adjacent stuff with some folk, pop and alt/indie rock interspersed. There's one metal band in my top 50, two if you count Porcupine Tree.
If we're talking a specific band/artist, it's Polyphia. While I agree that their music is good from a technical standpoint, I cannot stand listening to their "guitar tickling" sound, I keep getting blueballed while listening to them. They tickle their guitars, a buildup section begins, but instead of a "drop" or a groovier section, the buildup leads to more guitar tickling. The music just has no energy to me.
If we're talking about genres, rap in general is not for me. Most of it is very low energy with musically simple beats. I've never been a big vocals kind of guy, so I guess it's natural that a genre all about the lyrics doesn't rhyme with me.
The success of Taylor Swift is mind boggling to me. Mediocre singer is putting it lightly, lyrics so trite and juvenile, and she and her team pander to pop music trends so hard it's embarrassing. Especially when there are pop stars that seem to be actual music makers and artists, she is such a waste of space to me. And she is literally the most popular thing on earth. I think she is popular because she represents a kind of attainable excellence. It makes her fans feel like they could be her one day since she is so mediocre at every facet of artistry. I struggle to believe anyone thinks her music is actually good.
Probably not the most outrageous choice but Ed Sheeran. I think he's talented and I'm glad people enjoy his stuff but it's probably some of the only music I physically can't stand hearing. I can't explain why either.
I'll never understand how Kanye West has been lauded as a "genius" for so long. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad people connect with his music. Music matters, and people deserve to find stuff that they love, I'm not trying to rag on anyone's tastes. I just personally don't get it. I feel like there are some amazingly talented and creative rappers out there who don't get that level of acclaim. I've listened to a lot of his stuff, and none of it really strikes me as anything special. In fact, songs like "Bound 2" feel insultingly bad to me, but people like it, so idk. 🤷‍♂️
I like her music well enough, but I think there's something about how she's ruthlessly effective in the music business, but acts like she's still just the girl next door. To be fair though, if she was genuinely how she comes across, she'd be walked all over in that world.
The Offspring. They always seemed to latch onto whatever sound was most popular at the time and regurgitated more of the same. Somehow they built an extremely successful career doing this.
To be fair to them, they released Smash just in time for skate punk to suddenly explode into the mainstream. They went from punk scene kids playing shitty dive bars and squats to being up there with Green Day, Nofx, and Rancid at the top of the punk tree, and kinda wanted to stay there. So Smash is a legitimately brilliant record, Ixnay On The Hombre is great, then they hit their formula with Americana and cruised along that rut.
Zappa and Beefheart are both acts that I view as art first, music second. Yes, technically they made music, but it was in pursuit of artistry, to break the rules of music as an art form.