Last Updated on August 14, 2026 by Christian Adams
Here’s your daily reminder that opinions about music are essentially worthless, and anything I have to say about the most overrated rock bands of all time is not going to change your life or your mind. I’m here for entertainment purposes only. However, it’s fair to say that I’ve put a lot of thought into this gambit—like, way too much thought.
I care about rock music like car guys care about engine blocks and chefs care about cutlery. Aside from temporary flirtations with classical and jazz, I rarely listen to anything except rock music unless I’m getting paid for it, and I’ve got 50+ years of listening experience. Rock is the soundtrack to my life, and I take it seriously. Up to a point.
To be overrated, you must be elevated to a pedestal you don’t deserve. And that’s where the trouble starts.
Featured image credit: Will Fresch, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
The Difference Between Hated & Overrated
Rock music means so much to me that I’ve devised standards, criterion, and rubrics to measure my appreciation. For a deeper understanding of these metrics, please refer to this post: Hated vs. Overrated in Rock Music: Definitions & Distinctions. But I’ll give you a quick difference between hated and overrated.
Hated
I hate all forms of electronic dance music (EDM) because it makes me unhappy to hear it. I don’t care about it, evaluate it, or give it any sort of critical leeway. It sucks. All of it.
Overrated
On the other hand, I genuinely dislike many bands on this list, but many are “good at what they do.” Their quality is grossly overrated. Herein, I acknowledge that people like them, and wish them no ill-will. I don’t have the same empathy for DJs and EDM “producers”.
I’m Not Here For That: The Most Overrated Rock Bands of All Time
I have “rules” for rock music, and my type of rock can’t be condescending or too intimate. It should be appropriate for a wide range of emotions, but it can’t be precious. I’m not here for that. I’ll take Little Richard over Nick Drake any day of the week.
Oasis
I’m anticipating death threats and nasty “You Don’t Know What You’re Talking About” comments, but all things considered, Oasis is the most overrated rock band in my lifetime, not necessarily the history of rock and roll. They’re the reason “average” became the gold standard for an entire decade of rock music. And now, I’m gonna tell you why.
The Alternative Rock Bamboozle
Bamboozle: to cheat, deceive, hoodwink, mislead, or swindle
Oasis was a predictable “bamboozle” of the post-grunge era, built on fashion and posture. They remain a student union pub rock band with Beatle haircuts and a cocaine budget. “The opposite of Guns N’ Roses”. Creation Records’ marketing department hoodwinked the world into believing that (Oasis) was “rock and roll” because they said so. Their existence and popularity are proof that you can go quite far in life on chutzpah.1 You can repurpose some classic rock clichés and the lowest common denominator will buy it. Rinse and repeat.
Every Oasis song sounds like you’ve heard it before, and that’s because you have. Noel “Campfire” Gallagher lifted wholesale sections of popular songs like “Bang a Gong” and “Kumbaya”. Oh, and Les Paul’s are not for strumming. If you know anything about playing guitar or songwriting, you know I’m right.
Liam Gallagher is the Axl Rose of the U.K.—a too-cool-for-school “vocalist” who treats a melody like a suggestion. His nasal sneer implies that he’s doing you a favor by showing up. The most entertaining thing about the band was the feud between brothers.
Loudest Voices in the Room
(What’s the Story) Morning Glory? (1995) is one of the most overrated rock albums in history. All song structures follow the typical verse > chorus > verse > chorus > middle eight > shitty guitar solo > chorus format of guitar-based rock music, and a monotone melody virtually interchangeable with every Oasis album.
By the time they reached the bloated, unlistenable lad rock heights of Be Here Now (1997), the mass hypnosis should have worn off. Instead, people continued to vote against their best interests, crowning Oasis “the biggest band in the world” simply because they were the loudest voices in the room. Meanwhile, Creation was disappointed because Be Here Now only sold 7 million copies instead of 20 million.
However, among the kindergarten rhyme schemes, tepid pacing, and campfire chord progressions, Oasis produced a few undeniable tracks. By “undeniable,” I mean they don’t suck. Or they’ve got parts of songs that don’t suck, like the chorus of “Live Forever”.
The Oasis Legacy
“It’s the sound of a bunch of guys, on coke, in the studio, not giving a fuck. There’s no bass to it at all; I don’t know what happened to that… And all the songs are really long and all the lyrics are shit and for every millisecond Liam is not saying a word, there’s a fuckin’ guitar riff in there in a Wayne’s World stylie.”— Noel Gallagher on Be Here Now
The King of Overrated later said: “Just because you sell lots of records, it doesn’t mean to say you’re any good. Look at Phil Collins.” I’m glad the brothers reconciled and made hundreds of millions of dollars on their 2025 reunion tour, but they’re still overrated.
Guns N’ Roses
GN’R is what happens when your debut album sells 25 million copies and you have nothing to follow it up.
Appetite for Destruction (1987) has three great songs (“Welcome to the Jungle”, “Sweet Child O Mine”, and “Paradise City”) and more cowbell than the totality of Santana’s catalog. It’s the most overrated rock album of all time, and GN’R have zero great original songs after Appetite. Their cover of “Live and Let Die” is pretty good, but the covers of “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” and “Sympathy for the Devil” are embarrassing and pointless, respectively.
Use Your Illusion I & II were bloated delusions of Elton John during his Lion King grandeur, plus Slash guitar overdubs and whatever. The decade-long Chinese Democracy “bamboozlement” capped 20 years of trying to convince us that “November Rain” wasn’t a Meat Loaf rewrite. They cruised along on the success of Appetite for Destruction. End of.
People talk shit about Rush and Geddy Lee‘s voice, but Axl Rose couldn’t hold a melody if it was stapled to the lapel of his leather vest. Remove those “Paradise City” stadium anthems, you’re left with a lot of squeak, squeal, and squirmy filler and guitar solos to distract you from the lack of hooks. I challenge anybody to name a great GN’R song that’s not on Appetite. I dare you to say “Don’t Cry” or “Patience”. Be prepared for a debate, friend.
U2
The garden gnome titan of the “bamboozle.” A band that successfully parlayed a delay pedal and vague, pseudo-spiritual yearning into a billion-dollar, Hall-of-Fame career. Thanks to them, Coldplay headlined the 2016 Super Bowl halftime show.
There was a period in my adolescence when I thought U2 were fantastic. Boy (1980) through The Unforgettable Fire (1984). They lost me at The Joshua Tree (1987) and kicked me to the curb with Rattle and Hum (1988). I felt palpable shame when Achtung Baby (1991) hit the shelves, and it’s been all downhill since.
I didn’t understand their ambition to be so important. Music didn’t change anything during the Vietnam War. All those “peace and love” bands were just making soundtracks for the cultural zeitgeist, aiming for radio play and record sales. Nobody heard “Get Together Now” or “Revolution” and got motivated in either case.
Bono’s “messiah complex” is the ultimate red flag. U2 turned rock music into a high-end corporate branding exercise.
They have some undeniable jams like “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “Pride (In the Name of Love)”, but the bulk of their post-1984 catalog is phony-baloney bullshit like “Mysterious Ways” and “Beautiful Day”.
Kiss
I want to establish a clear distinction here. Kiss was hated by music critics. The only band to get less respect from the press was Rush, who, frankly, kinda deserved some of the bad reviews, even as a lifelong fan. I mean, I could see the critical fault in album-side conceptual suites and Geddy Lee’s piquant squeal of a voice. The criticism was warranted, but I liked ’em anyway.
Kiss is overrated because somehow, several million of my peers still love and support the band, like they’re stuck in 1977. It’s absolutely unbelievable to me that Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley haven’t been laughed the fuck out of the industry. But here we are.
And so, I didn’t realize it at the time, but Kiss was the ultimate “gateway drug” to cynicism. Between the ages of 8 and 11, I loved Kiss unconditionally; they were superheroes with pyrotechnics and platform boots. My walls were plastered with posters, and their albums dominated my adolescent record collection. I had the Kiss lunchbox, too.
Not long after hearing the first Van Halen album in 1978, I saw the NBC television film, Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park.
At some point, I “recognized” the merch company masquerading as a shock rock band. Kiss was “for kids.” A scam. Consequently, I traded my entire Kiss discography for Cheap Trick at Budokan (1978) and Heaven Tonight (1978). If I ever had any doubts about moving on from Kiss, they were squashed by the release of their next album, Dynasty (1979), and the disco hit, “I Was Made for Lovin’ You”.
Putting aside any personal beef with the band, let’s ignore the Kiss spectacle and focus on the music. From my perspective, they have roughly 10 good songs (in order of appeal).
10 Good Kiss Songs
- “Rock and Roll All Nite”
- “Detroit Rock City”
- “Calling Dr. Love”
- “Christine Sixteen”
- “Hard Luck Woman”
- “Strutter”
- “Cold Gin”
- “Black Diamond”
- “Shout It Out Loud”
- “God of Thunder”
Ten good songs after nearly 50 years in the business? Kiss is a ventriloquist act where you can see the strings and the dummy is trying to sell you a branded jacuzzi. Dr. Mayhem and the Electric Teeth had better jams.
Bob Dylan
It’s like saying the Beatles or the Stones are overrated, but I stand firm with this choice. Yes, Dylan had a massive influence modern popular music, especially pop and rock as we know it. But he has maybe 10 memorable jams—I’ll name them, if you ask.2
Most of Dylan’s best work is cover songs by other artists, e.g. “All Along the Watchtower” by Jimi Hendrix and “Mr. Tambourine Man” by the Byrds.
“Bob is not authentic at all. He’s a plagiarist, and his name and voice are fake. Everything about Bob is a deception.”
–Joni Mitchell, 2010 Los Angeles Times Interview
It’s entirely possible that maybe, just maybe, Joni Mitchell is right, and people were bamboozled into hearing the words and ignoring the music. That’s the only reasonable explanation for Dylan’s popularity. Like a mass hypnosis event, people said, “Yeah, the music is whatever, but do you hear what he’s sayin’, man?” And my response was always, “No, I stopped listening after the 12th verse of ‘Tangled Up in Blue’.”
It’s what I call the “Informed Consent” of rock music:
- The Pro-Dylan Argument: “You have to listen to the subtext, the social commentary, the poetic meter!”
- The Counterpoint: “I’m not here for that. I’m here to rock.”
Credit where its due, Another Side of Bob Dylan (1965) through Nashville Skyline (1969), is Dylan’s nadir of creativity, and Nashville is where everybody should have sold their stock in this guy. The folky poet turned country troubadour schtick gave us Blood on the Tracks (1975)—the holy grail of the erudite—and one of the top 25 most overrated albums of all time.
Red Hot Chili Peppers
I’ve got regrets in life, but hating this band isn’t one of ’em. I hated them before they were conceived. If Oasis represents the lumbering “lad rock” arrogance of a British pub, the Red Hot Chili Peppers represent the mindless “funk” narcissism of an American frat house. I feel about this band the way a desert island shipwreck survivor feels about ocean water: I’d rather die a slow death of dehydration than drink what’s gonna kill me anyway.
For a large period of my adult life, if I found out that somebody liked the RHCP or owned any of their records, I took a step back and thought, uh-oh. The band is massively overrated because Flea, John Frusciante, and Chad Smith are master musicians, and Anthony Kiedis is a clown. The music is listenable; the vocals are awful.
Homogenous funk pop rock doesn’t belong in the pantheon of great music, and I challenge anybody to name a truly great RHCP song. Be prepared for a debate, friend.
R.E.M.
You can’t have “Shiny Happy People” on your resume and keep our respect. From 1984 to 1988, R.E.M. was one of my favorite alternative rock bands. I saw them live three times, owned all their albums, and learned to play some of their material on guitar. I was into R.E.M.
They sold out on Out of Time (1990). “Losing My Religion” is the worst of the worst alternative power ballads. I’ve never felt so betrayed by a rock band. I didn’t throw out those first five albums [Murmur through Document], but I never bought another R.E.M. album or willfully listened to their music. And I had an epileptic fit when I heard “Everybody Hurts”.
Second Chances
Years later, in September 1994, we’d been hearing all the hype about a new R.E.M. record for several months, if not longer. Word on the pages of Rolling Stone said Monster was supposed to be a return to their harder rocking roots and wouldn’t have a “Shiny Happy People” or “Everybody Squirts”. After years of cringing at their increasingly middle-of-the-road, adult alternative music, I was honestly interested. The good old R.E.M., I thought. And I crossed my fingers and waited for the day.
I have visceral memories of hearing “What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?” on the radio for the first time. I was taking a shower at my girlfriend’s apartment in LaGrange, IL, and she had a boombox in the bathroom. We generally liked the same music, so the radio station was set to Q101-FM (WKQX). The broadcast was mid-commercial for a local auto dealer owned by a former Chicago Bears football player when I stepped into the shower. The commercial ended and the DJ announced a world premiere of the new single from the new R.E.M. album, Monster (released September 27, 1994). The DJ talked a while longer and played the song.
Bamboozled Again
As the first grungy guitar chords rang out against the shower tile, I put my hand against the wall and leaned forward. When Stipe started singing, I said out loud, “Oh no,” like you would if you watched your neighbor cut down a big tree and it fell on his house. A soft chuckle emerged from the back of my throat as I continued listening, only to say, “They got me again. This is fuckin’ awful.”
Unlike R.E.M.’s previous two albums, Monster incorporated distorted guitar tones, minimal overdubs, and touches of 1970s glam rock. Peter Buck described the album as “a ‘rock’ record, with the ‘rock’ in quotation marks. Like, it’s a rock record, but is it really?”
The Doors
This one hurts the most because I’m forced to admit that one of my major influences is overrated. The Doors weren’t that great, and Jim Morrison is the poster child for “fraudulence.” He built a career on mediocre, drunken “shamanic” poetry, while the band played baroque circus music (aka dark cabaret) behind him. It’s “edgelord” behavior before the word existed, minus the self-awareness. The Doors are a band people think they should like because they’re “deep,” but half of their biggest hits are greasy love songs.
The Doors (1967) is a landmark of psychedelic and classic rock, and the career bookend, L.A. Woman (1971), is an underrated gem of authenticity. The rest of their albums are spotty, hit-or-miss affairs with a couple of good tracks. “Touch Me” is their “Shiny Happy People”.
I’m glad that L.A. Woman was our last album… It really captured what we were all about. The first record did too but L.A. Woman is more loose, it’s live – it sounds almost like a rehearsal. It’s pure Doors.
— Robby Krieger
Metallica
The least likeable group of musicians since Kiss took off the makeup, with the ultimate cuckhold fanbase in metal.
I’m never going to say Bon Jovi is overrated because they didn’t start out as a thrash metal band who crossed over to corporate pop metal power ballads. Bon Jovi made douche music for douche people and remained true to their douche music roots. They could never be overrated because nobody thought they were all that great to begin with. They were popular, not good.
Listen to Kill ‘Em All (1983). Is that the same band who recorded “Nothing Else Matters”? If you bought Ride the Lightning in 1985, went to see them on the Master of Puppets tour in ’86, bought the t-shirt, wore it proudly at school, you should have been burning cars in the street and looting department stores when Metallica aka The Black Album came out in 1990.
Linkin Park
The go-to “SHUT UP, MOM!” band for part-time Hot Topic employees and the food court pedophiles who preyed on them. Vague, overproduced angst that has more in common with a marketing PowerPoint presentation than genuine emotion. Corporate nu metal with all the calculated soul of a peanut allergy. Kids today are angry. Let’s tap into that. Every “rock band” with a DJ and a turntable is overrated by default.
Grateful Dead
Over the years, my opinion of the Grateful Dead has ranged from “the worst music I’ve ever heard” to “I just don’t get it.”
I first heard “Casey Jones” and “Truckin’” on FM radio in the mid 1970s, probably 5 or 6 years old. I thought it was sloppy and uneducated. “Ridin’ that train / High on cocaine” went way over my head. I didn’t like it.
Coerced by evangelical Deadheads into awful double-live albums and poorly dubbed bootleg tapes, followed by decades of giving the Dead “one more chance,” I gave up. The music is squeaky, inconsistent, and pedestrian. The overall sound is horrible, and I don’t understand how anybody could like them—even on acid. Especially on acid.
The Sound of Awful
Jerry Garcia hits this one note (repeatedly) in just about every guitar solo that drives an icepick into my taint.3 His linear, modal style is the definition of “noodling”: arbitrary notes between scales and chords. I’ve never bothered to follow what Phil Lesh was doing on bass. Bob Weir sang songs about roller skating in cut-off blue jean shorts with one testicle exposed. The keyboard player was either nodding out or adding to the harmonic mush by resting his elbows on the keys.
Two mediocre drummers don’t equal a competent rhythm section. Honestly, as a drummer at heart, I think that’s what bothered me the most about the Dead. The drums were terrible, and the long, aimless jam sessions left them exposed like Bob Weir’s ball sack.
Stevie Ray Vaughan, et al.
Stevie Ray Vaughan was a capable blues rock guitarist and the first good Jimi Hendrix impersonator. He wore the hat, did the lines of blow, and died too young in a helicopter crash. But I personally know a few open mic night guitar players who can run circles around SRV.
Musically, Vaughan et al. is as derivative as derivative gets, lifting from Hendrix; “The Kings”: Albert, B.B., and Freddie King; Albert Collins, Johnny “Guitar” Watson, Buddy Guy, Howlin’ Wolf, Otis Rush, and Guitar Slim, etc.
Eric Clapton, John Mayer, John Winter, George Thorogood & the Destroyers
At my core, I’m hostile to all forms of blues-derivative music from the caucasian delegation of John Mayer and Eric Clapton to Stevie Ray Vaughan and Johnny Winter, but this George Thorogood guy makes me angry. He strips away the essence of blues and leaves it on the seat of his Harley-Davidson. I hear one bar of “Bad to the Bone” and my inner dialogue immediately kicks in: You fuckin’ asshole.
Deep Purple
It’s uncanny how certain bands rub you the wrong way, and I honestly don’t know what it was about Deep Purple that made me hate them so much, but I did. From the moment I heard “Smoke on the Water”, I just didn’t like it, and that’s a precocious sentiment for a pre-teen kid, but I felt that way about Santana and the Grateful Dead, too. And eventually, as I got older and more experienced, the Deep Purple hatred became disinterest, and I reluctantly acknowledged their influence on the next generations of hard rock. They were, to me, a Led Zeppelin knock-off with an organ player.
There’s Bad, and Then There’s “Knocking at Your Back Door” Bad
Deep Purple—particularly their seminal 1972 album Machine Head—is an overrated relic of the “guitar and organ” era in hard rock. Deep Purple in Rock (1970) is an essential heavy metal record, but Machine Head can be skipped entirely. After a nine-year hiatus from the recording studio, the MKII lineup released Perfect Strangers (1984), one of the most tepid servings of pop metal in the genre. Everything about this track is awful, especially the lyrics.
Knocking at Your Back Door
Sweet Lucy was a dancer
But none of us would chance her
Because she was a samurai
She made electric shadows
Beyond our fingertips
And none of us could reach that high
She came on like a teaser
I had to touch and please her
Enjoy a little paradise
The lock was in my pocket
When Lucy met the rocket
She never knew the reason why
Get Their Greatest Hits
The band’s self-indulgence and tedious instrumental work is their signature sound: long, improvisational jams in the middle of otherwise perfunctory rock songs like “Highway Star” and “Lazy.” It sounds more interesting for the musicians to play than for the audience to hear, like a “know-nothing” brand of hard rock that relies more on volume and virtuosity than genuine musical innovation.
Deep Purple is a band that functions best in small doses or via a “best-of” compilation rather than through their full studio albums, which are cluttered with questionable filler and overblown performances. The band’s songwriting has always been mediocre when compared to their peers, and an example of rock’s most bloated tendencies. You could live six lifetimes, never hear Deep Purple, and I think you’re still gonna be OK.
Joni Mitchell
My theory is Joni Mitchell got so much attention because she was one of the few feminine and attractive women in rock music during the late 1960s and early ’70s. Joan Baez would punch you in the face. Janis Joplin would puke down your throat. Michelle Philips would ruin your life for an eight-ball of coke. Everybody wanted to cuddle the sweet and innocent waitress from a Canadian diner, Joni Mitchell, and I think that clouded their appreciation of her music because it’s really not very good.
Same thing with Olivia Newton-John, though she’s not really “in rock,” but you get the drift. Her visual appeal superseded her perpetually flat tone. Anyway, Mitchell is talented and all that, and I mean her no ill will. Just never liked her music, especially that ‘songbird’ quality of her voice. And man, she shares far too much personal information. She’s one of those people you didn’t want to associate with because she might write a song about you. The proto-Taylor Swift.
Joy Division
I get specific when talking about their two massively overrated albums, Unknown Pleasure (1979) and Closer (1980), but in a nutshell, they had one song, one riff, and one sound: all of ’em amateur at best.
Nirvana
Bleach (1989) has maybe one or two toe-tapping moments or memorable hooks. Otherwise, it’s easily one of the most boring rock albums I’ve ever heard. Wow, take half a Black Sabbath riff, pummel it into the ground, and scream something over the top. Fuckin’ genius.
On the other hand, Nevermind (1991) is an undeniable classic, and I concede its greatness. To be honest, I was looking forward to their follow-up. In Utero (1993) has two great tracks (“All Apologies” and “Heart-Shaped Box”), and a bunch of Bleach outtakes. It’s easily one of the least inspiring rock albums I’ve ever heard.
The posthumous MTV Unplugged in New York (1994) has a couple of great moments, but only if you watch the video.
Alice Cooper
Can we all agree that post-1975 Alice Cooper is bullshit? His early work (with the Alice Cooper band) produced a handful of great cuts but also shitload of weak-ass power ballads and tacky shock rock. This guy was NEVER about the music.
Santana
Separating the art from the artist is complicated when the art is inextricably about the artist. The association is found in the tragic demise of Vincent Van Gogh and the taboo, greasy sex appeal of Elvis Presley. The story behind the icon is what drives a connection with an audience. “Starry Night” would be arguably less interesting if Van Gogh were a housewife turned empty nester with some time on her hands. Likewise, “Blue Suede Shoes” wasn’t a hit without Presley’s looks, moves, and charisma.
Reversed Polarity
Sometimes, the polarities are reversed, and an artist is more appealing than their art. Based on what I’ve seen, Carlos Santana is a wonderful human being. I could listen to him talk all day. Seems like a fascinating guy. Some of his early work is good, the Latin rock stuff, but the rest of his catalog is a scattered mess of mysticism and spirituality in jazz fusion, hard rock, pop, and R&B crossover styles. The only consistency is Santana’s guitar playing, which, I’m sorry, is also kind of overrated. Kind of. Not completely. He’s very good. Better than I’ll ever be.
Anyway, Santana officially crossed the rubicon into overrated territory when he broke one of the cardinal rules. Facing a downturn in commercial success in the mid 1990s, he signed a deal with Clive Davis to produce more radio-friendly songs that appealed to a wider audience. That’s the definition of selling out: changing your style to sell more records. The resulting album, Supernatural (1999) is one of the best selling albums of all time, with 30 million copies sold worldwide, and, again, I’m sorry, one of the cheesiest records in the history of queso rock.
Radiohead
Two AMAZING albums [The Bends (1995) and OK Computer (1997)], one off-the-wall record [Kid A (2000)], and a bunch of records with maybe one or two good songs. Their forays into art rock and experimental electronic music work sometimes, and sometimes they don’t.
In my opinion, Thom Yorke is a Generation X version of Geddy Lee. You either love his voice or it gets old, fast.
Pearl Jam
It’s nothing personal. They seem like nice guys. If the alternative scene had its shit together in 1991, we should have come after this band like Nickelback, with pitchforks, torches, the whole she-bang. But we didn’t.
Their debut album, Ten (1991), is radio-ready dad rock (aka classic rock). In total, across 12 studio albums, they probably have 10–12 good songs? Enough to fill a greatest hits collection? I can’t name them all. “Jeremy” and “Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town”?
They’re OK. At least they stuck to rock music and didn’t put out a Krautrock album.
Jefferson Airplane > Starship
They’ve got a couple of timeless cuts, and a whole lot of meh. I mean, a lot of meh. See below.
Pantera
Dimebag Darrell was called “the king of riffs”, but I don’t hear much except the Hetfield Chug aka djent-djent-djent. The singer sounds angry. Henry Rollins would like a word. Lots of double-bass drum popcorn.
Van Morrison
I like Van Morrison. He had a great voice. “Brown-Eyed Girl” was one of the first harmonized guitar riffs I ever learned to play. But he made what I call “fishing music.” Music that “won’t scare the fish.”
Astral Weeks (1968) is consistently rated one of the best albums of all time, and I don’t get it, man. Zero mysticism on “Into the Mystic”. Meandering melody. Lots of la-la-lala.
Smashing Pumpkins
Being from Chicago, I watched this transformation in real-time. A descent from dynamic indie guitar rock into a bloated, ego-driven vampire act. They spent decades claiming “alternative legitimacy” while making music that felt increasingly forced and theatrical. The band has maybe three good songs. Maybe.
Pink Floyd
They were doing some really cool shit between 1967 and 1972. The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967), is a more “psychedelic” psychedelic rock album that Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967).
Dark Side of the Moon (1973) is dull and wildly overrated prog rock (I give it 6/10 stars). Wish You Were Here (1975) and Animals (1977)? Meh. More of the same. The Wall (1979) has a few moments. Everything since is rubbish.
I gave Pink Floyd a pass when Syd Barrett disappeared, but I can’t accept them without Roger Waters. Indeed, David Gilmour has the moral and ethical high ground, no doubt. But I’m not listening “Learning to Fly”.
Foo Fighters
Rock music for people who find Led Zeppelin too challenging. Foo Fighters are the Spaghetti-O’s of rock. The sonic equivalent of heartburn. Dave Grohl was supposed to be “the nicest guy in rock,” but the music is routinely homogenous radio filler (big riff + screamy vocal) for 30 years. He’s got two or three good songs I can name off the top of my head.
Nick Cave & Nick Drake
My wife struggles with insomnia. After years of experimentation with traditional and esoteric remedies, we’ve discovered a free and foolproof hypno-sedative. I lay in bed next to her and start talking about my day in a monotone voice. I call it “Nick Cave Mode”. I’ve never had to talk more than five minutes before she’s sawing logs.
As for Nick Drake, well, I know a lot of super important musicians think he’s great. Every song sounds the same to me.
Gram Parsons
Putting aside my bias against country rock in general, and ignoring the somewhat tragic details of Parson’s short life. let’s look strictly at his music.
I’ve done my due diligence by listening to everything he’s been involved with: International Submarine Band, the Byrds, and the Flying Burrito Brothers, and the solo stuff. It’s cosplay country, second-rate imitations of Buck Owens & his Buckaroos. Parsons’ songwriting just doesn’t cut it.
To his credit, Parsons is directly responsible for the emergence of country rock in the early ’70s, and later, alternative country in the ’90s. So, we can say without Parsons, we might not have the Eagles or Wilco, and that’s a good thing as far as I’m concerned.
Conclusion
I’m usually fond of including an Honorable Mention section at the end of these posts, but honestly, I’m kind of exhausted from all the negativity.
Hey there, I’m Christian Adams and thanks for visiting the site. If you like my style of writing, check out some of my other stuff:
Lunar New Years Series by Christian Adams
A darkly humorous and deeply personal 4-book travel memoir based in South East Asia. For fans of Charles Bukowski, Hunter S. Thompson, and Nick Tosches. Available in print-on-demand and digital forms wherever books are sold. Published 2024–2025.
Footnotes
- Extreme overconfidence or arrogance. ↩︎
- It’s Alright Ma, I’m Only Bleeding
Motorpsycho Nightmare
Positively 4th Street
Girl From the North Country
Subterranean Homesick Blues
Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again
Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright
Highway 61 Revisited
It Ain’t Me, Babe
Mr. Tambourine Man
↩︎ - It’s like a flat 9th or something ↩︎
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