Top 10 Most Overrated Things In Music
These are the things in music that people seem to care about, and probably shouldn't. Music is about producing a work of art that sounds good and evokes an emotion. All this other stuff is mindless filler, detrimental to the music, or just a waste of time talking about.What is not included in this list is specific people, bands, or songs. Those are better left in other lists.
Electronic music is being criticized because people in pop and rap have used Auto-Tune to sound like trance. Let me establish the difference. Pop and rap artists are covering up the fact that they never bothered to learn to play a musical instrument or read sheet music, and so are passing it off as music because a computer can fix the sound. Except that it still sounds like a line of ducklings being crushed by a farting elephant.
Electronic artists take their time to create unique sounds, which are done by precise control of every electronic wave signal, to make sure it is perfect. They're often controlling fifty dials and keyboards at once. In short, the latter requires talent. Autotuning is ridiculous.
Guess what... when listening to the album, I can't see your moves. Who cares if a singer can dance? If I want to hear good music, I'll listen to people who focus on the music. If I want to see someone dance, I'll watch someone who excels at dance. Why bother with someone who is just above average at both? And especially, why go to a concert to watch a "singer" who has to lip-sync their own songs so they can put on a show?
Dancing should really not matter to the listeners of a band, and that goes both ways. It's fine for band members to dance to their music - a tad dorky, but still fine. And if they don't, who cares? It's the musician's choice, and the music that matters.
All you hear in music are adult themes. Music is no longer safe for children to listen to, aside from songs like Baby Shark.
Unless while you are recording the album you're also jogging in place while wearing corduroy pants, I can't tell what you are wearing when I'm listening, and in 99.99% of cases, what you wear has zero effect on the quality of the music. (That 0.01% is for oddball exceptions like the Barenaked Ladies, who make it a habit of recording one song per album while in the nude. They say you can usually tell which song it is.)
It doesn't matter what you are wearing. You look great no matter what clothes you have on. That does not give you singing ability. Some of the best singers just wear jeans and shirts, but they still sing great and look great.
Popularity can be earned very easily nowadays.
Honestly, is there anything worse than someone whose entire body of musical knowledge is limited to the songs from Guitar Hero? True, the game is a great way to introduce the kids of the pop/rap generation to some quality music. However, if you are one of those kids, don't assume that this beginner's level course makes you an expert - even if you can beat the song on expert.
Expand your horizons a bit. You might be surprised to find that the bands you have come to know from the game actually have other songs, many of which are better than what is in the game. You may also be surprised to find out that in the real world, the quality of guitarists, drummers, singers, etc., extends beyond the ranking system in the game. Who knows, you may even find a decent band or two that isn't even in a Guitar Hero game.
I can't stand it when people are always talking about how much money they have. It is so annoying when these rappers constantly rap about hundred-dollar bills like they can't come up with something else.
I have multiple friends or people in my class who think their music tastes are superior because the bands play faster. Nothing infuriates me more in music than people looking down on slower music as a whole and thinking "the faster, the better." Who cares how fast a song is? What matters is how good it sounds.
Who cares how many notes per second you can play or how fast you can hit the double bass if it doesn't sound good? If two notes sound better than ten notes in the same time period, play two.
Speed is a tool to be used with caution. It should only be used at given times to give the music an edge and emotion. Overuse is just noise!
So you like their earlier stuff and think a band sold out because now their music is different. Guess what - musicians mature, and tastes change. Just because you have listened to their first two albums 300 times each doesn't mean that the band has to cater to you. In fact, you should respect a musician who makes the music they like and couldn't care less what you think.
Honorable mention also to people who automatically label a band as a sellout once they make it on the radio. So their sound may have changed a little bit, but it seems to be working pretty well for them. You may have liked their earlier sound more, but considering how popular the band has become and how many people like their new sound, maybe it is your tastes that are off and not everyone else's.
The Newcomers
Thanks for the 5 minutes of high-pitched wailing on the guitar. I needed a bathroom break anyway. Your display of technical ability may overcome the fact that the noises you are making sound like crap for a few seconds, but please keep it short. If you are going to play good music that fits within the theme of the song, feel free. But if you are going to play for the sake of playing in your 3 minutes of fame, at least make sure there is something interesting on the big screen so I have something to occupy my mind.
So basically, you took an existing song, sped it up a little bit, and put a throbbing bass beat behind it so rhythmically challenged people know when they are supposed to move. No thanks. If the song was any good, I'll stick with the original. If not, you certainly didn't make it any better.
To be honest, this is somewhat overrated. I don't get why it would matter if a song was not that difficult to play if it sounded good.
By no means is this meant to be a knock on the trailblazers of music, but the actual music they created does need to be put in perspective. Just because one band influenced another doesn't necessarily mean that the original is always better than the descendant. Just because one musician tutored another doesn't mean that the pupil can never exceed the ability of the teacher. If that were the case, then music would always be heading downhill.
Just because a band is credited with starting a genre doesn't mean that they will always be the greatest band within that genre.
Sure, you can sing all over the place, but can you hold a note?
It very rarely sounds good. Just because you can do it doesn't mean you should.
I've never been impressed by it, and Mariah Carey's music proves that point.
(This applies mostly to pop and hip hop artists.) If you sample an entire song and just write garbage lyrics over it, calling it a different song, that's bad. If you do it illegally, then you are automatically a bad artist. In my opinion, if you just sample other people's songs and don't create your own beat/instrumental, then you are lazy and don't deserve to be called a musician. All you did was write a bunch of words on a piece of paper over someone else's work, and that's not how music works.
However, if you sample a song but not in its entirety and add your own beat/instrumental to it, then I can excuse you as long as you do it legally.
Someone needs to tell every famous singer today that a high-pitched vocal doesn't mean it's good singing.
I find lots of people praise songs because of how relatable they find them, and that's cool. However, I think there are too many songs out there that try and relate to everyone and end up feeling really bland and impersonal, while many of my favorite songs involve topics I can't directly relate to.
One of the things that can really get on my nerves is when a person gives age as a reason for not liking a band or artist. This is also something that I hear a lot from Hip Hop or Pop fans. Sometimes, when I ask a person why they don't like a certain rapper, the reason isn't because the lyrics have no actual meaning, which in some cases they surprisingly do, and it's not because they sometimes dress silly. The reason they don't like the rapper is just because they're "old."
So, even though there may be another rapper out there with worse lyrics, you're telling me that he's still a better rapper just because he's not "old"? Doesn't something seem a little weird there?
