I think Radiohead peaked in 1992 with Creep and have been living off of one incredible chord for a long time. I'm sure that's a minority opinion, but I lost interest in them years ago after being a huge follower during that great period of music. Neither do I. The brilliance of Nirvana is seen best in the Unplugged EP. Plus, any three-man band that included Dave Grohl and Kurt Cobain is automatically on a short list of best bands ever. Throw in that they added Pat Smear for some harmony chords while touring, and they are one of my Top 10 bands ever. I admit I'm biased, though, because I was 18 years old and a sophomore in college when that entire music movement hit.
The one band that stands out for me is U2. I absolutely can not stand them and don't understand their popularity. Its definitely not uncommon to hate Nirvana, but I personally think they're amazing. I'm only 21 so I can't speak for how the grunge era actually was but it seems like they gained a lot of haters just by being so popular and thus, so mainstream. BTW, I was really into grunge type music in highschool (mid-2000s) and never understood the Soundgarden hype either. Alice in Chains, on the other hand, lived up to the hype that grungers before me told me it would if I gave them enough of a chance. Also agree on Radiohead and Springsteen. Radiohead has a few really good songs but I just don't get it overall. And not to get too recent on your old asses but dub step makes no sense to me and is completely overrated IMO.
I'm shocked that I agree with basically everything that's been posted. Nirvana was good, but not even the best grunge band from that era. Speaking of overrated grunge bands: Pearl Jam! Radiohead had 2 and a half good albums, and Pablo Honey was not one of them.
here's some more: Oasis (how could nobody have mentioned them yet?) Moby White Stripes Aphex Twin Beastie Boys Daft Punk Nine Inch Nails (and Trent Reznor in general) Prince
I'm a huge Dave Matthews fan. Have to see them in concert to truly understand the talent. Go to the gorge and see him someday, plenty of babes and bud to go around.
Allowing that talent and the execution of it can improve over time, I'll only mention those who are no longer active, had plenty of time to improve, and never did. Elvis Aron Presley - The King of over-ratedness. In comparison to the ridiculous media-made idolation of this talentless hack, all other musicians can only be considered to be under-rated.
I think he was very different from the rest of WHITE music at the time, and that is why he's considered so great. But if you look at how a lot of his music was influenced by his Southern roots, and African American style of dance/music, it kind of makes him overrated.
LOL... the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen and Led Zepplin "overrated" ? .. Absolute nonsense... BTW, The Doors are the most overrated band ever.
Damn thats a good call. I do love some of their songs but not sure I'd quite put them in the category with Grateful Dead where I just didn't experience the requisite drugs/culture to get them.
grateful dead and jimmy buffet are two of the most overrated in my book and you could throw DMB in there as well. as for the grunge scene, it could have been a number of those bands that broke through and had the sky rocket of success, but nirvana was the one lucky enough (or maybe unlucky enough) get that break. i don't think the stones are on that first level but they have some pretty good stuff from back in the day and the doors are another notch down from them but still good bands.
The Disney channel produces really annoying musicians so I'll go with that. Those other grunge bands had better pure singers than Nirvana, and Nirvana's sound was unpolished (Kurt loved punk music and made his music intentionally messy IIRC). Hmm Soundgarden sounds very different depending on which album you picked. Superunknown was very cool, and their other albums were more metal anyway, not that slick grunge sound that made them rich. Before Chris Cornell got drunk he was a better singer. STP also reminds me of Nirvana but with better vocals.