Let Us Now Discuss Your Pop Nemesis

I would offer mine, but I'll have to NEW ANSWERS you with a generous helping of nothing. I Love Music right now, meaning that everyone is in my good graces.

Well, maybe not J. Lo, but that's something I can't really talk about right now.

R. Kelly! He is everything thats wrong with R&B. ("Rhythm and Blues? Naw, rap and bullshit") Terrible singer. Incredibly melodramatic. Huge ego. And the worst lyrics this side of Enrique Iglesias. Plus the fact that the MTV rap community embraces him, only makes him more unavoidable.

god help me, if sophie ellis bextor whispily breathes one more note, i will strangle her until her wide set eyes pop out of her skull. she is so freakin gormless.

I'm with Lady Di on this. So much guff has been written about Ms Bextor bringing back sophisticated glamour to mainstream pop without anyone seeming to notice that 1) she and 2) her songs are about as interesting and glamourous as a damp cabbage leaf on Boxing Day.

David, your syntax suggests that Ann Robinson may be your nemesis...

Incubus needs to have plastic bags taped over their heads as they sleep. And to Ms. Bextor: "Take me home."

Jermaine Dupri. He just looks too weasely. Like a weasel. and that voice grates me.

Andy, you are being far too kind to Incubus. At the very least, some hot oil as well

Anne Robinson = school mistress mrowr.

Who is this Sophie person?

While I stand by Ja Rule being most irritating to me on a personal level, I'd say that it's Enrique Iglesias who's responsible for the most horrid thing in years, in the form of "Hero." I don't have any problem with him as an individual, but that song is horrific enough that I might start to.

Dave Matthews Band. Boring, boring, I'm bored already.

I loathe Lenny Kravitz--his fucking stupid name, those terrible omnipresent aviator shades, his bad afro, the fact that he covered "American Woman," his prodigious and sincere use of the wah- wah pedal, his strainy-ass voice, his pretensions of soulfulness, his embrace of crunky 70s shite, how much he think he rocks, his videos... GOD HE SUCKS ASS!

they think lenny kravitz is a stupid name = they hate kikes.

Garth Brooks , a whore , a marketing hack, a boring isnger, one step up from aldut contempary, pretend he loves his mama , aldutere , hypocirte, fat lazy stupid ,rachtecy guitar and drums and that fuck you slumming blue collar , asshole, avarious, greedy, theiving, corpse raper , everything i despise comnes thru the pores of that odius evil millionaire whos NEVER seen heartbreak and poverty . i want to force him to work the fields , i want him to starve to death, i want his medicore talent to be shoved up his ass , i want him to be raped by the ghost of hank williams , whos already doing calsthenics in his grave . id like to see him spend one SECOND on a brahma bull or in a chicken wire jivedive.

Mariah had always been a major irritant, but it seems like taking away a small child's ice cream cone now that her album and movie tanked and she's all bonkers.

they think lenny kravitz is a stupid name = they hate kikes.

ethan, stop trying to be "controversial" for five minutes; you'll live longer.

two words: fred durst. that is all.

(and whatever ethnicity "durst" is, sure i hate em. i hate everyone today. every popstar goes on the shitlist.)

anthony's post is funny if you replace country with rap or r&b and garth brooks with puffy or someone of the like. anyway how do you feel about his campaigning for gay rights to the bible belt? something hank williams never did.

But if the music is the major reason Anthony hates Garth, what difference would Garth being pro gay rights (or anti gay rights, for that matter) have to do with anything?

Not that I am anti Garth, he seems too doofy to get too upset about.

And he was so good as a french whore on SNL, weren't we all in agreement about that a few months ago? Except Anthony, I'm sure.

As for my pop nemesis, well, I think I'm through with hating Dave Navarro. But I'm not sure where to go next. Maybe BT. What the fuck is wrong with his face on the cover of that remix album? It's like one big pucker, it's repulsive. He's serving beestung face, as we say here in the House of Arthur. Giving puffa puffa realness. I've never actually listened to one of his records (OK, I've did download some of the songs he did with the Backstreet Boys, they were nothing special) but I did have the misfortune of hearing him talk to local snooze DJ Jason Bentley, the king of LA electronica, whoopie. And he sounded like a middle-aged ad executive from 1973 trying to be all hip and down with the kids. It was "yeah, man", "right on", "excellent", "oh, fully" from the get-go. In this really smoove, bland, nothing accent. He was one laid back fella. So I guess I'll hate him. I don't know, is his music any good? He just seemed like too much of an obliging idiot and garden variety music biz phony to have ever made anything I'd care about.

saying hwy you white trash red neck fans not to bash faggots as a paticularlly noble act.

I really can't be doing with Westlife. I can't be much more detailed right now but they really are a right facepack of shite.

Hmmm...it'd have to be Robbie Williams or all of the Strokes, as I'm sure you know by now.

DG only hates the Strokes cause they have appropriated his look.

DG, i'm shocked! what next? Piney Sigel will be dissing Beanfox?

i know afew peeps on ILX like these ass clowns, but i was flipping through the channels, and i saw the godawful N*SYNC special, basically going through their whole career on MTV. there first performance was utterly painful to watch, but just like not being able to stop tongueing a cold soar, i continued to watch. tell me, what good have these guys done for anyone?

Agree with Nitsuh upthread: Enrique Iglesias. If the song is horrific, what about that video?

Well I think Robbie Williams is a terrible name, too--what does that make me? And Ethan, how the fuck do you know I'M not Jewish myself?

that christian i gotta get through this guy. daniel beddingfield? the gary barlow of garage.

daniel beddingfield? the gary barlow of garage

Surely the Rick Astley of garage? And I think the single is very good.

Getting my goat - almost all of the pitiful solo Spice Girls' output. So glad they're all getting (or already have been) dropped. Also Nelly Furtado (nasty nasal voice and misplaced critical acclaim), Hear'say, Liberty (sick of this 'selection process pop'...although the latest Hear'say single is actually quite good - very 1972).

Inglesfield is on the money with virtually everything he says here.

Except ... the current Hear'Say single "very 1972"? I'd normally trust you on such a statement and see it as a compliment, but I was left totally unmoved by it the couple of times I heard it. Must listen again ... I did end up preferring "The Way To Your Love" to "Pure and Simple".

Daniel Bedingfield: the same age as me, and educated the same way. Therefore he must be some kind of hero. And, you're right, it's a very, very good single.

Robin...re Hear'say's latest - think 'New Seekers' (but better than they actually were).

I'd have to agree with dave matthews band, one of the most utterly bland and uninspiring group of 'musicians' to surpass hootie and the blowfish in the realm of sucking. it is sickening that impressionable young undergraduates actually follow him around the country a la phish. Fred durst was bad enough on his own without inspiring a whole slew of horribly bland and boring wannabe RATMs here in the states, but he isn't quite as insidious as dave. I think the CIA is secretly sponsoring the DMB in an effort to homogenize and control american youth.

new S Club 7 single also very 1972 I have to say ...

Only decent solo Spice record: Mel B's "I Want You Back" (which is really a Missy Elliott record by default).

I had the misfortune to catch some of Geri Halliwell's "Records By Strong Women I Love" Radio 2 show the other morning. Started off with two of her own records ("This is Lift Me Up which is good if you want to be lifted up") followed by Shirley Bassey ("a strong woman with ambition who definitely inspired me") then Madonna ("a strong lady who shows just what determination and hard work can get you if you're ambitious like me") then Eternal ("they made the Spice Girls possible and that's why they're so important") then "It's Raining Men" ("I had a lorra fun making a better version of this great '80s track by two strong and determined women") then "Too Much" ("because we were important, and I hope the girls are doing fine and finding their own personal road to ambition") followed by sound of retching from present author. Someone go and give her a job, please.

It *was* Halliwell who called Thatcher "the first Spice Girl", wasn't it?

Fucking *hell* - no wonder I deliberately avoided every moment of that programme. The following edition of Pick of the Pops, however, featured Pickettywitch's "That Same Old Feeling", and therefore automatically became not only the best thing on Radio 2 that day, but perhaps the best thing on Radio 2 this year.

(shocking deliberate plug for forthcoming FT article over!)

Suddenly I realise that I never answered this thread properly, and it's hard for me because there's a lot of music I like but hate on an ideological / worldview level (those who read this forum regularly will know what I'm talking about) and a lot of stuff I hate but find myself utterly unmoved and unoffended by on a wider aesthetic level. Those I hate on both levels: Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, the Rolling Stones (especially in the 70s), the Beastie Boys by the time of Hello Nasty, Radiohead for their first three albums (with a few exceptions), Pink Floyd by the time of The Wall and ever thereafter, Robbie Williams except on "The Road To Mandalay", Marillion, Elton John, Atomic Kitten (still can't get into "Whole Again", much as I'd like to conceptually), and Howard Jones, especially on "Like To Get To Know You Well" (the video of him shaking everyone's hands makes me vomit ... not in a tedious "rock'n'roll" way, but there's something about his desperation to be liked by everyone and desperate desire to suppress any personality or individuality in the process which just sickens me on every level).

All those just make me despair for the human race, obviously a false picture, but they just seem tawdry and depressing and leave me in despair - it's something deeper than just disliking them, which I took to be the raison d'etre of this thread. I have to admit, though, that I went through a phase of listening to "Like To Get To Know You Well" as a psychological study, to see how anyone could come up with anything so bland and meaninglessly vague. I really wouldn't have believed (read: hoped) it was possible.

robin, what is it about the rolling stones you dislike? and do you not prefer AKs version of Eternal Flame to the bangles? somehow tidier (is that the most backhanded compliment ever??)

a) machismo, rock'n'roll myth, pseudo-meaningful lyrics, bluesy dirges, not doing anything remotely comparable to "Anyway Anyhow Anywhere", "I'm A Boy" or "Pictures of Lily", all of them being obviously fucking stupid people, endless tedious stadium tours, the lyrics to "Honky Tonk Women", the lyrics to "Brown Sugar", the *sound* of both those songs, men in pubs singing "Jumping Jack Flash", the stupidity of "It's Only Rock'n'Roll", cricket, Eton College, Dartford Grammar School, covering "Like A Rolling Stone", the fact that Jagger looks like the next Gary Glitter / Jonathan King during his TOTP solo performance of "Let's Work", the unspeakably lame remix of "Saint of Me" they did a few years ago in a last-ditch attempt to get played on Radio 1 again. I think that covers it.

(saving graces: "It's All Over Now", "The Last Time", "Get Off Of My Cloud", "Have You Seen Your Mother Baby Standing In The Shadow", and I think that's all.)

b) I suppose so. But it's such a bad song I don't think it matters.

the fact that Jagger looks like the next Gary Glitter / Jonathan King during his TOTP solo performance of "Let's Work"

What did he do, Robin?

He just gave me the impression that he took part in underage sex. Creepy.

He always seems to give off that "dirty old man in raincoat" vibe to me, though. It could just be me.

calling Thatch "the first Spice Girl" = weirdly prophetic back-handed self-evaluation?

Once upon a time jagger's shtick was that you WEREN'T MEANT TO LIKE HIM (and he wd have loved that you didn't, ESPECIALLY for a J.King-related reason). Stones have been slipping ever since he discovered he was liked being liked more than being hated.

But the "Thatcher = first Spice Girl" comment was in an interview with The Spectator in December 1996, therefore basically a means of reassuring their readership that at least some of Blair's "Cool Britannia" hangers-on heading for their inevitable election victory would show some sympathy with Tory values. I don't think you can read it as anything else - it's all about time and context to me.

i'm not talking about context-bound intention, i'm talking about unintended spooky prescient insight, into MT's and therefore their own futures: a time when the spicegirl brand evokes ubercreepy washed- up alcoholic millstone voter turn-off has- been...

Understood: in that case, yes, eerily predictive.

I thought this was about r.Kelly anyway we are all monkeys and I am sure it was very yes yes yes consentual sex:p holla