Dissing on Bands/Artists

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The recent doors thread made me wonder about hating on bands. Clearly, there are certain bands that get a bad rap on ILM: i.e. Pearl Jam, U2, the Doors. Discussion on these bands must rival discussion of the Smiths/Morrissey.
Clearly this is not a universal dislike (search thread where many people list at least one U2 song they like) but more a meaningless "X SUCK!", "yes, i agree" affirmation of statement, community agreement without argument thing which resides in the ILM readers idea of what ILM is or believes.
I will always enjoy a detailed, humourous deconstruction of an bands percieved faults, but this 'sloganeering' seems meaningless to me.

So, my question is, why do you hate bands? Is it to stay current with the 2002 critical concensus of the canon, influence and the "One True Way"(tm)? Do we define ourselves by what we dislike rather than by what we do like? Is spent energy hating on bands worth the while? What do you get out of it/ what does it mean to you?

Johan, Friday, 5 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

when i was younger, i certainly hated bands in a reactionary fashion to popular culture... to be seen as "different" to that, and as a means of defining myself. but, as i've grown up, i've gotten over that and prefer to try and judge an band on its merits. if i don't like something, i will say it, but i wouldn't get upset about it.
sometimes, the one liner is great, particularly if it is humourous (i.e. 'say something nice about jamiroquai' 'great score in scrabble'). still, i enjoy reading that someone says some band is junk when i agree. "yes, you're right" i think, and i feel self satisfied.

Johan, Friday, 5 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Personally I can't be arsed into expending a lot of energy hating on bands.

DeRayMi, Friday, 5 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I hate bands worthy of hate because they waste my time with crap. Therefore, after confirming a band's essential crapness to my ears, I then try to minimize exposure. :-)

Ned Raggett, Friday, 5 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

without hate there can be no love and vice versa. moreover, some bands and musicians represent a certain problem or nefarious influence, thus deserving reproach (though, of course, what bands those are is highly debatable).

jack cole, Friday, 5 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm sure most people work on the theory that, once deciding a band is crap, they will minimise their need to listen to said band. What I'm more interested in is the discussion we have about these bands, in forums like ILM.

Johan, Friday, 5 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Because like Jack said, it's good to vent and define oneself. :-)

Ned Raggett, Friday, 5 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

''Is spent energy hating on bands worth the while? What do you get out of it/ what does it mean to you?''

Sure, if a band makes a terrible record then i will say so. I am providing my thoughts on x band.

What i will say so it may get quite difficult to keep going. 'Funhouse' for instance, is a record that i dislike. When someone said that he thought he liked it because it was a good combination of free jazz and rock (as i recall) (was it you jack?) i laughed. But instead of saying why i disliked the record i just said something like 'this is the sorta thing that makes me crazy'. I never went into it because i had alreday gone through it on another thread.

hard to repeat yourself once you made yr point though mark s is doing a good job on the influence thing. I wonder for how long the old man can keep going?

Julio Desouza, Friday, 5 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Most of the time it isn't so much the music itself that I hate, but the crowd that it attracts or what the band represents. (Case in point: Radiohead and Oasis.)

nath, Saturday, 6 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I've found that, for whatever reasons, there are certain bands I generally dislike yet just can't ignore. The Doors are a good example: they sum up pretty much everything I loathe about rock music. And for that reason they're hard for me to ignore: whenever I try to talk about trends that I hate in music, I'm often drawn to talking about the Doors. So in a way they're as much a part of my life as a lot of bands that I like. This is the kind of thing that makes me sometimes wish I didn't feel the need to write about music.

Justyn Dillingham, Saturday, 6 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

why do i hate certain bands/artists and genres try listening to radio 1/Xfm/kiss 100/6 music or even worse Virgin - for more than 1 hour without switching stations ! British radio is nauseating, unadventorous, boring and bland.

There are a few specialist shows on radio 1/xfm/kiss (mostly at insomniac times)- but the rest of the output is ghastly.

just take a look at the playlists on the websites of radio 1/Xfm/kiss 100/6 music or even worse Virgin - the problem is the music controllers at these stations control and restrict the choice of music to the lowest common denominator - often high profile industry backed conformist artists that match a particular style! e.g mind numbing wailing diva pop trance, cliched nu metal/rap rock/ nu corporate grunge, dull earnest trad songs alt rock, annoying pop punk lite, UK garage - that summmer of 2000 woz unabearable that scitty hiccup production and dumb ass vocal style, rnb overproduced slush, boring mainstream rap/hip hop etc. They then find artists that fit in with these stated styles.

take Xfm at 1.00 am on weekdays it reverts to daytime playlist, it's enough to induce hatred, i mean who the fuck wants to listen to the ghastly sterile Puddle of Mudd - blurry at that time or anytime !

Then there are certain artists that become unavoidable and over played on xfm that induce further hatred not only becoz I dislike the bands sound, this pain is further induced due to high rotation ala strokes/ hives/ white stripes ! even peel and john kennedy are guilty of this aural pollution.

If i were in charge of Xfm, there would be radical changes - a whole wedge of the playlist, shows and presenters would be scrapped.

the hatred, what i consider aural pollution of the music that the radio media pumps out 365 days of the year - that is the problem. As i have said many times before the MEDIA is the problem ! back to my systems theory in macro terms GIGO, you put garbage into a system, you will get garbage out of a system.

DJ Martian, Saturday, 6 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Actually why is this considered a *bad* thing? Talking/reading about it in a forum like ILM on an *intellectual* level might give you insight (if you hate/love the band). All depends on how this is done of course.

nathalie, Saturday, 6 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't hate Pearl Jam, U2, or Doors. But the bands I do hate, I hate because there is so much great music out there. If I see the risk higher for getting into a band and it will take away a chance at getting into a better band, I will try to avoid them. Mainly based on bad first impressions or even more so continued bad impressions. And often I hate a band based on a friend convincing me thier bad, but then I listen to them and like them.

A Nairn, Saturday, 6 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Also I'm trying to get away from hating a band just based on the fact that they are/were successful on MTV or commercial radio. But I think I may go back to that, because there is less of a risk.

A Nairn, Saturday, 6 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I find myself hating cynical commercial manipulation a fair bit of the time. I also get a kick out of reading witty put downs about anything and ILM is pretty good for that sort of thing. Also, arguing about music is ultimatley non-threatening - in the end it's all taste and most people realise this I think; you can be really hateful without offfending people too much - at least most of the time.

For example: Funhouse is the best damn album in the world. One of my life missions is to listen to it as many times as i can before i die.

Andrew, Sunday, 7 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I agree that emoting is a way of defining oneself, but it is also, and more importantly, an emotional RELEASE. I joined in on the Insane Clown Posse-bashing because I am filled with an uncontrollable, irrational need to DESTROY ANY TRACE OF PREFERENCE FOR THAT PIECE OF SHIT BAND. I hate ICP because their music is annoying, retarded, trite, vomitous, makes me want to screw pigs, and basically destroys my head every time I hear it.

And normally that would make me like a band. But all I want to do is kick those white boys' asses. They make me want to vomit on their corpses as I rape them with a chainsaw. I'm sorry. I hate them with every bit of my shrivelled heart.

And what is so wrong with hating a band? Sure, it is a waste of time, but time on earth is a waste. I'm only human, afterall. If God didn't want me to hate and someday murder Shaggy 2-Dope and Violent J, he wouldn't have put me on this Earth! And when I get to heaven, I'm gonna kill God, too, for making me listen to that shit.

AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

Wow. That felt good! :)

Philip Gomez, Sunday, 7 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)


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