hah hah i'll pick up that gauntlet w/ glee
here:
i think nirvana is somewhat overrated, i like them, truly but they get **too much credit** by people who know little or nothing of rock history or were blinded by their influence. did they have a pivotal role in mainstream culture? sure! but please go listen to the melvins to know where they were coming from.
now, i think radiohead is way overrated because they just plain suck, as they sucked in the 90s, and they always will, forever and ever, amen, hah hah, what horrid music! i rather hear toilets flush! (actually, quite interesting sounds).
the beatles are not overrated *currently*. they were overrated by baby boomers, who credited them with inventing something like EVERYTHING in modern pop music, and they could do no wrong, and their shit was ambrosia, and their piss gold, but i don't think they are overrated these days. influential they certainly were like probably no other band. the greatest? you say yes. i say no. you say stop. and i say go go go.
my jaw? har har har. many laughs...
----
but anyway, what truly really galls me (& the reason i returned to post here) is the required combination of deep ignorance + infinite pretentiousness to call beethoven overrated. beethoven. i mean-- c'mon! ! you heard some excerpts of the 9th symphony in a bruce willis movie & now you're an expert? your cellphone has "ode to joy" as a ringtone and this lets you judge? no... sorry, no... just no.
go listen to the late quartets, or the kreutzer sonata, or his piano sonatas, or the eroica. aghhghghhghghghghghghg!! go listen!!! sheeesh... now if you have tolstoi's literary chops you get to criticize the kreutzer sonata, otherwise you're WAY out of your league... oh yeah chuck berry is exempt too & with good reason.
& la creme de la creme de la creme theory my ass-- no detail provided in the "explanation" of jazz. please explain la creme de la kenny g!
sorry i had to vent