Bands You Just Don't Get

Maybe this is too easy of a target, but I really don't get why Maroon 5 is popular. The band is one of the homeliest groups I've ever seen; they look like a non-model version of the Kings of Leon. Adam Levine is easily the best looking, but even he's about 5 shades too geeky. And on top of that, his singing isn't even good. I caught the band on the Today Show this morning, and live they're about the most boring sight I've seen. Hell, I dance better than these goofs.

Just to prove I'm not totally biased against the mainstream, I can totally get the appeal of bands like Fall Out Boy or My Chemical Romance. Hell, if I was in high school now and saw a bunch of guys with tattoos jumping all over the place and screaming, I'd be psyched too. But this Maroon 5 shit is beyond me.

agreed. About Maroon 5.

I also feel that way about Nickelback or 3 Doors Down, or any of those other jock cock "rock bands" that all sound the same.

Hell, that's just shooting fish in an Elmo bowl. Here are some groups who are lauded on this site that I don't get:

Daft Punk
Decemberists
LCD Soundsystem
Silversun Pickups
Spoon
Modest Mouse
Panda Bear
Yo La Tengo (I don't dislike them, but I've tried again and again to get into Heart Beats as One and the new one, and they just don't grab me)

yeah, radio bands are too easy, because we all know they are only popular because of record label promotion, hype and MTV support, not because of real talent or anything like that.

indie bands i dont get:

Mates of State
Sleater-Kinney
Guided By Voices
Wilco (wait, i get Wilco, they just arent good)

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.

Animal Collective

Also, any of the psychfreakfolk bands
Wooden Wand
Cocorosie
Devendra
etc.

I get them, but their singer bothers the hell out of me.

Originally posted by ixkpd-bk:
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.

Same here Econo. He's like a bipolar David Byrne.

Bob Dylan

Don't get it one bit.

Sufjan Stevens. So blandly twee, songwriting that compensates for lack of melody with bells and whistles…don't get it.

I also don't get Silversun Pickups.

Completely with you on Yo La Tengo.

Originally posted by nkotb:
Maybe this is too easy of a target, but I really don't get why Maroon 5 is popular.

i could be wrong, but: "this love"

that song was huge…like on a "hey ya"/"crazy" level (regardless of dudes voice, i think it had a great hook). i haven't listened to the radio on a regular basis since like 1987, but that tune somehow got lodged in my head at it's peak (03, 04?).. i couldn't avoid it, it was everywhere.

they can now sell out arenas because millions of people are willing to pay $62.50 to stand in a beer garden for an hour and a half until they hear the opening notes of that song and rush over to their seat and get their woohoo on.

*flips over "Captain Save-a-Band" cape*

*flies away*

Jimmy Buffett. But then, I don't get drunk.

Radiohead
Bjork
Sufjan

Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of indie-friendly bands that I scratch my head at. Arcade Fire are fine, I guess, but I have no clue why anyone is shitting their pants over them, and I think the Silversun Pickups are dreadfully boring. And while I think Radiohead are just OK too, I have no idea how everyone in the world loves them, especially when they haven't released a radio-friendly single (or listener-friendly album) in almost a decade.

But Maroon 5…man, I just don't get it. I don't see anything that would incite as much praise as they get, and from such a large & diverse demographic.

Originally posted by le sonick:
yeah, radio bands are too easy, because we all know they are only popular because of record label promotion, hype and MTV support, not because of real talent or anything like that.

I don't get how someone doesn't get Bob Dylan.

Washington Social Club

Originally posted by K8teebug:
I don't get how someone doesn't get Bob Dylan.

I can. And I even LIKE some of his songs (the incredibly nasty, bitter ones: Idiot Wind, I Don't Believe You, Positively 4th Street, and Donâ??t Think Twice.)

He's unintelligible. A lot of baby boomers think he's god. He's released as many bad albums as good ones. You can't dance to him. Sometimes rhyming nonsense is mistaken for genius ("A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall.") Every other baby boomer musician kisses his ass/covers him (I mean, he willingly participated in a "30th Anniversary Concert" for himself.) He's inspired a lot of bad singer/songwriters. He's overrated. The Traveling Wilburys. He's inscrutable (To some people, listening to "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" must seem like reading "War & Peace.") He insists upon himself.

Need I go on?

Brian

O.A.R.
Dave Matthews Band
Jimmy Buffett

And bands that I know I "should" get, but I just flat out don't:

The Stooges
The Velvet Underground