Over-Rated & Under-Rated Music Artists.

[Brawny]

That I agree, it's not often you find a Jpop artist who can sing equally as good in both languages. You commonly just get the Japanese singer who throws in a bunch of simple english words in a Japanese song.

I prefer "sank you" and "put your hands" over perfect English. I don't know why. It loses the entire J'ness of it. Plus the 5 year old factor is gone as well. The Japanese are all about being adorable.

What is that supposed to mean?

I just had a feeling.

I'm honestly not that bothered by the common high-pitch singer in JPop, I can go through a single playthrough of a handful of Ayu's euro-beat tracks, but not 2nd playthroughs without it hurting my head.

I can't listen to any of the remixes, so there!
What are examples of songs where the vocals are bad and nasal? I'll admit I don't listen to much stuff before 2002 or so.

And, I don't get how Yoko & Minako sound western, Utada yeah.. she's obviously influenced by it, but her voice has a more powerful tone, and she can definitely handle ballads. I'll list some others..

Yoko's just cheesy sounding. xD
Power + Asian = unsexy

I'm not saying she's a horrible singer, just.. she's not the perfect Goddess with an unmatched angelic voice that her fangirls say she is.

Course, her beauty is another reason for her unrivaled popularity in Japan, she's been given the nickname Ayumi "Plastic" Hamasaki, for having so much make-up that she looks like one of those perfect plastic dolls. I wonder how popular Ayu would be, if she were ugly.

I'll agree there. Her vocals have definitely come a way since the beginning though.

She'd probably be less popular, but still extremely.

I don't know what it is about all the recommended ones. They're either a bit too synth-heavy...or are just missing something.

A lot of Ayu's popularity isn't necessarily her singing ability but her sheer entertainment factor. All these videos I'm watching are quite boring and the audience isn't into it at all.

Hers seem to be more athemic (word?) than the others, I guess.

I'll stop rambling now.

[Ads]

[disturbed]

Overrated-Anything played every 5 minutes on the Radio

Underrated-Alesana, Killswitch Engage, Mushroomhead

Killswitch Engage is joining Disturbed in Their "Music as a Weapon IV" tour

[Celeste]

Overrated:
-Lil Wayne
-Metallica
-Paul McCartney's solo career
-Debbie Harry/Blondie
-Etta James
-Lionel Richie
-Donna Summer
-Dionne Warwick
-Frank Sinatra (it's his tone that's great, NOT his skill)
-Ayumi Hamasaki (I take issue with the sound of dying chipmunks)
-Jonas Brothers
-Vanessa Hudgens
-Ashley Tisdale
-Mariah Carey (save 1990-1997, 2005-2006)
-70% of the country artists popular in the last 20 years, because they don't write their music although most people think they do

...I'll definitely add to this.

Underrated:
-Gavin Degraw
-Sia
-JC Chasez (why is Justin the only popular former Nsync member? JC can write and sing just as well.)
-Lady Gaga (it's really easy to hate her initially. I did. But once you listen to her acoustic and realize that she WRITES her music, you change your mind.)

...Most of my favorite people get the appreciation they deserve, or more than they deserve. So I don't have a terribly long list there.

By the way, what the hell is "pop" music anymore? Jonas Brothers, High School Musical kids and Britney Spears? Beyond that, who? (Unless you live in the UK where "pop" in the traditional sense still exists.) I'd consider "pop" to be more along the lines of Fall Out Boy, Paramore, All American Rejects etc as WELL as the aforementioned. "Pop" just means popular now in North America...the specific genre of the 90s it referred to (Aqua, Backstreet Boys, Mandy Moore, etc) is extinct.

[Chewy]

Over rated:
AC/DC
ZZ Top
Most everything pop(by that I mean the majority of today's mainstream bands)

Under-rated:
Jazz music in general
Papadosio (more unheard of then under-rated, everyone I know who has heard them thinks they're awesome)
Dispatch
Black Keys
Matisyahu
Tons of random jam bands which I don't feel like listing...

Anti-Flag
Moneen

Went to a concert where those two were playing and they were virtually unknown. Maybe they are more well known in the U.S. but here in Canada almost no one has heard of them. Good bands too.

Anti-flag is well known. I personally think they're terrible though, I can't even take them seriously after I heard the "die for your government" song.

"Pop" just means popular now in North America...the specific genre of the 90s it referred to (Aqua, Backstreet Boys, Mandy Moore, etc) is extinct.

Pop has always meant popular. There has always been pop, like for example the Beatles were 60's pop.

[Celeste]

Fair enough. But I still think there was an unspoken genre within pop that specifically meant dance-ish bubblegum artists, so I always wonder what people refer to. Coldplay is pop under the blanket definition. But I bet a lot of Coldplay fans would be pissed off if you told them so.

[Gikoku Harakami]

^I'm sure there's a difference in the general meaning of Pop...

Pop-Rock, Pop (as in bubblegum girl singers), Synth-Pop, etc. Metallica was more like Pop-Metal back in the mid-90's.

Meh, I think Metallica is kinda overrated. They're not that good anymore. They were at first, but not now... Hell, they're even getting thery're own Guitar Hero game. Why not bands like AC/DC and GnR? At least they still make good songs.

GnR was about at the same level of popularity as Metallica was in their golden years, and I wouldn't be surprised if GnR or AC/DC is next in line to have their own GH game (especially AC/DC). AC/DC also, is far more popular than Metallica is.

I wouldn't really say Metallica is over-rated, their fans & the media is the problem. Metallica was at the popularity they deserved to be at in their younger years, but now... now the fans are hyping their new albums up way too much, and when the new releases don't live up to expectations... Metallica gets hit, hard, really hard.

Over-Rated

Fall Out Boy: Just another boy band with a huge fangirl base. All of their songs are really uninteresting, in my opinion, and their fans are largely annoying.

I don't know what it is about all the recommended ones. They're either a bit too synth-heavy...or are just missing something.

A lot of Ayu's popularity isn't necessarily her singing ability but her sheer entertainment factor. All these videos I'm watching are quite boring and the audience isn't into it at all.

Hers seem to be more athemic (word?) than the others, I guess.

I'd say it depends on the audience, and what the singer is doing. Ayumi's main fanbase is of over-excited girls who admire her sheer beauty and scream alot when they see her.

Ayumi Hamasaki is a Singer & Performer, she always pulls large performances thus aiding in a more excited audience (Similar to KISS without the blood & Britney Spears). As opposed to the others who just go on stage and "sing", without any dramatic on-stage theatrics.

I assure you, if Yoko Oginome had large explosions on her stage, outrageous outfits, and other dramatic stuff.. her audience would have more excited expressions on their faces and would be jumping up and down.

What are examples of songs where the vocals are bad and nasal? I'll admit I don't listen to much stuff before 2002 or so.

I prefer Ayu's debut album that was in the 90's, a groovy album, that was very pleasing listen to. You compare her current works to her 90's album, and you'll notice a very large difference.

Ayumi's voice gets nasally whenever she goes for high notes (it's easy to spot), and when going for her ballads her voice tends to break and it sounds like she's gasping for air.. Here's some vids:

Spoiler Alert!

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iy8mosjQKv8[/ame]
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9Dag-ZZ0Ic[/ame]

Ayumi has great emotion, but her voice isn't very well suited for ballads. On the plus side, she does atleast write most if not all of her lyrics.

[Chewy]

Fair enough. But I still think there was an unspoken genre within pop that specifically meant dance-ish bubblegum artists, so I always wonder what people refer to. Coldplay is pop under the blanket definition. But I bet a lot of Coldplay fans would be pissed off if you told them so.

Yeah I know exactly what genre you are talking about, but I think each decade pretty much had their own unique genre of pop.

It really is an odd term though, since many popular bands are not considered pop by most people.

I'd say pop is the kind of music that people will be listening on the radio as (insert decade here) music.

[Brawny]

I prefer Ayu's debut album that was in the 90's, a groovy album, that was very pleasing listen to. You compare her current works to her 90's album, and you'll notice a very large difference

Ayumi's voice gets nasally whenever she goes for high notes (it's easy to spot), and when going for her ballads her voice tends to break and it sounds like she's gasping for air.. Here's some vids:

Spoiler Alert!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iy8mosjQKv8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9Dag-ZZ0Ic

Ayumi has great emotion, but her voice isn't very well suited for ballads. On the plus side, she does atleast write most if not all of her lyrics.

Definitely agree on those two videos. I have to say it's much much better in recent years when she sings them over again.

I like a lot of the ballads over the others...

I like that their lyrics aren't all about sex and crap that's so prevalent in ours.

Aaand out of the Jpop thread and into the regularpop one:

I consider anything that my sister listens to "pop"...which is short for popular.

[baseclef51]

Overrated by me and underrated by everyone else:
Dream Theater
One of my favorite bands of all time. Extremely talented group of musicians.

[ROB64]

Fall Out Boy: Just another boy band with a huge fangirl base. All of their songs are really uninteresting, in my opinion, and their fans are largely emo.

fix'd.

I've been looking up a few new/amateur artists/bands, and found a few really good ones.

Project 86
http://www.myspace.com/project86

Brett Lieberman
http://www.myspace.com/brettlieberman

Rachel Furolo
http://www.myspace.com/rachelfurolo

I'm thinking about getting one of Project 86's albums, they're a really good band.