Artists you just don't get

[mayorquimby]

i'm not talking about flash in the pan "don't see the fuss about Chris Brown.." type artists (ok he could be around for decades but at the moment he hasn't achieved legendary status)

i'm talking about people who don't rate the beatles or clapton or some other accepted legend who everyone else thinks is genius.

for me it's Bob Dylan (i just really don't like his voice) and probably Morrisey who for some reason his fans still think it makes them "underground/on the fringes" to like him despite being one of the best known artists in the country.

Pink Floyd
Led Zep
Bob Dylan

Anyone who reguarly appears on the front cover of Mojo magazine really.

Love The Smiths and all that jingly jangly indie!

Bob Dylan (although I like other people doing his songs)

White Stripes (don't get me started on the loathesomeness that is Jack White)

Bjork/Sugarcubes

Hate The Smiths and find the Beatles dull.

Likewise, on a more recent note, do not like Take That in any way or Oasis.

However, as I grind on through my thirties am coming to like Take That a little more, and will dance to the odd 'classic' of theirs in a fond rose tinted spectacles kind of way.

Is it these spectacles that maketh the legend?

Thank God!!
I don't get the Smiths either - I was worried that liking them may be a pre-requisite for getting my British passport....
Whew!

i'll definitely agree with whoever said bob marley. i mean he's fine for background music, but i don't actually believe people like him as much as they say they do. i think people just say it because they feel they have to and everyone has to act like they're actually happy some art student tosser has turned him on at a session when someone sparks up a joint, f-the-f off and leave on "the band" who actually do rule.

i also don't get people who can say in one foul swoop "i don't like any hip-hop/r'n'b/rap.
i mean it's so diverse, how can you not like any mos def/dizzee rascal/J-5/ATCQ/tupac?
it'd be like saying i don't like any rock music or pop music.

The Beastie Boys

U2, the manics, rhcp probably loads more. I do like the smiths in a casual way, but don't really get the hype surrounding them.

Him (i.e. That Ville Valo bloke) wtf?! Attention seeking little c*nt. I look too Kerrang! for a bit of inspiration once a week and this is what they want me to listen to? Don't bloody think so!

I LOVE The Smiths, Stone Roses and most jangly guitar indie but (and I know this is really uncool) I don't get Radiohead.

ok, let me explain it to you:

Bob Dylan's lyrics are the key. The best way i can sum it up is that he writes what men would like to say, and what women would like to hear. He has a special blend of world-weary cynicism and hopeless romanticism that has a mass appeal.

yes, his voice can grate and he's not the worlds' greatest guitarist but as a lyricist and a writer of songs (which are a joy to play) he is unsurpassed. He is the musical equivalent of Shakespeare.

The Stone Roses have incredible tunes. I think the best way i heard it described by a journalist was that where most bands have only one great melody per song (or per album if you're unlucky) the Stone Roses would come up with ten and somehow meld them all. Just when you think the song can't get any more beautiful/heartbreaking it takes yet another gorgeous twist. Again if you can't get past Ian Brown's voice then they're never going to appeal to you. I like to think of it as honest and uncompromising, a 'fallen angel' type thing - one of the first singers to reject the americanisation of the british accent in popular music. out of tune, maybe, but on the first album it barely matters. Heaven. (and i'm a girl by the way, and i must say when i was a student, confessing to love the roses was a fantastic way to pull gorgeous northern types).

The Smiths i'm not quite so keen on although i do like a few of morrissey's songs. I think with them its the way that they find beauty and romance in the cold despair of Thatcher's Britain whilst everyone else was dancing to Bros. To quote Kurt Cobain (please tell me you get him) it's the 'comfort in being sad'. And Johnny Marr's guitar was quite revolutionary at the time, so i'm told.

Now can someone please explain the following to me:

Coldplay (awful boring indulgent souless crap)
U2 (ditto)
James Blunt (rhymes with...)
James Morrison (did they just clone Chris Martin? yawn)
Rihannon (ofgs she can't even spell her own name - you ever been to Wales love? didn't think so)
The Killers (how much does that guy love himself?)

or is it Rihanna? god, now i feel uncool

I agree with whoever said Elvis. His songs are OK in a singalongy way, but nothing special.
Mintyy - I don't think Clare Grogan really belongs in this list! I think she's probably better known for Red Dwarf!

Captain Beefheart. SO many of my favourite artists love him so I've tried but no, I just don't get it. Oh and Elvis, absolutely dire.

totalmisfit i think you might be the exact person i was thinking of when i started this thread. becaus basically you have got the music rage that i was thinking of that people get about certain artists that i will just never see the appeal in. such as dylan, i mean i've heard all those arguments before with regards dylan but still his songs have never and i doubt wil ever speak to me. the ditto the stone roses.
and i understand your rage because i get it over certain artists. find me someone who doesn't appreciate the libertines, G'n'R or Nas and i'd think them phlistines and border-line certifiable.
it's actually quite amusing that you even cite Cobain as an after-thought of "surely you get him" because while i do half-way see why he might appeal to some i actually find him to be trumped up by an early death which has raised his (in my opinion) juvenile lyrics to martyr status.
which is pretty much precisely why i started this thread. because we all have artists who we revere to the utmost who others regard as at best mediocre and at worst awful.
but we can all still get worked up about it.