I already discussed at length on another thread how I feel that Mr Starbucks himself, Bob Dylan, is ridiculously over-rated and mythologised. For those of you who weren't there, much ridicule and venom ensued . Oh well. I'll just take solace from the fact that I'm right and all of you Dylan-lovers are wrong...

i always thought Eminem was hugely over-rated (especially by people who didnt have a clue about hip-hop) and now, I now he is! "Exhaustion". Jeez, I'm exhausted and I still turn up for work

Great thread! But unless I am mistaken, surely we are missing what is undoubtedly the most over-rated band of recent years - The Libertines. I love my ramshackle rock as much as the next man but these talentless, sub-pub band pretenders really do my head in. And how in under God has Mick Jones picked up so many rewards for his production on their albums! It sounds like he taped a pickup to each of their badly tuned instruments and left them to it... As for the eulogising of Pete Doherty... what a waste of space he is. It seems the NME is desperate for this generation to have their own Kurt. Or am I being too cynical?

Re: The Libertines I remember hearing them first before 'Up the Bracket' was even releaseed. There was a real buzz about them and I remember buying 'Dont Look Back into the Sun' and thinking it was really good manic stuff. The album wasnt outstanding but still - it had track like 'A Time for Heroes' and 'Up the bracket' but unfortunatley the press whore onslaught and egotism that followoed ruined any chance of them developing into what could have been a pretty good band. oh well.

The Libertines were great, listen to Tell the King and The Good Old Days off Up the Bracket, the media destroyed them, Doherty seems to have lost the plot completely, loada b****x

the libertines first album is very good alright, listened to it again the other day, good stuff. Pity they threw it all away though.

interesting blame game about the libertines. many bands have survived - and thrived - after a media onslaught. i really think they just didnt have the smarts or chops to better their early work. it happens a lot - how many second albums are just not as good as the debut? Some bands can cope magnificently (heard the new Franz Ferdinand single and it sounds amazing and bodes well for the album) and others just fall to pieces. The media have nothing to do with that - its down to the people involved themselves In the case of the Libertines, it was the fact that they listened to Alan McGee (their manager) and Geoff Travis (Rough Trade, their record company) and went for the whole sensationalist angle, instead of knuckling down and writing really good songs Drop The Dope - Make Doherty History

i liked their second album aswell, f**kin hate that s**t on the cover playin up to all that heroin s**te, yer right though i suppose it was management and the band themselves that are to blame for playin up to all that sensationalist nonsense

id say it was probably a bit of bad management too, as well as the obvious weakness on their part. Yeah, the second album cover is f**king ridiculous. Would be kinda hard, in their situation though, to keep your s**t together, specially if youre a bit f**ked up/hedonistic already

Heard f**k Forever today, it's horrendous.

Amen Unicorn,shabby, badly recorded muck.

another highly over-rated band to add to the list that i just remembered when i heard them on the radio earlier - REM. early stuff was good but the new stuff is just so bloody awful.

I'd disagree with that, everyone thinks their new stuff is bloody awful. If they had legions of people defending the new material then yeah I'd go along with it but the general opinion mirrors your own. Unless you consider the older good stuff to not be all that good.

My vote goes to The Beach Boys. Unlike many of the bands mentioned in this thread, The Beach Boys are actually revered as one of the greatest bands of all time by many music critics, up there with The Beatles. But personally I think the produced sappy bubblegum pop.

and the Beatles didn't?!

some of the Beach Boys surfer tunes are great, good time summer music. And then theres Pet Sounds, and there are very few albums as good as that, in any style, its as close to perfection as "Electric Ladyland" is. Oh dont think the Beatles really produced "sappy bubblegum pop" either, some of their early pop stuff is great, She Loves You, Twist n Shout, I Wanna Hold Your Hand...

I can't say I'm a huge fan of the Beatles music but the impact they have had on modern music is undeniably enormous, I think it is much less so with the Beach Boys, at least positive impact that is. But of course when it comes to rating bands it is obviously highly subjective and everyone has their own opinion.