I think the list is pretty thoughtful and interesting, overall. I m really glad to see Tom Waits, The Cars Devo on the list..
Waits Devo were undeservedly branded as novelty acts, and The Cars have a real poetic depth under the hood of their masterful pop anthems.
Would love to see on the list: Elliott Smith XTC..
both incredibly prolific and brilliant songwriters who rarely make the radio playlists.. Tom Waits is underappreciated?
Please. Like many on this list (or those off, like the Kinks) they re loved well, and for good reason (, except for the Evil That Is Bob Seger).
So: best underappreciated.
Easily:
it s in my opinion that Tom petty has too many god damn fans.
he d make my overrated list.
although Damn the Torpedoes would make my underrated albums list.
Cuz let s face it, millions of college kids like my brother who go all the way to Connecticut just know Breakdown and Free Fallin and don t know how great things like Century City and Here Comes My Girl are.
I ll go with The Band cuz they really deserve the cult following that The Grateful Dead get. How i look at those two bands is the same way i look at Phish and Wilco.
Phish/Grateful Dead had the great live show and the cult following while The Band/Wilco wallow in obscurity with WAYYYYY better songs and albums than Phis/Grateful Dead. Bon Jovi? Under appreciated?
They re like number 4 for all time record sales.
Kajagoogoo? The one hit wonder?
Culture Club? Ugh. Don t even get me started.
And some of you guys are naming bands no one has even heard of!
Yes, The Cars were an extremely influential and under appreciated band. I m not sure how RS gets away with putting the Cars at #16 when neither the Band nor Elliott Smith even made the list.
Especially considering a ton of people wrote in for Elliott.
ps. urSlave has the worst music taste of all time.
The Pixies, you crazy bastards!
And Kyuss!
Beta Band!
The Deadly Snakes!
ah, what s the use Talking Heads, The Cars, The Band and Tom Petty all got PLENTY of press and radio play, and hardly qualify as under appreciated.
I would drop them and add Bruce Cockburn, Richard Thompson, The Waterboys and The Tragically Hip!
aka,
You re missing the concept. Rolling Stone (namely it s journalists) offer their personal opinions on the subject. Then you, the reader, say where you agree and disagree.
Also, props to them for firstly getting the job at rolling stone, and then opening up the list for bashing. Whether you agree or disagree, the fun in it is chiming in your two cents about what you d change and what you agree with. Come down from the podium, grow some man-parts and offer your personal opinion.
You re shoddy indifferent filibuster to this group discussion borders on the interesting. Also - the technique which you re referring to, polling, is what we get year in and year out at various award shows, and now american idol. A change of pace is nice, and this is the appropriate arena.
In addition to Hank 3, I d like to mention The Clarks, John Eddie, Of A Revolution, Silverstein, and MC Chris.
I agree with the several people who have brought up the Pixies and the list for Tom Waits and a personal favorite Warren Zevon.
See how that works?
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club!
Oh wait, this isn t the list of bands underappreciated by Rolling Stone? This list was clearly made up prior to public input which is journalistic dishonesty.
As is typical of young useless rock writers, you ve injected your personal bias into evaluations instead of listening to public input or using reliable metrics.
When the five bands you initially suggested happen to end up on the list including The Pharcyde which didn t show up in the polling then you know the whole list is a farce. Let me guess Pharcyde is the fave band of the lead writer of this bit.
Why bother polling the public anyway?
Wouldn t a far better journalistic piece be a discussion of what makes an artist unsung? Every time I stoop to read some article polling the public on rock whether it is this or VH1 lists I end up embarrassed by the sloppy and dishonest nature of the piece.
Such junk. By the way..
Talking Heads and most of those bands are already well regarded by critics so, again, what the hell? anonymous..
the hip is underappreciated but I think only in America, There coming here in september can t wait to see em!
I agree with this list for the most part. Tom Waits IS underappreciated.
Sonic Youth IS underappreciated. Sleater-Kinney IS grossly underappreciated. Good job.
If people are looking for a list of bands that no one knows that critics hate , that s NOT an underappreciated list! That s just good reason why they don t have fans. And honestly, who thinks the Strokes are underappreciated?
They get far more attention than they deserve. I mean they re product placement in the new Transformers movie! Nuff said.
I like the list, but most of the bands on it were hardly suggested by people over the weekend. So why even ask our opinion at all?
magnificent choice at No.
1. Genius
But no XTC? This is a bit silly.
Sonic Youth have had a no1 album in the uk, thats called appreciation.
Talking Heads As well as influencing nearly every new band of the moment, have had countless hits . Thats called appreciation.
Tom Waits, fugazi, the cramps, big star, the replacements ect might not be household names but for all those lucky enough to have been introduced they have not gone underappreciated.
What we need is a list of bands that got dismissed by the critics and sold nothing. Then we will have a list of underappreciated bands.
I have to say that Tom Petty, Alice Cooper and Seger are definitely appreciated. Totally agree with Waits, Zevon, Ween, Fugazi and Sonic Youth.
However, Tool and Kyuss still are the two of the most underappreciated bands.
I forgot to mention The Black Keys are great!! EXTREMELY underappreciated.
I have all their albums.
The Roots should also be on that list. My favorite band to see live.
Game Theory is one of the best hip hop albums of all time. While it hasn t been selling much now, it ll be one of those albums that will sell by word of mouth, and will still be selling 20 years from now. Innovative!
! Dredg?!
?! please
I agree with a lot of these definitely agree with The Band, Dinosaur Jr.
and Seger. I would add The Black Keys, MC5, Parliament, Ornette Coleman, and most definitely Steely Dan They played in NYC and the music reps obviously overlooked them because they lack hair gel and eyeliner .BOOOOOO!
! They WILL rule the nation ..
The most underappreciated band out there! Pretty funny that their list is like a who s who of critical darlings. Sonic Youth, Big Star, Cheap Trick, Wilco - all these bands are way too often referred to as underrated, when pretty much everyone agrees that they re good.
I think I read ELO on just about every response to the initial posting, but because they re an art-rock band, they don t get listed.
Thus, lists like these and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame continue to ignore incredible bands like Yes, ELO, early-Genesis, The Soft Machine, King Crimson, mainly because of prog-rock s reputation. It s so annoying and pathetic.
overall good list, except you missed THE KINKS!
A solid percentage of respondents voted for the Kinks. I would have loved to see them make the list.
Or does that mean they are fully appreciated? Pretty solid list, though I m bummed it didn t step too far out of RS s usual wheelhouse as far as musical styles go. But any list that raises publicity for Warren Zevon is OK in my book.
BTW, Seger is still underappraciated critically. He may sell out large venues, but you won t hear him referred to as arguably the best straight-up rock-and-roller of the 70 s, which he is. His Chevy commercial and country music days seem to be tarnishing his Night Moves-era amazingness.
Also props for Alice Cooper. He gets dismissed too often as shock rock. Billion Dollar Babies is one tight record.
Underappreciated by who? I have albums by 17 of the acts on that list and I listen to them often. My friends tend to be people of the same musical tastes and they rave about some of those albums.
If you get it , you get it . Those artists don t make music or cater to those who don t. I hardly think Talking Heads are underappreciated!
Barely was/has a bad word been written about them.
How about The Cure? Seventeen Seconds/ Faith/ Pornography - what a trilogy.
Or The Chills (from New Zealand)? Their song Pink Frost is as good as anything post-punk.
Agree with some picks (Sonic Youth, Fugazi, Wilco), disagree with others (Seger?
Petty? Underappreciated?).
Phish - The greatest live band of their generation (70,000 people to remote northern Maine for shows in three different years with no hit songs, c mon), but barely any mainstream media coverage and no major awards.
Mudhoney - A keystone band in the development of alternative and grunge music in the 90 s.
Grant Green - One of the alltime great jazz guitar players who has had a major influence on current jazz, funk and jamband groups.
Bon Jovi should be on that list too. Totally underappreciated.
Tom Waits couldn t carry a tune in a bucket.
He deserves to be ignored. You didn t just walk into a minefield with this, you created one. This list is populated with critics darlings and mainstream, popular rockers.
Was any criteria at all established here? Tom Waits, Sonic Youth..
underappreciated on the charts, but not among music lovers. Petty, Seger maybe get the short end among hipsters and the intelligensia, but have proved amazingly popular and durable. If your going to breach this subject, include 99% of the music that s been put out in history.
I mean, think about it: What does The #1 Under Appreciated Artist mean anyway?
P.S.
their 80 s output in particular, though far from consistent, has numerous gems that have been tragically overlooked
Aimee Mann should have been on the list. Whatever (1994) is a perfect album a record of masterful pop-rock songwriting from start to finish. Petty and Waits?
Not sure about that.
What s funny about the original list everyone contributed to is that so many people mentioned the same artists over and over. It sounded as though they really had a lot of fans out there.
Of course that would mean they really weren t underappreciated then (at least in theory).
As for being the only person to mention Bill Haley the Comets, well I guess that means he really is still underrated. BLUUUUUUUUUUURRR RRRRR ?
???
Tom Petty is def. appreciated. Just look at the press he gets when he releases an album.
And I guess you could say the Band are underappreciated if you want to make the case that they should be up there w/ The Beatles and The Stones they already get a loooottt of credit.
all these folks are talented, true. But underappreciated?
Most of em choose to have small fanbases, purposefully playing outside the mainstream.
Tom Waits, his gutteral swamp sound gets its dues not just from fans, but from the dozens of artists who ve covered him (and taken him to the bank).
Maybe somebody like Lou Reed, who always wanted to be big but never made it ?
Or the Ramones, a band who should still be selling records every year but doesn t?
In that way, I agree with poster me . The Band?
I don t think those dudes are ever gonna starve Nobody will truly appreciate the Boys de Beastie until long after they re gone.
Other additions: Mike Patton and all his projects, Primus, De La Soul, Jane s Addiction, The Damned, Bad Brains, Minutemen/fIREHOSE, Fishbone. I have to agree with ME if Bob Seger is underAppreciated, I would marvel to see the size of the hall he would need to play to accomodate even a small percentage of the fans Same with a lot of the folks on this list BUT
if we are going for a more esoteric version of appreciated , then I think I see the gist of the list, y all.
Some of this gang may be popular, but they don t get the BONUS of being considered major contributors over-all.
For example: Tom Petty is probably one of the best American Songwriters of the last 30 years, but he doesn t get mentioned in a league with Springsteen
A thought provoking take on under-appreciated to be sure.
I listened to stuff from about 1/3 of the bands on the list to see if I could find some new great music to enjoy.
Wow was I unimpressed. None of it was terrible (well some was ) it was just that none of it amazed me. I felt like most of what I heard belonged in an elevator so dull, repetitious, predictable and uninspired.
Maybe I m not getting a decent sample of these bands music (using pandora). Sigh. Ministry, The Stooges, The MC5, Suicide, Joy Division.
But yes, Tom Waits deserves to be the no.1 underappreciated artist by far. okay you missed alot; shame for no daniel johnston; tom pettey?
the band? bob seger? they are appreciated!
i think you missed the whole concept of the list * The following code is Copyright 1998-2004 Opinionlab, Inc. * All rights reserved. Unauthorized use is prohibited.
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