Overrated cultural icons

[Horse]

Van fucking Morrison. ... not one single person ... has a good word to say about him

Apart from "some good tunes", I don't think I've heard anyone say anything particularly nice things about him.

But, so often, it's necessary to separate the person from the art.

[Pirahna]

David Bowie

[Taipan]

David Bowie

I started the talentless tossers thread on VD where I named him as one of the worst live singers I've ever heard. I got hell for it!

[Taipan]

The Beatles were a lot more than just a band. They pretty much spearheaded pop music as we know it today and of course were part of the merseybeat which launched Gerry and the Pacemakers,The Searchers etc. They were recognised all over the world in their heyday and are still world-renowned today some 55 years after they disbanded!

Good article on them here https://www.soundoflife.com/blogs/mixta ... ic-forever

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

Personally I think the Beatles are very over rated, but I wasn't alive when they were popular, so WTF do I know.

Feck knows what music someone will decide is iconic from when I was young, 1980s, but the music that was high in the charts at the time was utter shite.

I don't like the Stones, but that doesn't change what they did. Millions upon millions love/loved them, so i assume they're not overrated otherwise they'd all be wrong. I do like the Beatles though, but having family who lived closely through their music/culture that's not hard to work out why.

I don't like the Stones or the Beatles music, but I'm 20 years too young for them to be relevant to me, the Stones are a bit dull and the Beatles music is too pop for my taste. If I'm going to listen to bands from Liverpool it would be the first 3 Echo and the Bunnymen Albums, Teardrop Explodes and the first Half Man, Half Biscuit album, I rate the Beatles on the same level as Frankie Goes to Hollywood and Sonja, even OMD are better, but at least Liverpool has some music to offer, all Ipswich has to offer is Nik Kershaw, and I don't think he was born here.

I think Shakespear is over rated, it's late medieval mass entertainment, Dickens is over rated, it's Victorian Eastenders, Jane Austen's books are 19th Century RomComs the list goes on, in the future will Four Weddings and a Funeral be held up as some great piece of cinema?

[Saga Lout]

I don't like the Stones or the Beatles music, but I'm 20 years too young for them to be relevant to me, the Stones are a bit dull and the Beatles music is too pop for my taste. If I'm going to listen to bands from Liverpool it would be the first 3 Echo and the Bunnymen Albums, Teardrop Explodes and the first Half Man, Half Biscuit album...

The Beatles paved the way for your favourite bands. You don't have to like them to acknowledge their influence.

[Bigjawa]

I don't like the Stones or the Beatles music, but I'm 20 years too young for them to be relevant to me, the Stones are a bit dull and the Beatles music is too pop for my taste. If I'm going to listen to bands from Liverpool it would be the first 3 Echo and the Bunnymen Albums, Teardrop Explodes and the first Half Man, Half Biscuit album...

The Beatles paved the way for your favourite bands. You don't have to like them to acknowledge their influence.

Did they though?

Up until Revolver, they were pretty much your average rock and roll band, after that they became much more interesting but I still reckon that Cream were every bit as innovative and better musicians.

[Felix]

David Bowie

I started the talentless tossers thread on VD where I named him as one of the worst live singers I've ever heard. I got hell for it!

Was it as bad as Fallen Angel defending U2?

[Felix]

I don't like the Stones or the Beatles music, but I'm 20 years too young for them to be relevant to me, the Stones are a bit dull and the Beatles music is too pop for my taste. If I'm going to listen to bands from Liverpool it would be the first 3 Echo and the Bunnymen Albums, Teardrop Explodes and the first Half Man, Half Biscuit album...

The Beatles paved the way for your favourite bands. You don't have to like them to acknowledge their influence.

Did they though?

Up until Revolver, they were pretty much your average rock and roll band, after that they became much more interesting but I still reckon that Cream were every bit as innovative and better musicians.

Beatles with Joe Cocker as the front man would have been interesting.

[ZRX61]

I might just throw in Led Zeppelin- who seem to have “appropriated” everything they ever did from blind bluesmen

There's a book about bands who *borrowed* other bands work/songs. The majority of the bands get one page.

Led Zepp got an entire chapter. They're the worlds most famous cover band.

[Count Steer]

Nothing too controversial yet.

I'll give you Winston Churchill as tactically inept. See: WWI - Gallipoli, WWII - Norway, Greece and the Mediterranean. Talked a good talk, big on strategic ambition, pants at tactics but insisted on overuling those that were better.

Chuck in the betrayal and forced repatriation (and certain death) to Russia of Russian POWs - many of them the so called 'White Russians' that he'd supported to weaken or defeat the Russian communists.

....for starters

[Mr Moofo]

Nothing too controversial yet.

I'll give you Winston Churchill as tactically inept. See: WWI - Gallipoli, WWII - Norway, Greece and the Mediterranean. Talked a good talk, big on strategic ambition, pants at tactics but insisted on overuling those that were better.

Chuck in the betrayal and forced repatriation (and certain death) to Russia of Russian POWs - many of them the so called 'White Russians' that he'd supported to weaken or defeat the Russian communists.

....for starters

But he did stump up when the going got tough
Possibly not the nicest human being though - a man of his time?

As we are being controversioal
"Our" NHS ...

[asmethurst99]

Pink Floyd
Rush

[Jody]

Pulp Fiction

Fight Club

[roadster]

For me a "cultural icon" is someone or something that has become part of the educational syllabus for exam purposes. As such I would say that those are mostly overrated. For example Shakespeare and Dickens. I hated them at school and still do! Universities thrive on regurgitating them to produce an endless cycle of lifelong academics but I suppose its one way of occupying thousands of the otherwise unemployable.

[Mr Moofo]

For me a "cultural icon" is someone or something that has become part of the educational syllabus for exam purposes. As such I would say that those are mostly overrated. For example Shakespeare and Dickens. I hated them at school and still do! Universities thrive on regurgitating them to produce an endless cycle of lifelong academics but I suppose its one way of occupying thousands of the otherwise unemployable.

I would say it is anything that is seen as the fundamental part of the culture you live in. No need to be examined in it

On that basis
And did those feet … Jerusalem. A contemptible piece of maudlin shite

[Count Steer]

For me a "cultural icon" is someone or something that has become part of the educational syllabus for exam purposes. As such I would say that those are mostly overrated. For example Shakespeare and Dickens. I hated them at school and still do! Universities thrive on regurgitating them to produce an endless cycle of lifelong academics but I suppose its one way of occupying thousands of the otherwise unemployable.

I would say it is anything that is seen as the fundamental part of the culture you live in. No need to be examined in it

On that basis
And did those feet … Jerusalem. A contemptible piece of maudlin shite

In that case you can add the dismal dirge that we call the National Anthem.

[Taipan]

For me a "cultural icon" is someone or something that has become part of the educational syllabus for exam purposes. As such I would say that those are mostly overrated. For example Shakespeare and Dickens. I hated them at school and still do! Universities thrive on regurgitating them to produce an endless cycle of lifelong academics but I suppose its one way of occupying thousands of the otherwise unemployable.

I would say it is anything that is seen as the fundamental part of the culture you live in. No need to be examined in it

On that basis
And did those feet … Jerusalem. A contemptible piece of maudlin shite

In that case you can add the dismal dirge that we call the National Anthem.

[dern]

Everything in art and culture is subjective. To say something is over (or under) rated because of your own tastes is as dumb as a brick. Imo, obvs.

[Beancounter]

David Bowie

I started the talentless tossers thread on VD where I named him as one of the worst live singers I've ever heard. I got hell for it!

Was it as bad as Fallen Angel defending U2?

She'll hunt you down just after she's done Taipan.

Pulp Fiction

Most of Tarantino's movies IMO. Some are entertaining but never warrant a re-watch.