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Overrated cultural icons
Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2025 5:09 pm
by Mr Moofo
Following on from an article in the Torygraph, where they discussing art / culture / music - and what appears to be overrated.
One suggestion really struck home : Catcher in the Rye, I have read it 3 times now, trying to find out why it is so wonderful, yet it completely escapes me.
As does "On The Road" by Jack Kerouac
Maybe it is just looking back with the benefits of it now being 2025
They also throw in :-
Mozart
The Beatles
The Rolling Stones
Andy Warhol
But I like Andy Warhol's work - as a person he was comtemptable.
Any other suggestions?
Re: Overrated cultural icons
Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2025 5:25 pm
by Buckaroo
Jackson Pollock and Jackson Browne.
Could have included Jacko, but for all the wrong reasons: allegedly. Eeha, check my bad self, mother fukka!
Re: Overrated cultural icons
Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2025 5:29 pm
by weeksy
Mr Moofo wrote: Sun Dec 07, 2025 5:09 pm
Following on from an article in the Torygraph, where they discussing art / culture / music - and what appears to be overrated.
One suggestion really struck home : Catcher in the Rye, I have read it 3 times now, trying to find out why it is so wonderful, yet it completely escapes me.
As does "On The Road" by Jack Kerouac
Maybe it is just looking back with the benefits of it now being 2025
They also throw in :-
Mozart
The Beatles
The Rolling Stones
Andy Warhol
But I like Andy Warhol's work - as a person he was comtemptable.
Any other suggestions?
The Beatles and the Stones were in their own way a complete phenomenon of music
To call either of them overrated mates the article a complete joke from the off
Re: Overrated cultural icons
Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2025 6:11 pm
by 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.
Re: Overrated cultural icons
Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2025 6:52 pm
by .....
Mr Moofo wrote: Sun Dec 07, 2025 5:09 pm
Following on from an article in the Torygraph, where they discussing art / culture / music - and what appears to be overrated.
One suggestion really struck home : Catcher in the Rye, I have read it 3 times now, trying to find out why it is so wonderful, yet it completely escapes me.
As does "On The Road" by Jack Kerouac
Maybe it is just looking back with the benefits of it now being 2025
They also throw in :-dsinglemodt unpleasant timing I have ever wndureeng fed tibe
Mozart
The Beatles
The Rolling Stones
Andy Warhol
But I like Andy Warhol's work - as a person he was comtemptable.
Any other suggestions?
Re: Overrated cultural icons
Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2025 7:05 pm
by Count Steer
Mr Moofo wrote: Sun Dec 07, 2025 5:09 pm
Following on from an article in the Torygraph, where they discussing art / culture / music - and what appears to be overrated.
One suggestion really struck home : Catcher in the Rye, I have read it 3 times now, trying to find out why it is so wonderful, yet it completely escapes me.
As does "On The Road" by Jack Kerouac
I like 'On The Road' but I'd suggest it probably makes a better audiobook, with the right narrator. Some of it is very lyrical.
"I woke up from a deep sleep to find everybody sleeping like lambs and the car parked God knows where, because I couldn't see out the steamy windows. I got out of the car. We were in the mountains: there was a heaven of sunrise, cool purple airs, red mountainsides, emerald pastures in valleys, dew, and transmuting clouds of gold; on the ground gopher holes, cactus, mesquite. It was time for me to drive on."
They used that and other things in 'Road Dreams' which, if you have 30 minutes, most of the episodes are on YouTube and are 30 mins each. Oh, and a Leo Kottke soundtrack.

Re: Overrated cultural icons
Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2025 7:57 pm
by Saga Lout
Mr Moofo wrote: Sun Dec 07, 2025 5:09 pm...
Any other suggestions?
How about Che Guevara? Mostly because his picture is displayed when I hover over the thread title

Re: Overrated cultural icons
Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2025 8:02 pm
by Skub
Everything is very much of it's time. The past cannot be judged by the present's standards and expect to be understood. You had to be there man.
Zeitgeist is a thang,baby.
Re: Overrated cultural icons
Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2025 8:08 pm
by KungFooBob
Princess Diana.
Re: Overrated cultural icons
Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2025 8:10 pm
by demographic
I know cheb will disagree with this but Withnail and I gets right on my fucking tits.
Just reminds me of my feckless pothead mates who used to arrange stuff when stoned then couldn't make a move when it came to the day til they'd scored.
Most of em have got their shit together a bit more after they realised the world was passing them by but there were times I could have hit them with a fucking half brick.
Re: Overrated cultural icons
Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2025 8:24 pm
by Dodgy69
I always feel the Beatles kind of joined the late 50s music to the new 60s rock n roll. Maybe more about the writing than the actual music, no sure really. This then moving towards bands like the Stones and the Who etc, making timeless tunes that kids still like today.
I'll add ABBA, just for the amount of memorable tunes that never die.
Overated my arse.

Re: Overrated cultural icons
Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2025 8:26 pm
by MrLongbeard
Banksy.
Re: Overrated cultural icons
Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2025 9:43 pm
by gremlin
Dickens.
Re: Overrated cultural icons
Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2025 10:55 pm
by Mr Moofo
Saga Lout wrote: Sun Dec 07, 2025 7:57 pm
Mr Moofo wrote: Sun Dec 07, 2025 5:09 pm...
Any other suggestions?
How about Che Guevara? Mostly because his picture is displayed when I hover over the thread title
He was a murderous shit. I just use the avatar in irony, as Irie called me a left wing protagonist
Re: Overrated cultural icons
Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2025 11:04 pm
by Felix
The Telegraph newspaper.
Re: Overrated cultural icons
Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2025 12:47 am
by Bigjawa
Van fucking Morrison.
He grew up in the same area as me, MrsJawa is actually from the same street as him and not one single person from round there has a good word to say about him, basically he's an angry ginger midget with a chip on his shoulder who made some half decent records 50 odd years ago. His mother was a nice wee woman though apparently.
He held a concert on one of the most affluent streets in Belfast that he wrote a song about, yet totally ignored the area he grew up in, 500m away.
Now he sounds like the aul gouger sitting in the corner of the bar grumbling into his pint, especially with his COVID rantings.
Re: Overrated cultural icons
Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2025 5:34 am
by Trinity765
Picasso. Ugly paintings and a bit of a c***.
Re: Overrated cultural icons
Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2025 8:03 am
by Mr Moofo
The Beatles were very much right place , right time - there was a lot of creative space and they took their chance. And Lennon was actually a hypocrite and a nasty piece of work.
I might just throw in Led Zeppelin- who seem to have “appropriated” everything they ever did from blind bluesmen
Damon Hurst & Tracey Emin …
Re: Overrated cultural icons
Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2025 8:05 am
by Mr Moofo
Felix wrote: Sun Dec 07, 2025 11:04 pm
The Telegraph newspaper.
It’s not really a cultural icon - merely a source of opinions. Equally as bad as the Daily Mail, Huffington Post or the Morning Star
Re: Overrated cultural icons
Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2025 8:06 am
by weeksy
Le_Fromage_Grande wrote: Sun Dec 07, 2025 6:11 pm
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.