What's your opinion on these often ridiculed music artists?

Opinions are like arse holes, everybody has one. I like some music from most of those artists. Some I like a lot, others I like a little. All artists have their fans and their haters. One thing is certain, if I could make the money the artists named above have from being mediocre, I wouldn’t care what the haters say.

Horses for courses.

And how did Nickleback not make the list?

A lot of them I personally view as “One hit wonders”, but that doesn’t lessen my opinion of them as artists, it’s just that I can usually only conjure up one particular song I know them for. Like, Celine Dion sings ‘My Heart Will Go On’ from Titanic. I know that. But what else does she sing? No idea. But I’m sure many others are huge fans of her and she has a fantastic voice that’s for sure. I honestly don’t have much of an opinion of the artists on this list overall. It’s very neutral. Being controversial gets you in the spotlight, neutrality doesn’t.

I do find it hard to believe people think Glenn Miller and Barry Manilow are/were bland, though! That’s pretty surprising.

Most of these folks had very successful careers, regardless of my opinion on their output. They’re successful in a grindingly tough industry. Ya gotta respect that.

I have never heard anyone disparage Glenn Miller or his music. He had a unique sound and was distinguishable among the many big bands of his time.

Many of the groups you list are one hit wonders, others are producers of formulaic pop hits—what we called “Bubblegum Music”. Music for early teens and pre-teens.

Starship was a desperate attempt by Grace Slick and Thumper to keep what was left of Jefferson Airplane together. The Airplane was a hard act to follow and Starship was seen as bad copy of a great seminal group of what became known as the San Francisco Sound of the mid to late Sixities. Drugs and fatigue had also taken their toll on the original members.

I liked the fusion of jazz and rock produced by Steely Dan. It was new at the time, but they were buried on pop radio by one-hit copycat groups and forever associated with them.

Barry Manilow, although an accomplished singer and songwriter, was a product of American advertising and commercialism at a time when that was very uncool. He appealed to the older generation, not his own. He produced safe pop (mostly for the aging WWII crowd) and although that will make money, it won’t make great music. I compare him to “The Archies”. Bubblegum Music for an older generation.

Michael Bolton and Kenny G. were also accomplished, but produced easy listening music, not necessarily great music. They produced Muzak. Nothing edgy, seminal or anything that will become classic.

Like the above, the rest are good at what they do, but they will hardly be referenced as distinguished in the future.

Fuck that list. When a nation sings along with you, every or most every time they hear you…
Typo fixed, link now works.

Can’t add anything to what @Earthbound_Misfit & @Espiritus_Corvus said except I love “Bread.” I used to take their albums around to babysit and played them all night long when I was about 13–14. haha
Damn, I’m getting old. Bah.
Now, if I hear one more old Stevie Nicks song on the radio I am going to run myself off a cliff. gag.

Sarah McLachlan and Celine Dion are cool, just don’t care for their slow stuff. Okay the Titanic song is pretty emotional. Journey is cool, too, but they’re so overplayed. I like that one song from Jason Mraz called “The Remedy.”

Pat Boone was all white bread and mayonaise. He was all pop, with a little rock ‘n roll, popular with girls and some of their mothers in the 1950’s, but when things got serious in the 60’s, he was revealed as a symbol of clean-cut, pro-establishment conformism and was quickly marginalized and thrown in the trash heap with all but the true pioneers of Rock ‘n Roll.

LOL. You forgot to list America. The Horse With No Name. I have no idea what was going on with those guys—and I don’t think anyone else did either.

For emphasis I will only comment on one of those. Glenn Miller. He was no “one hit” wonder, although he may be to those under the age of 60. I grew up with his music playing in my house. My mother lived through WW2 and Glenn is her favorite. I have probably heard 95 percent of his music and it is wonderful. I have never before seen or heard of him being on any list like this.

Glenn Miller was actually criticized by many pioneering jazz artists of the time, especially Artie Shaw. Personally, I think Glenn Miller’s music is ok, but rather sub standard and somewhat cheesy, especially the vocal songs featuring Ray Eberle. However, I really do love In the Mood and Moonlight Serenade.

Although I agree that I probably shouldn’t have put Glenn Miller on this list

@CWOTUS

Because they’re aggressively bad.

Glenn Miller’s music was not considered “cheesy” during his era. However there is often a hot debate about the “Swing” label. Many consider that to be a misnomer.

Surely there were music critics and listeners who thought songs such as “Chatanooga Choo-Choo” and “The Woodpecker Song” were cheesy, especially when you compare him to artists like Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Duke Ellington, Gene Krupa, and Tommy Dorsey.

You forgot Coldplay and Phil Collins.

@rockfan It was WWII. Until late 1944, we were not sure if the democracies were going to win that war. People were making huge sacrifices for the effort. They were scared. We felt squeezed between two very powerful militarized enemies of opposing ideology. America was rationing basic goods for the first time in their history. Everybody knew somebody who had lost either a son, brother, boyfriend, husband, or father. Life was serious. Good times were scarce.

Music and lyrics of the time, no matter how silly, was a huge relief from the realities of the war. And the sillier, the better.

Before I answer I would like to know what music artists the same opinionators think are not worthy of ridicule. That would help me decide if their opinion was worth a shit or not.

Just saying

Several of those artists seem to come off as “fluff” to me. That may be something that links them, at least some of them. As someone who likes Jack Johnson and Jason Mraz, I totally understand why people don’t like them. Jason Mraz is softer than a marshmallow, John Mayer-style; and Jack Johnson is so chill that the word “chill” isn’t chill enough to describe how chill he is. I can get how that seems a bit obnoxious to some listeners. Those are the main two that I actually like from this list (Bread are good too); the rest are fairly “meh” to me.

All of them (that I recognize) are skilled musicians, but the rest is a matter of taste. None are my favorites, but I do have some songs I’ve enjoyed from some of them, even if I might avoid mentioning it to people who I know make fun of them.

I think most on the list have some make-fun-ability to them, whether from their band name (Bread, Starship, Air Supply) or just being old-fashioned (Glenn Miller) or whatever, or just being un-hip in the eyes of certain other “what’s cool” perspectives.

Never heard of any of them, except for Celine Dion, and that is only because of that dreadful Titanic movie.

@ragingloli

You’ve never heard of Journey?

never

Don’t Stop Believin?

what

@rockfan “The Woodpecker Song” has very little vocal on his version. It is mostly filled with his great signature sound. And “Chatanooga Choo Choo” was popular due to it’s significance to the times. After all, that is the majority of the way people got around. And certainly the soldiers went off to war and came home on them. And also, what @Espiritus_Corvus said.

I’ve enjoyed songs by virtually every singer or group on your list at one time or another. No accounting (or need for accounting) for personal music taste.

Most of the artists in that list tailored their music to be radio friendly and reach as many people as possible. The average person as pretty bland, uninteresting taste in music.

Of all of them, I give Starship a pass because of their history as Jefferson Starship/Airplane (although Starship was their weakest iteration).

Even Journey is okay be me for a couple albums.

I love Paul Kantners voice and have their Windows of heaven CD from the 90’s. Pretty decent album.

What? No Strawberry Alarm Clock?

That lyric always drove me crazy. How do incense and peppermints cripple mankind?

@stanleybmanly It’s not “Incense and peppermints taste mighty fine?”

I checked out the lyrics and it’s “Good sense, innocence cripplin mankind” Then “Dead kings, many things I can’t define”. The final line in the stanza is “Incense, peppermints, the color of time”. What can it mean?

I think it means, “We’re singing this and we don’t care what it means.”

How can anyone ridicule Steely Dan?!?! Walter Becker and Donald Fagen perfected jazz-rock with a healthy dose of wicked guitar. I likely have every studio album, in both vinyl and CD.

When the time comes that I am more famous than some of the people on that list, maybe (and that’s a big ‘maybe’) I’ll consider ridiculing them a little.

Until then…..no.

For now, I’ll just remain thankful that none of them appear to be ridiculing ME….

I never heard of most of them. On the list I would ad Weird Al Yankovich. I grew up with his parodies.

Like you I can name something I like as well as something I do not from each of your listees. How popular an entertainer may be has no bearing on whether or not I like their work. I’m not a groupee and not loyal to a genre or discipline.

In the town I was in I was convinced that Pat Boone was the local radio station’s innoculation against “negro music”. When the top 40 formatted radio station would play Boone’s rendition of “Tutti-frutti” instead of Little Richard’s, even a 9 year old knew it was bullshit!

Other than they do not perform the type of music I prefer I cannot find fault with any of them.
My father was a huge Glenn Miller fan. He loved Jazz and Big Band. There are probably several albums, 8 tracks and cassettes of Mr. Miller still in the house.

As someone pointed out, almost all of them have at least one song that we know some of the words to; at least the refrain.

I even like Sarah Mclachlan’s version of the song In the Arms of an Angel except when you use it as the background music for a PSA showing sad, caged and abused animals.

^^^ I’ve spent the past 6+ years, the duration of my mother’s Alzheimer’s disease thus far, hanging out in various retirement facilities. I’ve learned to love Big Band music, including Mr. Miller. The WWII generation left us a nice musical legacy.