...I think I'd have to agree with all five of those. The only possible addition/jostler-for-position I would suggest is Lou Reed: the greatest of all unclothed Emperors.

When you meant to put just Weller.

Personally I'd add Dylan, but I'm not sure which he'd dislodge.

1. All punk bands except The Clash
2. David Bowie (And Lou Reed and Iggy Pop)
3. Bob Dylan
4. HJH
5. Neil Young

Nothing controversial, I'm afraid.

1: Elvis Presley
2: John Lennon
3: Frank Sinatra
4: Elton John
5: The Silver Seas ;-)

EDIT: I was being facetious when I put the Silver Seas at no. 5 (even though they truly are/were over-rated) so, after some consideration, I think Kate Bush is fully deserving of being ranked alongside the four others in my list.

1.Bruce Springsteen
2.Elvis Presley
3.The Clash
4.Lou Reed
5.The Wombles

The Smiths
Tom Waits
David Bowie
Lou Reed
Radiohead

Pink Floyd
Muse
Neil Young
Pearl Jam
Eric Clapton

Deemed to be "great" instead of "really really good", or "good" instead of "meh. So-so". Is it the whole canon of work, or 'at their peak'?

Because, for my money, your list is so full of wrongness it defies description.

I'll give you post Jam Weller. But that's just because the Jam WERE that great. Weller is simply "good" to their "great".

To use an oft-overusec cliche: Clapton on drugs - great. Clapton clean-crap.

Springsteen is great. This is fact.

Van I swing back on forth. Capable of greatness, but also of sheer mediocrity.

How's about:
Lou Reed.
Tom Waits.
Why is Donovan is the R&R Hall of Fame?
Sinatra is a GREAT call.

Joy Division
The Stone Roses
Nirvana
Oasis
Lady Gaga

I've nothing else to add.

all come under the category of good but not truly great, although some suggest they are:-

1 Radiohead
2 Frank Zappa
3 The Sex Pistols
4 Nick Drake
5 The Flaming Lips

From said blog:
When i was a kid, Weller was 'it' as far as all my schools chums (male and female i'll add) were concerned. I thought that they were all deaf and blind as i cued up the Thompson Twins latest on my hi-fi.
Sorry, MagicAlex - your opinion doesn't count.

David Bowie
Nirvana
Radiohead
Coldplay
Stone Roses

.....that I'll just name that one.

1. the clash.

The only time the clash ever got to number one (when not, of course, selling out to US Jeans' companies).

Don't like that term, but here are five popular artists that I don't particularly like.

1. Frank Sinatra
2. Bruce Springsteen
3. Amy Winehouse
4. Elbow
5. Cee Lo Green

My first choice is the Beatles, because while they did indeed make a lot of wonderful and astonishing music, literally NO-ONE is worth the kind of hyperbolic toss talked about them. (And, in answer to the "too much Beatles" thread: yeah. That all counts as too much Beatles. "Anthology" counts as too much Beatles, so innumerable studio outtakes? *kills self*)

The rest are easier.

- Led Zeppelin
- The Stone Roses (who I like, but come on!)
- All the prog. All of it. Even the bearable stuff is guilty by association. But for the sake of argument, let's go with Pink Floyd.
- My Bloody Valentine

Prince
Bob Marley
Stone Roses
Kings Of Leon
Kasabian

Above average retro pop group achieve mythical status by dint of taking too many drugs and not recording anything. See also - Stone Roses.

Radiohead

Coldplay

wittgenstein. There is the early work and the later work referencing the early work. Two entirely different things.

The boss is the boss.

pseud's corner awaits ..

Only this far down and my three favourite artists all present and correct.
"Overrated" is indeed a difficult category. This is how I rationalise it:
I'm baffled by the high regard in which this rubbish is widely held - Nirvana, Queen, Oasis for example

I wouldn't be so quick to fault it, it just means nothing to me - ABBA, AC/DC, The Doors for example

Joni Mitchell (too up her self plus irritating vocal delivery)
Zappa (apart from Hot Rats, smart-arse wankery)
Springsteen (over wrought mostly)
Bob Marley (kind of inane)
Elbow (just so dull)

Oasis.
Noel Gallagher.
Liam Gallagher.
High Flying Birds.

er, that's all.

Smokie
Lindisfarne
Bucks Fizz
Incredible String Band
Rush

Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello

Led Zeppelin

Pink Floyd

Guns 'n' Roses

Tom Waits

Prince

That mob Colin is always writing about.
Bellowhead
The Stone Roses
Suede
Prince
Would have definitely put RT a while back but then I heard "Dimming of the Day" and for that alone he's not on the list.

Does it matter?

But it's always funny to see how people think their tastes are in any way "right" and disagreement with them "wrong". I'm as guilty of it as anyone. My immediate reaction is "How can you not like Pink Floyd? You're either just saying that for effect or you don't know them! Smartarse or fool, you are!" But, of course, that's not the case. As far as art is concerned, subjectivity and context are as important as any intrinsic value. I know I'm not saying anything new here. Just thinking aloud really.

so I'm not really in a position to judge, nice thread though

Florence and the machine
Foo fighters
Nirvana
Elbow
Red hot chili peppers

That'll be all for now

The silver seas

Coldplay
Keane
Snow Patrol
Muse
Travis

5 bands that heard "The Bends" and thought "we can do that".

Björk
Janis Joplin
Radiohead
The Doors
James Brown

(Note This Is Not The Usual User Of This Account, It's His Son)

1.Arctic Monkeys.
2.The Beatles.
3.Oasis.
4.The Libertines.
5.The Vaccines.

i meant for people to comment on MY blog and drive traffic there. Oh well, i agree with Elvis Costello though. Boring, whining, nothing to say, none-melodic BORE!

Oldies...
1. Bob Dylan
2. Springsteen
3. Bowie
4. Prince
5. The Clash

Current...
1. Florence...simply awful
2. The Vaccines...staggeringly ordinary
3. Muse
4. Radiohead
5. Mumfords

tall poppy syndrome

etc etc

Proper s&@t

Too many of the "overrated" bands, have too much longevity to be given that verdict so it comes down to personal taste.

I agree more with the newer bands, it's up to them to prove us wrong, I've never knowingly listened to Florence, Vaccines or Muse but having seen Radiohead live a few times, I disagree (personal taste).

To choose, we have to think about who's doing the rating in the first place. For example, I would imagine your average NME reader rates The Libertines, when they are a load of old tosh, as many people on here would probably agree. So I'll pick 5 that are rated by the good people of the word blog, otherwise there's no point. And I'll pick acts that I think I understand, because the fact that I don't like Tom Waits, whereas a lot of people on here think he's great, doesn't mean I think he's overrated, it just means I don't get him. Similarly, I don't like Bob Marley, whereas a lot of you will, but that's because I don't like that type of music, etc. Enough rambling...

1 The Who
2 Led Zeppelin
3 The Clash
4 Nirvana
5 Elvis Costello

But the most overrated thing of 2011 has to be Smile by 'The Beach Boys'. A couple of good songs and a load of old nonsense. We've all been told how great it is for so long that people are scared not to hail it as a work of genius. And why is it that only people who went bonkers are declared to be genius anyway? If Brian Wilson is a genius, what does that make Lennon and McCartney?

The Smiths
The Clash
Radiohead
Miles Davis
Sinatra

As pointed out above, it really depends on who does the rating. On this site, the likes of Lou Reed, Oasis and Coldplay could hardly be considered overrated.

So then, five who may be considered "Overrated by the Massive", purely on the basis that they almost never receive any negative comment here and that no-one is so good that they should be beyond criticism:

Nick Lowe
Stevie Wonder (apart from one song, which is not overrated)
"RT"
Jeff Beck
Otis Redding

White Stripes. Music hacks working themselves into a mutually-reproductive frenzy over an average guitarist and a shit-awful drummer who together made a briefly interesting racket.

Lou Reed. Yeah. Wevs.

Arcade Fire. Like White Stripes. But with more people. And less tunes. If such a thing is possible.

So many more..

We forget the truly awful ones which many a tin-eared scribbler got all excited about.

Remember. Music writers are employed because they can write. Not because they can listen.

+ Crowded House
+ Tom Petty
+ Ian Dury
+ Richard Thompson

Woody Allen - Manhattan

5. Arcade Fire (too similar for my liking to...)
4. Springsteen (in good company with the late Peel there)
3. The Doors (pub singer vocals - aaaaargh!)
2. The Clash (dull dull dull dull dull)

and I seem to be the first to mention this lot

1. The Rolling Stones. They've never done anything for me. Jagger's swagger leaves me thinking "you, sir, are a buffoon".

But then, I have HJH written all the way through me like a stick of rock. Fact: when the midwife had to break my mother's waters in order that I might barge in on the party we call "life", she suggested that they sing "Yellow Submarine" together to help take her mind off the whole thing. Not sure "Paint It Black" would have had the same effect.

I genetically inherited my mother's love of the Beatles and her dislike of the Stones, and nothing I have seen or heard has ever changed my opinion.

The Libertines

but then I remembered The Strokes

Both a pleasant enough listen, but they're not the messiah ...

Stereophonics
Radiohead
Richard Thompson
Crowded House
Dumpys Rusty Nuts

Elbow
Elvis Costello
Eric Clapton
Elvis Presley
Elton John

...and that's just the E's.

Oh, and the Silver Seas...come off it, own up, that is just one big wind up isn't it...?!

I dunno, one song and they think they're Christmas.

(I jest, of course...downloaded and humming it ever since)

but Joy Division, Jesus wept !
I quite like The Silver Seas

I really tried to resist this:

1. L*d Z*p
2. The Cl*sh
3. The Stones after 1972
4. Bob Marley. I love late 60s and early 70s ska, dub, lover's rock, etc. Marley's just DULL. And that goes for all of the other ponderous Rasta nonsense (Black Uhuru and their dope-befuddled ilk) of the late 70s.
5. Has no-one mentioned the execrable Pr*mal Scr*am yet? There's something about Bobby Gillespie that always makes me want to punch him. Or, in his absence, anyone who even looks a bit like him.

So I'll do my bit of character assassination and wazz on...

Michael Head - I saw Shack in 1999 having never heard any of their stuff but being aware of all the praise being heaped on them. They were alright, nothing special, I was a bit pissed but not incapable of recognising a great tune, I didn't hear one. Still the plaudits rained down on them without ever converting into record sales so I bought HMS Fable and picked up a magazine with a covermount CD on the same day (possibly Q). Got home and decided to play the covermount as a bit of background while I cooked. "Streets of Kenny" came out of the speakers - the most godawful lyric ever I have ever heard, torturous juvenile rhyming about buying drugs - "Who the f**k is this?" I looked at the tracklist of the cd for the first time, looked at the display on the player, back at the tracklist then I picked up HMS Fable in disbelief and saw "Track 7 - Streets of Kenny".

I tried, I played the album a few times but just couldn't get over my initial reaction.

It always makes me shake my head in disbelief when he is hailed as a genius on this site.

Still, I like Elvis Costello and having read all the posts above it looks like I'm well outnumbered.

1. Michael Jackson
2. Robert Plant
3. Eric Clapton
4. The Beach Boys
5. Tom Waits

Actually, the only one I really feel strongly about being "overraated" is Michael Jackson.

My five...grenade released but isn't this a bit like harming something soft and furry? OOAA, of course and I'm feeling kinda grouchy today.

1. Brian Eno - so you can fiddle with a few knobs and make music that isn't music (1/1 time sig - you GO Bri!!!) - big deal

2. The Flaming Lips. My pet hate. The Emporer's New Clothes in excelsis. There's nothing there. Nothing about them whatsoever.

3. Jim Morrison - 6th form poet extraordinaire. Yes, we know about Oedipus Rex, now go away.

4. Eric Clapton - Blues bore and (whisper it softly) couldn't hold a candle to Mayall, Page, Green or Beck.

5. PJ Harvey - what's the fuss?

Springsteen and Weller appear popular on this list. Wrongity wrong. Weller, in particular, hugely underrated - esp on the blog here. Certainly not the "Dadrock plodder" of popular conception.

I could list many popular artists that I personally don't like, but for the sake of argument here are some who I consider generally overestimated by critics:

Madonna: subject of endless 1990s cultural studies seminars on postmodernism (I was there), but really just another successful, cynical pop star. Eventually joined the English gentry.

The Sex Pistols And The Clash have been turned into a bigger event than they really were by baby-boomers who want to take credit for changing history in the 70s. Punk is interesting, but needs a different story.

Nick Drake: I am not denying that he's a great singer-songwriter, but the adulation of his (sadly) slim volume of work has got out of hand. Tim Hardin wrote better lyrics.

Beach Boys: It pains me to say it, but however talented and heroic BW is, they are haven't been truly influential for decades.A rock-critic's fetish.

Otis Redding - Very good but held in too high esteem by people who know nothing about soul music
Pink Floyd - every song is two chords repeated and they have the only drummer in the world who seems to slow down instead of speed up.
Tom Petty
Jay Z

I would have said the Clash but I'm under the impression that the concencus here is that they're crap

...pretty much everybody, then?

to read that so many of you agree that Bruce Spingsteen is hugely over rated. I thought I was in a very, very small minority. It appears it's not so small.

The Beatles
The Rolling Stones

both have a few decent foot tappers in their respective canons but nothing that warrants the almost universal adulation they receive.

Paul Weller - wouldn't cross the road to see him if I had a complimentary ticket with a backstage pass that included access to the free buffet.

Oasis - 'nuff said.

No-one's mentioned them yet. Word writers and other music journos love them. They are dire disco at its worst, say I.

1. Lou Reed
2. Lou Reed
3. Lou Reed
4. Pink Floyd
5. Stone Roses

Protests have been reported in major suburban sprawls across the globe following the Official Rating of REM as a '4 out of 5 stars' band. Crowds hoisting placards bearing slogans such as "NOT IN OUR NAMES", "How can XTC be a 3?" and "REM? **** OFF!"

The threat of riots as pro-REM supporters clash with those opposing the official rating has been described by interpol as "unlikely". A spokesman added "a lot of those guys have steady jobs to hold down and kids to support. These aren't the types to want to get their corduroy pants torn. They know they're outnumbered, and intel suggests they like it that way."

The all-important U2 ranking is due to be completed by the International Pop Ombudsman next week.

Arctic Monkeys
Franz Ferdinand
Bob Dylan
Silver Seas
Back To The Planet

thread to obliterate any chance of goodwill to all men breaking out anytime soon.
You can't change people's minds by shouting louder or force of numbers.
Unless labour camps or compulsory imprisonment are an option.

• Chris Rea - the archetypical career motivated Musician. If you want something interminably dull to do for living mate try a career in Banking. You would probably have been "Driving Home for Christmas" in an even better car.

• The Pet Shop Boys - what happens if you take a music Journo and an engineering nerd, both clearly not cut out for it, and allow then to get away with openly commercial, vaguely amateurish sounding Pop for 25 years?

• Springsteen - three or four chord, dumb peoples music. Peculiarly uninventive and derivative. Every cliché rolled into one heap. Rock music for people who never understood Rock music.

• T Rex - the "classic" band that never really were classic. One half talented bloke surrounded by three bricklayers does not a band make. Like someone playing the wire loop game, it's all very subtly and annoyingly off time.

• Crosby Stills Nash and Young - What was Neil Young doing with this firm of Accountants is anyones guess. Sure they could actually play (unlike a few of the other nominations above) but what they chose to play .. uniquely dull.

By whom?

As musicians:

Oasis (wannabe Fabs)

Michael Jackson (unremarkable without the dancing)

Frank Zappa (believe me I have tried)

Karl-Heinz Stockhausen (very clever, but fails on 100% of the basic requirements for 'music')

The Clash (yeah, punk was great, but it was 34 years ago folks and can we all just move on a bit now?)

Everyone's prejudices coming to the fore (including mine, of course). I read some comments and think to myself, how could anybody be so dismissive of the Boss, or Dylan, or EC or even, the Who? Now, Amy Winehouse - great call; or Bob Marley, some good songs but not worth all the critical hyperbole. So great entertainment as my views are confirmed or challenged.

Yawn.......

Reminds me of Nigel Tufnel inspecting a rogue vol-au-vent from the Tap's rider.

"What's in here? Nothing."

As a service to the Massive, and because it was a job that clearly needed doing, as we all like lists, don't we, I have done a bit of 'five-bar-gating' to summarise the above posts, up to 09.00 on the 23rd.

Any act that gets mentioned gets a count of one. Multiple mentions of the same act by the same blogger do not. That means @tippywooder and @KitHogue trolling Elvis Costello and Lou Reed doesn't count (it hardly needed to). There is a debate to be had, but preferably not, about whether some bands can be truly overrated. Indeed, to be overrated, they have to be rated in the first place. To be rated, you must have heard of them in the first place - @spart, who are 'Terris'? It is also relevant to mention that it's taken Sinatra decades to get 4 overrates, while The Silver Seas have got there in minutes.

But, enough! As the gorgeous lovely with the improbable legs sashays over to the microphone to open the crispy envelope that, strangely, has never been sealed, here are the Top 10 'Most Over-rated Acts' as squabbled over by the Word Massive. In reverse order of course.

Joint 10th on 5 - Clapton, The Doors, Dylan, Zep, Floyd
7th= Bob Marley, Nirvana, Stone Roses - 6
Sharing 4th Elvis Costello, Oasis, Lou Reed - 7
On the podium! Radiohead and Bruce Springsteen - 8
But the far and away winners are
The Clash - 12

Hoorah!

No, I'm not going to go and do the same on the 5 most underrated artists thread, as the answer is obviously going to be XTC.

a fool and a pretentious miserable sod, BUT he was once fantastic and has written more brilliant songs and produced more brilliant albums than just about anyone bar a select few. The cliche about people buying the Velvets' album and forming bands had a ring of truth about it. Most of the punk movement came from that place. He has a knack of writing amazing songs with minimum chordage. Sunday Morning, Sweet Jane, Caroline Says, Who Loves The Sun, Perfect Day, Walk On The Wild Side, Satellite Of Love etc - do you lot really not like these songs?!
His influence is massive. Not just all the punks like Patti Smith, Blondie and The Ramones but just about any alternative 80s music - Echo & The Bunnymen, REM, The Smiths... plus Bowie (ok it was a two-way thing but The Dame was as much influenced by Lou as vice versa)..I could go on.
A great deal of the complaints on this thread about him (and Lennon) seem to be because he's a miserable git. Are you all so sensitive you want everyone to be like Peter Andre and Chris Martin for god's sake appearing on Loose Women and hanging out with Philip Schofield?
And as for those citing Prince as overrated too...give your heads a shake!

Bob Dylan

The Beatles

Radiohead

Springsteen

Tom Waits

That should just about alienate 90% of the readership in one fell swoop.

I cannot stand Oasis, but not sure over-rated is the correct term? They had third rate anthemic pub rock down to an art form which pretty much does exactly what it says on the tin, but not necessarily over-rated?.

1. Richard Thompson since about 1984
2. Elvis Costello after Armed Forces
3. Kanye West
4. Nick Drake
5. LCD Soundsystem

1. The Beatles
2. John Lennon
3. Paul McCartney
4. Oasis
5. Elvis Presley

Those guys have had WAY too many Mojo covers. AND they had a girl on bass!

Overated - Foo Fighters

Underated - Queens Of The Stone Age

Why QOTSA arent filling stadia the size of FF and Grohl and co tying the laces on their stage shoes, is one of music's crueler outcomes.

.....and anyone thinking they're cut from the same cloth needs to see an ear specialist pronto!

It seems to me that this discussion can only be a subjective one. To say that, for instance, Bob Dylan is overrated seems to be entirely subjective. His influence on songwriting cannot be over estimated eg no Bob Dylan no Beatles later work. Whether you like hin or not is fine but overrated? I just don't see it.

I don't like The Smiths or The Beach Boys because they don't move me not because I think they are overrated. I can apply the love I have of artists to the love that others have for those groups even though I don't share it.

How about one? AC effin DC. Absolute sh1te. What do you lot seen in 'em? I had the misfortune to see them once supporting the Who. Aural torture - it gives me a headache just thinking about it.

I'm pretty shocked that there have so few mentions of the Grateful Dead! Not one decent vocalist amongst, and they go on, and on, and..well you know. Here's the rest

The Beatles - ugh!
Radiohead - slap round the head, and, 6 months in the Marines, that'll sort them out
Sting - The Ego, the ego
Billy Joel - Delusions of adequacy (I know its not original!)

Sodding awful racket, much-beloved by They Who Dictate What We Should Like.

Deacon Blue
Texas
Del Amitri
Wet Wet Wet
The Proclaimers

Yes, they are all Scottish, but it's not BECAUSE they're Scottish. It's just that in '89, when I was first attempting to discover music by listening to Radio 1 (I know, I know), I couldn't understand why there were so many appalling Scottish bands that we were forced to listen to. And still don't. I can only assume there was some sort of quota in operation, because no other explanation makes sense. Oh, and I forgot Simple Minds.

PS I like Runrig. And Amy Macdonald. And SOME Annie Lennox.