Let's keep it respectful. We are all adults here and since this is our personal opinion there's no need for debate. ...Now here goes my list
Mary J Blige
Alicia Keyes
Keith Sweat
Mary Wells
Adele
Xscape
Total
Michael Bolton
Let's keep it respectful. We are all adults here and since this is our personal opinion there's no need for debate. ...Now here goes my list
Mary J Blige
Alicia Keyes
Keith Sweat
Mary Wells
Adele
Xscape
Total
Michael Bolton
Brian McKnight
Will Downing
Sam Smith
An interesting question and difficult to answer. Marvin Gaye has never impressed me but for the WGO era [[saw him live once - snoozeville). For whatever reason I love Mary J's success & longevity but don't care to listen to her. Michael Jackson seems way over-rated and I never bought any of his releases; I think his singing is ... whatever. Lionel Ritchie kinda makes my skin crawl but I saw him open for Tina several times and admit he did a great show. There are a ton that just never rang any bells for me but these are the main big-ones I can think of.
Oooo glencro this is dodgy territory, lol
I try and appreciate all artists and there are none that come to mind as me ‘disliking’ although I agree with PNH that Michael seems a bit overrated and Lionel a bit cringy heehee
As far as Motown goes I try and like every single R&B/Soul artist on the label, but I simply cannot get into... The Satintones. I don’t know what it is about them but I just can’t. There you go... I said it. Phew.
Forgot to add:
Céline Dion and Jennifer Hudson.
Brilliant thread idea, glencro!
Patti LaBelle , Neil Diamond, Barbra Streisand, Gladys Knight, Beyoncé, Adele, Sam smith .... all talented
In a category of the less than talented -Mary Wilson.
Last edited by Circa 1824; 01-17-2018 at 08:02 PM.
Hi Tom. It's a puzzling one to answer; if I were to list EVERY artist that I never bought a record of my list would be endless! So I decided to instead go with the major peeps who had/have long careers but who I considered as 'wtf' and/or just never wanted a record from!
Hi PNH... yea I get you... well-known singers that you just never got into.
I don’t think I could truly ‘dislike’ an artist that I have never even tried to get into if you know what I mean. [[The Satintones, I really tried, honest I did!!) I just don’t know enough of Mary J. Blige's music to say that I actively 'dislike' her.
Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie may not be my most favourite artists but I certainly love some of their songs and have indeed had the urge to buy their records!
Bob Dylan
Mick Jagger
Janet Jackson
Macy Gray
Rhianna
Billy Holiday
Michael Bolton
Usher
Apparently this question is intended to cover multiple genres, not just soul. If so, I will answer accordingly.
In pop/rock, the ones that I could just never get into would include Kim Carnes and Bonnie Tyler for the same raspy reason, that ghastly Swedish group Blue Swede for completely ruining "Hooked on a Feeling," just about any heavy metal group because generally their lyrics were indecipherable, and with one possible song exception [["Crying"), Roy Orbison. I just never understood the appeal of him, but when I heard K D Lang cover that song, at least I understood its value.
As for soul, this may be tougher since I am a soul music fan. But I should be able to come up with a few that I did not care for. Topping that list would be Minnie Riperton. "Loving You" was abominable, no two ways about it. I also never heard an Al Green song that I really liked. Some were OK but none really moved me. Among the female or mixed groups, I never got into The Ritchie Family. Last but not least, even though I worshiped Motown, I never heard a single Originals' song that I liked.
You will notice that everyone I mentioned goes wayyyy back. That is because I gave up on popular music about 20 years ago. So there could be tons of currently popular people that I would either love or hate, but I just don't know them.
Wow, this is a tough one. I'll have to give it some thought but off the top of my head, I can think of how I used to love Rick James' records but never liked [[and almost hated) his voice. I can't explain it.
Also, I was big on Parliament/Funkadelic but was very quietly the one guy in my high school who could not stand Bootsy's records.
A lot ! But I prefer to stay positive and I won't cite nobody. ;o)
Though most of the times I believe their songs/arrangements, etc...are responsible for this.
Umm,ok let's see...lionel richie..larry graham..the beatles.
This is a tough one. To say NEVER cared for is really hard. There are artists I do not like but have enjoyed some of their music.
Barbara Streisand, barf bag, please.
Janet Jackson. Bobby Brown. Keith Sweat. Parliament. Beyonce.
I don't care if[beyonce]didn't sing a note..just stand there in one of those sexy outfits and i'm hooked,hehehehe!!
I won't name the fifties artist, but the artist played the same rhythm on every song.
Can you guess who?
edafan
I hadn't intended at first to even bother with this thread because I know nobody will like
everything regardless of how many others do. I mean if we all agreed on everything it'd
be a really boring world, wouldn't it? Bunch of folks just sitting around nodding...Yup...Yup...Uh huh...Yup...Yup... but your comments here, Jerry gave me pause...Especially since Bootsy was so integral to the P Funk sound...I guess I'm trying to
pinpoint your position...You didn't like his vocals? You didn't like the jams or the ballads?
Or both? Another Point of View representing the first and Munchies For You Love, the
latter. I remember Bootsy debuting his Casper voice on Funkadelic's Be My Beach and I
remember us funkaholics being thrilled when he got to lead his own groups but then again, I know not everybody would like or get it. George was lucky as James Brown or
Miles Davis to have had so many talented musicians like Bootsy, Bernie, Maceo, Junie,
Eddie and singers like Gary Shider, Glen Goins, Phillipe Wynne and Jessica Cleaves to be
a part of his organisation at one time or another...
Anyway....I really don't care for 98 percent of rappers after 1996...
It was more his voice than anything else. As silly as P-Funk is, songs like Wind Me Up struck me as being kind of lazy. I was definitely in the minority among my friends, so the problem here is with me, not him. Later, I doubled down on this opinion knowing that he was too good of a bassist to effect his sound so much. It's kind of a love/hate thing where I thought he was more stylized than his talent deserved. Curiously, I love his contributions to Parliament.
It took me years to appreciate George Duke because he riffed off of Bootsy in his funk music. But his jazz more than made up for the other stuff.
I really couldn’t stand Kesha, until she severed ties with her producer. Not only was he physically and emotionally abusive towards her, but also grossly overproduced and over glossed her material. I wouldn’t be surprised if she hates her early hits as much as I do.
Gotcha, Jerry...Bootsy's voice was actually never intended to be heard as serious
singing; more like a cartoonish take off of Jimi Hendrix. When he first joined Funkadelic
he was still riffing off James Brown. The Bootsy voice provided comic relief because
earlier a lot of both Parliament and Funkadelic material could get very deep or very dark.
The song you're referring to was Bootzilla, silly as it was lyrically was meant to be fun
and it did what it was supposed to do: hit. George Duke riffed off the whole p-funk sound
but then dozens of other acts reacted to it on record, even folks that had been around before GC hit, like Ben E. King and Gene Chandler. I still miss George Duke...
anyway somebody else I never got was ABBA...
I never really cared for the band KISS.
They had a few hits in the '70s that I really liked. But those songs did not age well at all. I hear them now and realize that there are local bar bands with better chops than KISS had in their golden age. Without a doubt, even the songs that I liked would prompt me to change the station if they came on today.
In my opinion, they were a flash in the pan. They filled stadiums at the height of their popularity but pale in comparison with bands like Journey, Chicago, and Queen. To say nothing about other stadium filling rock groups like the Stones, Beatles, the Who, and Pink Floyd.
Beth was easily their best song and that's because it wasn't typical for their output. I Want To Rock and Roll All Night was big in the day but now sounds as dated and cheesy as '70s tripe like Telephone Man, Disco Duck, and Saturday Night.
I dont care for Gladys knight or Mariah Carey or Billy Davis or Christina Aguilera.
I like this thread!
Kind of gives you an idea of others variable tastes.
There are a lot of acts that I've never bought their music or liked their output overall, but I wouldn't list them here because it's not an absolute. There's a song here or a song there by them that works for me.
Acts I flat out don't like [[unlistenable) : Red Hot Chili Peppers, Styx , Ted Nugent , Billy Joel, any/all rap "artists".
I've liked a lot of the Red Hot Chili Peppers since their collaboration with George Clinton. I like Styx [[with the exception of "Mr. Roboto", which was pure awfulness) and most Billy Joel. But I hate Ted Nugent's music as much as I hate his politics. Can't stand Britney Spears among a lot of today's generic and over-produced "talent".
I hate to admit it, but I was never a big fan of TLC or a lot of LaFace's stable of acts. Among jazz artists, I was never as big a fan of Weather Report as I should have been. Beyond Birdland, their music was just too avant garde and experimental for me. I also had a hard time digesting Jon-Luc Ponti's music although it's easier to listen to now.
I've never really cared for Prince apart from the occasional single like "1999" and "Little Red Corvette".
I'm finding it easy to name the artist that I like but hard to remember the singers/groups I do not like. Also, it would be interesting to hear why you don't like the person or group.
Michael Jackson nor the J5: None of his/their stuff stood out enough for me to tape them off the radio [[cassette days) let along buy any of their music.
The Beatles: Never understood their allure besides later on being great songwriters.
There is a black group who's name I can't recall. They almost wound up Gamble & Huff but didn't [[not the Dells). Their lead singer reminds me of the day [[30 years ago) I came home and and saw an old guy sitting in the hall way. It turned out his wife had put him out and he sat there making this whinny sound. That's what the their lead singer sounds like.
98% of today's artist cause most of them tend to sound alike especially the women. Instead of sounding like the individuals that God made them, they choose to adapt this lightweight type of singing voice. It's one thing to copy a sound or style but when just about everybody jumps in the same pool it's clone city.
Ricky Martin [[somebody got some splaining to do about how he got famous)
I use to not like Marvin Gaye [[except for his duets) in his early days at Motown but realized that I was wrong about him. Another topic for a good thread would be on who did you eventually come around to.
There is more but I can't think of the names.
Last edited by mr_june; 01-23-2018 at 10:12 AM.
Enjoying the comments. The artists that I listed I just did not like their vocals. Mary has little vocal control and is pitchy at times. Alicia puts the O in OK, Keith is nasally and whiny, Mary Wells voice was also whiny to me; Adele is just ok. I don't understand all the hoopla about her [[Teena Marie would've sung her under a car); Xscape and Total sound like little children and Michael Bolton's voice was not as soulful to me as the public gave him credit for
Billy Joel[[I cringe), Janet Jackson[[ I don’t get it), Phil Collins [[sappy except for Easy lover with Philip Bailey), ... I saw Sysa[[sp?)on Saturday night live...don’t get it at all.
Other than that song "Rolling In the Deep", I never cared for Adele. She is all hype. She is visible [[to me) only during TV award season and then goes back into hibernation for the rest of the year.
I agree, Marv. To me, Adele it's one of those artists with undeniably great talent but whose songs are a lot of tedium for me. I listen to her records once and appreciate them somewhat, but never want to play them again. Better as background music than something that I want to hear, I guess.
I'll add Janet to my list; the recent picture of herself and her cheeks reminded me of her. Always seems like an ok person & her records are fun for dancin' but her voice is nothing and both of her dance moves are reductive.
Whitney Houston was a dream especially in the first 10 years of her national career. Not only did she record some of the most timeless songs that not only defined a decade, but a generation. She also toured, appeared on television fairly regularly and acted in movies. There are tons of video of what I am saying on Youtube. She was probably that last true, great music star.
Last edited by marv2; 01-26-2018 at 06:24 PM.
I agree. In my opinion, Whitney and Luther were the two singers of my generation who stand out above all others. Both had control of their voices to the point that every note was inflected. I put them up in the category of Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, and Dinah Washington as all-time greats. I'm almost pissed off that they're gone.
I wondered what it would have been like had Whitney ventured into more of a blues/ soul sound. Could she do that with her voice?
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