Ramones
There’s no doubt that the Ramones are a highly influential band among generations of punk rock musicians. However, the truth of the matter is the band’s creative peak lasted all 4 albums in the late 1970s. Beginning with the 1980s End of the Century, the band’s creative output and in turn their live shows became spotty at best.
Weezer
Weezer released two of the 1990s best albums – 1994’s self-titled (commonly called the Blue Album) and 1996’s Pinkerton – and Rivers Cuomo and company have pretty much been coasting on those two albums for the last 25 years. Ever since their albums have been divisive amongst both their fanbase and casual music listeners.
R.E.M.
R.E.M. were the “kings of college rock radio” in the 1980s and the kings of pop radio for a period in the early 1990s. However, we’d argue that the band coasted on their success following 1992’s Automatic for the People, becoming a shell of themselves before disbanding.
Foo Fighters
Would the Foo Fighters have gotten a chance if Dave Grohl hadn’t been the drummer of alt-rock kings Nirvana? Would the Foo Fighters be massively successful, Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Famers if not for Grohl taking on a “pied-piper” of rock role? Maybe, maybe not, but the fact that we can ask the question at all shows that they’re a tad overrated.
Metallica
Metallica is a metal icon, no doubt. But let’s be real, has the band released anything classic since their self-titled Black Album in 1991? Die-hard fans would probably argue they have, but it’s tough to say. Plus, you know, St. Anger exists.
My Chemical Romance
My Chemical Romance is very good at what they do, with their mixture of dark imagery, comic book narratives, pop-punk hooks, and Queen-Esque song structure making them very popular in the 2000s. But the question can be asked: Is the band truly great, or are they a tad overrated, only standing out as much as they do in comparison to the music scene around them at the time?
Red Hot Chili Peppers
The Red Hot Chili Peppers have been one of America’s biggest bands for 30 years thanks to their steady stream of California rock/funk hybrid hits. In all honesty, as good as those songs are in a vacuum, many of them sound very similar. RHCP’s unwillingness to break from their usual formula makes them a tad overrated in our book.
The Doors
While The Doors undoubtedly have some class songs, it’s hard to argue that the band’s enduring legacy owes more to singer Jim Morrison’s legendary off-stage persona and alleged antics than the band’s actual music.
Wings
Wings were one of the biggest bands of the 1970s… because they were fronted by former Beatle (more on them later) Paul McCartney.
Def Leppard
England’s Def Leppard had two of the biggest rock albums of the 1980s – Pyromania and Hysteria – but since then, they coasted on that success, releasing a series of albums that border between acceptable and dreck, all the while touring their nostalgic hits ad nauseam.
Guns N’ Roses
Guns N’ Roses exploded onto the hard rock scene thanks to their 1987 debut album Appetite for Destruction. However, as big as GN’R got, their recorded output plummeted. The 2-part Use Your Illusion set from 1991 was mostly a letdown and was in turn followed by 25 years of acrimony, a version of the band featuring no one but singer Axl Rose, and the misbegotten Chinese Democracy album. Since 2016, 3/5th of the original the band has been on a reunion tour playing mainly… songs from Appetite.
Arcade Fire
Arcade Fire is one of the most critically acclaimed bands of the 21st century, with their albums Neon Bible and The Suburbs, in particular, wracking up numerous awards. That said, the band’s critical appeal seems a bit overboard, especially when compared to their commercial fortunes.
Bon Jovi
While many probably argue that Bon Jovi has always been overrated, the biggest issue with the band is their recent past. The band has been overrated in name since the departure of guitarist Riche Sambora, leaving both their studio albums and live shows a shell of what they were.
Smashing Pumpkins
The Smashing Pumpkins epitomized the mid-1990s generation on albums like Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. Since then? Billy Corgan and an evolving group of other former members have continued to cyclically reunite and break up, all while playing to audiences dying to relive 1995.
Rage Against the Machine
Rage Against the Machine is one of the most brazenly political bands of all time. However, it can be argued that they’re better known for their politics than they are for their music.
Pink Floyd
Thanks to Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall, Pink Floyd have become icons of psychedelic rock. However, without the aid of… outside supplements, the band’s music isn’t all that engrossing, especially their lesser-known records.
Green Day
Green Day has ridden their Bay Area pop-punk sound to the upper echelon of the music industry over the last three decades. However, their music is similar to numerous peers, none of whom achieved the same success or recognition.
Journey
While Journey has a large catalog of hits, these days the band is simply Journey in name only. Steve Perry, the singer behind the band’s biggest hits left for good in 1996, and since then the band has used competent singers mimicking his style.
Pearl Jam
Second, only to a band that appears later in our rankings, Pearl Jam was the hottest band of the 1990s grunge explosion and has remained a musical power in the nearly 30 years since. While the band is admittedly good, some fans and media members take their adoration to the extreme, treating the band as the single-handed saviors of rock.
KISS
KISS is the definitive example of “all sizzle, no steak,” being defined by their makeup, with the music always playing second fiddle to their image. While that has built quite a “KISS Army” over the years, the band’s name recognition compared to their musical output makes them overrated.
Beastie Boys
While the Beastie Boys are one of the most commercially successful hip-hop groups of all time, they’re not the best of all time. There are many as good or better groups who haven’t achieved the same mainstream recognition, for reasons we can only speculate on.
Aerosmith
The so-called “Bad Boys of Boston” have been lauded as one of music’s biggest acts for almost 50 years… even though they’ve only had two truly successful periods. Aerosmith’s late 70s albums were massive, helping carry them through the drug-addled early 1980s, while their late 80s-early 90s resurgence has carried them since.
Rolling Stones
Before hurling the tomatoes, hear us out: Yes, The Rolling Stones are musical icons. But, they also haven’t released anything that truly lived up to their legacy since 1981’s Tattoo You. Everything since has been the Stones coasting on being the Stones, which in turn has made them just a tad overrated.
Coldplay
Is Coldplay terrible? No. Is there any other period in rock history where they would be the biggest band in the world? No.
U2
U2 is, without a doubt, one of the most important bands in history. That said, they can be a bit overrated by those, both fans and critics, who act like the band can do no wrong. Which, as any iPhone owner can attest, they certainly have had missteps along the way.
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band
Bruce and the E Street Band are undoubtedly a musical force, especially live. However, despite what some would have you believe, they are not the only great live band in the world.
The Sex Pistols
The Sex Pistols were pre-fabricated by a music manager, with the express idea of tapping into trends to make money. Certainly the opposite of the punk rock ethos.
The Beatles
The Beatles are, easily, the most important popular music artist of all time. But they’re not the be-all, end-all of music, they’re not gods, and they had missteps along the way. It’s perfectly reasonable to admit that as a music fan.
Nirvana
Nirvana is the beloved symbol of 90s music, hailed by many as having ushered in a new era of rock. However, during Kurt Cobain’s all-too-brief lifetime, the band released only three studio albums.
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin was very good, a hyper-talented collection of musicians. That said, they were not even the best band of their time, let alone the best band of all time.
Muse
British alt-rockers Muse emerged in the mid-90s and unexpectedly wound up becoming one of the biggest stadium rock bands of the years that followed. Let’s be honest though, if Radiohead hadn’t veered away from making accessible music after OK Computer, Muse would literally have no reason to exist.
Mumford and Sons
When this British ensemble arrived in the late 2000s, their old-fashioned form of folk rock proved enormously popular. Strange, because to us they’ve always seemed like the kind of obnoxious pub band that would prompt you to finish your pint quickly and move on.
The Eagles
They may be one of the biggest selling bands in the history of the world (their Greatest Hits album has sold over 45 million copies), but we’ve always found Californian stadium rockers The Eagles monumentally boring.
Fleetwood Mac
Starting out as an above-average British blues rock band in the 60s, Fleetwood Mac underwent multiple line-up changes before becoming the band known and loved by millions today. Call us party poopers, but we think the original band was better, and a whole lot less corny.
Dire Straits
Although they arrived at the same time that the punk rock scene was thriving, Dire Straits presented a very different more old-fashioned take on rock with an emphasis on fancy musicianship. It’s just pure cheese to our ears, and the band themselves are beyond boring to watch.
The Bee Gees
Starting out playing dull folky music in the late 50s, The Bee Gees limped along until discovering disco in the 70s and somehow became massive in the process. Their Saturday Night Fever soundtrack might be a best-seller, but the band themselves have always made us cringe so hard it hurts.
The Cure
The band that convinced millions of fans that black crimped hair and smeared-on make-up was a stylish look, The Cure are almost certainly the most enduring and influential Goth rock band of them all. Is it just us, or are they a bit whiny and overblown?
Biffy Clyro
We cringed as soon as we heard the name. We cringed even harder when we heard the music. And yet, bland Scots rockers Biffy Clyro remain one of the most popular groups in the world. We just don’t get it.
Fall Out Boy
Whiny, pretentious college boy rockers Fall Out Boy took their name from The Simpsons and were at the forefront of the ’emo’ boom of the 2000s. Somehow they’re still around and filling arenas all over the world. Why?
Maroon 5
Since squelching onto the scene in 2002, Maroon 5 have consistently churned out their soulless excuse for soul-pop-rock for over two decades, somehow shifting over 135 million albums in the process. Surely there are simpler and cheaper ways to give yourself a stress-induced headache.
Linkin Park
Hey, remember how great nu-metal was? Nope, neither do we. And if there’s one band to thank/blame for all that overproduced garbage from the early 2000s, it’s Linkin Park, whose blend of rapping and thrashing proved massively popular and even more massively grating.
Kings of Leon
When this Tennessee four-piece first arrived in the early 2000s, they showed some promise. Unfortunately, as their popularity grew, so too did their music steadily devolve into the some of the least interesting stadium rock dirge we’ve ever heard.
Oasis
Arguably the most popular band to emerge from the mid-90s Britpop scene, Oasis wasted no opportunity to strut around telling everyone they were the greatest band in the world. This bravado barely masked the fact that the Manchester band were musically mediocre and almost completely lacking in creativity.
Bush
The loss of Kurt Cobain and Nirvana truly left a huge hole in the 90s rock scene. How else can it be explained that a band as staggeringly derivative and dull as English grunge wannabes Bush somehow became one of the biggest selling bands in the world?
Nickelback
Do we really even need to make the case against this band? If ever there was a contender for the least endearing, most cringe-inducing rock band in the history of the world, Canadian schlock-rockers Nickelback would surely top the list.
One Direction
This feels a little cheap, given that One Direction were a marketing exercise puppeteered by Simon Cowell. But still, the amount of success and eventual respect these lads earned was so misplaced. Their most-known songs are mediocre at best. On the whole, they lack any of the staying power that Nsync or the Backstreet Boys had.
AC/DC
Want to write songs like AC/DC? Just combine power chords, a standard blues drum beat and a whiny, screaming voice and you’re there! These Australian rockers have recorded over a dozen albums and not one of them dares to tread the road less travelled musically. AC/DC thought if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Spoiler alert: it was always broken.
Radiohead
Radiohead has written some great, great songs. Only an idiot could deny that. Unfortunately, their fans have a terrible record of snobbery. It’s a big world out there, and there’s a lot of great stuff that’s been made by other people than Thom Yorke. Let’s make peace and admit that Radiohead peaked around 2001.
Slipknot
Slipknot could have written awful music and still made an impression on pop culture thanks to their jarring, masked aesthetic. Thankfully for us, they decided to write some pretty incredible music. Still, they were only at the top of their game for a few years. Treating Slipknot like they’re the only relevant or talented metal band doesn’t do anyone any favours.
Jonas Brothers
Unlike other Disney-fied bubblegum pop efforts of the 90s, and 00s, the Jonas Brothers at least played instruments. Kevin, Joe and Nick had a legitimacy that sometimes paid off in the form of a catchy tune. But there weren’t that many to make sense of the hysteria they caused for several years.
Avenged Sevenfold
Avenged Sevenfold probably wouldn’t be on this list if each individual member wasn’t treated like a god by their fans. Let’s face it, the drummer’s okay, the guitar work is generic at best, the bass is often cut out of the mix and the vocals are too whiny or try-hard. This metalcore outfit was certainly of their time.
Queen
Queen is music for people who don’t listen to, or like, music. It’s pantomime nonsense that has been lionised thanks to a single decent performance at Wembley in 1985. They are a poor man’s version of Roxy Music, a genuinely exciting and innovative band from the same era. Brian May shredding on the roof of Buckingham Palace is rock’s darkest hour.
Blink 182
Blink 182 burst on the scene in 1999 with Enema of the State. After that, they recorded another two albums, before initially disbanding in 2005. After reuniting four years later, Blink has sadly not produced anything close to the likes of First Date or All The Small Things, rendering them just that little bit overrated.
Black Sabbath
When most people hear the words Black Sabbath, they think of Ozzy Osbourne. And when people think of Ozzy Osbourne, they think of him eating bats and taking leaks on the Alamo cenotaph. You have to meet a die-hard fan to hear anything about their music. Sabbath made some decent tracks, there’s no denying that, but they were replaced by better bands.
BTS
BTS are massive but they’re not any different from all the other K-pop bands out there. The music is so-so, the lyrics are mostly illogical and the dance routines… well, you see one you’ve seen them all. For young girls just wanting to idolise some pretty boys, BTS do the job. For people looking for good music, there’s hardly anything to survive off.
Panic! At the Disco
Panic! At the Disco (well, Brendan Urie) called it quits this year after almost 20 years at the coalface. A huge emo-pop sensation in the mid-noughties, Panic! just failed to provide as many bangers throughout the rest of their tenure as they did on A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out, and for that reason alone, you’d have to label them overrated.
30 Seconds to Mars
Strange though it may seem, there are human beings out there, walking the planet as we speak, who are earnest 30 Seconds to Mars fans. You know, the one with Jared Leto in? How this band ever got within 50 feet of a record deal will never make sense. A milquetoast, emo cash grab that would do everyone a favour if they actually flew to Mars.
Paramore
Everyone has a soft spot for Paramore. They’ve written enough good songs over the years to cement their reputation. But you get the feeling Paramore’s fanbase talks about them like they were the first-ever band to feature a female singer. Hayley Williams will always be pop punk’s queen, but let’s not act like Paramore was a revolution.
Evanescence
To be fair to Evanescence, their fame and chart success didn’t go to any of their heads. We didn’t see anyone falling out of taxis or in mugshots. They just went out there and made music, some of which was really good. Overall, though, they aren’t that much to write home about if you’re not a day one Ev fan.
The Velvet Underground
Another band that people pretend to like to look cool. The infamous Rolling Stones writer Lester Bangs once quipped that every critic he knew who praised the Velvet Underground had albums in pristine condition, with no scratches or evidence that they’d ever been used. This will be the case for plenty of people today, only in a depressing digital context.
The Who
The Who didn’t write a good song outside of the 1960s, and that’s just not good enough when writing songs is your full-time job. How hard can it be? Plenty of bands and musicians have proven that it is possible to write hits across generations. What’s the Who’s issue? They seem like a band that have been set in their ways for just too long.
Daft Punk
Seeing Daft Punk split up in 2021 wasn’t nice. For a lot of millennials, the French duo is all they had ever known. Key moments of their life were complemented by their iconic music. But the fanbase comes across like people who have never listened to anything besides Daft Punk, and that’s never a good sign. Good, but flawed.
Van Halen
Jump! Why don’t you jump? Don’t tell me what to do. Van Halen are harmless fun, but their music fluctuates wildly. Often you feel as if they’re on the cusp of something great, and then they bring it back down to earth with some generalised 1980s nothingness. It’s movie soundtrack music, which is nothing to be sniffed at, but also not something to be taken seriously.
The Verve
The Verve’s only good song is a rip-off of a philharmonic version of the Rolling Stones song The Last Time. So, basically, they’ve never written a good tune of their own accord, and that isn’t something to be celebrated. The only saving grace of having to endure this band is seeing Richard Ashcroft be shoved about in the video for Bitter Sweet Symphony.
The Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead are one of those bands everyone’s afraid of saying they don’t really get. You really want to like this band, especially when fans refer to them as ‘the Dead’. You want to be one of the cool kids. Unfortunately, the music just isn’t that great. Nowhere near great enough to justify the grip they have on stoner America.
Motley Crue
Motley Crue are the epitome of style over substance. A frustratingly poor band that made shallow music for knucklehead teenagers. Could you name a great Crue song if you had a gun to your head? Probably not. We likely wouldn’t even remember them had Tommy Lee not married Pamela Anderson. Thanks a lot, Pam!
The Police
You’d have to be made of cement to not tap your foot along to the likes of Roxanne and Don’t Stand So Close to Me. But overall, are the Police that great? Do they deserve the adulation, all these years later? Should we be celebrating grown men with dyed blond hair? These questions remain up for debate. For us, the answer is no.
The Clash
The Only Band That Ever Mattered. That’s the official quote forever associated with the Clash. This London band were never afraid to experiment outside of their punk foundations, and for that, they have to be lauded. Albums like Sandinista and Combat Rock are great. But the only band to have ever mattered? That’s a tall order.
Joy Division
It seems harsh to call a band that was only together for four years, and that was prematurely disbanded by tragedy, overrated. But if we’re being honest with ourselves, these Mancunian post-punks weren’t as good as their legacy makes out. Joy Division wrote some OK songs, but New Order dwarfed them.
The 1975
Look, the 1975 are having a go. In a musical climate where rock is as antiquated as big band music, they deserve praise for putting themselves out there. The music itself leaves a lot to be desired, though. These days, they seem more famous for the bedraggled try-hard antics of their lead singer Matt Healy, who is so outrageous he often smokes on stage!
