"Uncool" music you dig. Out with it!

Nada Surf. Probably the most "uncool" band I've stuck with since their first lp. Feels like dad-rock avant là lettre, in that I'm not a dad yet, but I grew up with these guys since both they and I were teenagers. And their music is still thoroughly uncool, unnoticed, unreviewed, completely outside of the reviewers eye. I get why. Which is what makes it so uncool. But boy are they consistently great at what they do. Every new album. It's not even by choice; we'll grow old together in spite of each other.

I heard a busker singing "Wind of Change" earlier and it made me so happy

I can see Styx being mainstream school-dance cool in 1981 but not today.

In 1981 you'd have Styx playing out on your driveway while you had your driveway barbecue going, it was great, man, I was there. Wasn't old enough to go to school dances then, though.

Also, where does They Might Be Giants fit in here? I still really like those records A LOT. The difference is, I like Styx records and enjoy that they're in no way cool, while They Might Be Giants records are, in my view, extremely intrinsically cool records that cool people largely never got into and which are thus not widely thought of as cool, quite the opposite in fact.

TMBG are really awesome but they do have a bit of a nasally singing voice and have the classic nerd look down. the music is extremely good -- coolness really has nothing to do with music quality imo.

first time i heard them was "Particle Man" on Tiny Toons and that is probably as uncool as you can get lol.

I used to love the most saccharine-laced love songs released during the 80's, which I blame by growing up in that decade. Just to let you know I'm not equivocating, 80's-era Genesis ("Hold on My Heart") and Richard Marx's "Angelia", which lets be honest, is kind of a badass Def Leppard B-side, is two songs that I bet I'd still love if I fired up again.

Speaking of Richard Marx - the epitome of uncool - the song "Hazard" is fucking brilliant. I mean, it essentially portrays the Tim Robbins' character in Mystic River a decade before it happens; not in every element, but the general gist.

Everyone likes "Hazard" iirc.

Is there still such a thing as uncool music?

????? explain...

feel like uncool music is more music you feel embarrassed about when played in the wrong company, than any music being uncool

^ otm

"uncool" is relative

OBVIOUSLY

i don't know about that... we've got a pretty good list goin here!!

exactly

ah a thread about what's cool! can't wait to post

wheeeeeeeee!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjoJlM2r3qs

Amazed I didnt post this abomination.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsfhADiaP5E
For anyone who doesn't know, the Marvel Vs Capcom 2 soundtrack is widely considered terrible and terribly fitting for the game. But the select screen music caught on to people and became a kind of guilty pleasure.

I prefer the select music from the previous game
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxMdFMJdeYg

I wonder how many people request the most embarrassing or inappropriate music for their funeral just to make their family and friends squirm?

i was rocking the second stealers wheel album a couple days ago

maybe that's actually cool, but if it is i'm insufficiently cool to know this, so i would argue it counts

Ben Folds Five

― Well bissogled trotters (Michael B), Wednesday, September 13, 2017 8:57 AM (six years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Playing this morning for the first time in a long time, and yeah, same.

i can't say i ever listen to ben folds five but i will always have a soft spot for them as the epitome of freshman year of college music

First album in particular is just stacked top to bottom with hits. The playing is ragged and loose but accomplished, the vocal parts surprisingly challenging, the lyrics unserious but smart... Folds is a knob but the band had something no other band of their era (or since?) had.

Third Eye Blind is not a band seen by anybody as "cool", but boy I sure love that first album.

yeah I've never cared about Ben Folds solo career, but those first two BF5 albums are classic

The first two Dido albums are absolutely fantastic.

Never listened to a Dido album but could absolutely see that. Will give them a go.

Country music -- I really like a couple Sara Evans albums and she's definitely not one of those country artists who would ever show up in respectable year end lists plus she's pretty MAGA. Little Big Town is frequently pretty great, they have some really stunning tracks and some good albums but nobody outside of country music fans seems to give them much notice.

I still like Tranceport by Oakenfold.

I have a weird soft spot for God Bless the USA, probably because in spite of being the most "normal" and conservative song imaginable, it's actually kind of weird and awkward compositionally and lyrically.

Doesn't really get any less cool than that.

The worst (from a music criticism perspective) bands I like are 311 (really just Grassroots and Transistor) and Sublime (I’ll take almost all of it still) but I still listen to them at least yearly if not more frequently…great for road trips too when you are looking for something familiar that doesn’t require too much focus/concentration.

I still like lots of very uncool dubstep & d&b music, the kind of dubstep & d&b that people seem to want to distance themselves from.

I didn't know Ben Folds Five was uncool???

I just found an early 2000s fan page for "geek-rock" bands, with pages for Ben Folds Five, Weezer, and They Might Be Giants.
https://geek-rock.tripod.com/main/main.htm

I think I'll leave it at that.

I have defended 311 a bunch, not to say I *love* them but I think they are underrated. FWIW they just did a Tiny Desk concert, which I'm curious to check out.

I still like lots of very uncool dubstep & d&b music, the kind of dubstep & d&b that people seem to want to distance themselves from.

hello.
as anyone who follows my twitter knows all too well re my love of cheesy dubstep mixtapes.
also, add bloghouse to the list.

I think those styles of music would prompt 90% of the population to say, “Whatever this is, it’s too cool for me”(!)

I actively disliked ABBA when I was a kid. They are now a guilty pleasure.

It’s been cool to like Abba for ages. Where you been, jimbeaux?

Josefa just recommended a book about this very topic.

They still strike me as deeply uncool. Anti-cool, actually.

I have similar feelings about the Bee Gees, although I think they are cool now.

beegees cool as fuck glad u reconize lol but not lol

I still like Tranceport by Oakenfold.

― omar little, Thursday, March 14, 2024 11:17 AM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

hah, should relisten to that, I remember liking it a lot when I was a teenager but yeah even then some of those vocals going "ooooh aaaahh you are the gamemaster" was a bit much

speaking of I do like Shpongle a lot. they're pretty embarrassing in spots but I think their records are really well crafted and all have a lot of great moments. and Nothing Lasts is an absolute tour de force album

Same deal with Bee Gees.

Carpenters too, if we are going down the alphabet.

I like Christmas carols and the bands James and The Tea Party

So, so much...Simply Red's "Holding Back the Years" comes to mind immediately.

(xpost) For a long time, definitely. But didn't the Carpenters get a second life sparked by Todd Haynes, the If I Were a Carpenter tribute album (with Sonic Youth), and the tragic dimensions of Karen Carpenter's story?