"Uncool" music you dig. Out with it!

i was listening to petula clark sing in french last night...

she is 91 years young i might add...

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

― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Saturday, 16 March 2024 bookmarkflaglink

Heard a 12 year old recently muttering "Staying Alive" while walking down the street. I don't get it but I'm old now

growing up in the 90s, i remember elton/abba/beegees being "around" but more as like ... kinda "novelty oldies." also it was considered "gay music" in a lot of circles+carried connotations.

the 90s were fairly homophobic, idk if anyone else remembers that????

moka says overexposure- i say at least partial damage was done by "DISCO SUCKS."

(i think the three acts are fine. all are "greatest hits=good enough" for me.)

xpost i see you, scott! in the end, is early france gall _that_ much different?

Holding Back The Years has always been great, don't know why Simply Red were so hated for so long. I sometimes think about this scene from the otherwise pretty good film 24 Hour Party People

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_B6AZdgQbeU

The quote (from "God") is "It's a pity you didn't sign the Smiths, but you were right about Mick Hucknell. His music's rubbish, and he's a ginger." - I am a ginger myself, and this sort of thing can fuck right off.

disagree. i don't deem anyone "uncool" for liking music, but 'holding back the years' ... nah, very dud. much no. you do you, but i can think of better ways to spend my time.

(like slagging off 'holding back the years' for an immediate example)

(also yes, 24 hr party people very good despite many problematic things)

but wait what about the "cool" version...

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

Whoa, I had never heard that!

Pretty good! I was bracing myself for the worst because of the band's name, but they get the mood basically right. The vocal is fashioned after Hucknall's, the music no--Mick Hucknall fronting the Velvet Underground.

The Frantic Elevator’s singer is Hucknall.

Oh god--that's the most spectacularly boneheaded mistake I've made since I reviewed an unmarked cassette of the La Bamba soundtrack in 1987 and complained that the version of "Who Do You Love" lacked Bo Diddley's menace or something like that...and it was Bo himself (I don't think the original, but maybe that too).

^^Bo w/Los Lobos backing him, IIRC.

Yeah, I looked it up--and it was, as I recall, a pedestrian version.

I like the Frantic Elevators' original, like the hit better.

It sounds like Bo doing his lyrics over a random Los Lobos song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wq-vmb8Gem8

ABBA was cool in the ‘90s… Think “Muriel‘s Wedding.” ABBA Gold was a cool CD to have. I honestly don’t remember a time when Abba wasn’t cool.

Xxxpost: yeah the 90’s were very homophobic but also very cynical for the most part… so artists using gimmicky outfits and making bombastic, heartfelt party music was probably seen as corny or uncool. I’d argue the 90’s were one of the corniest decades for music, ironically.

dang I LOVED the La Bamba soundtrack, would still like it if i heard it I'm sure

my contribution to this conversation is probably Steve Miller Band "Abracadabra"

this is secretly the cool version of 'holding back the years' fyi:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4R6UGHAVdI

I will never understand the love Los Lobos get. They are as replacement-level as it gets IMO.

As far as the actual subject of the thread, uncool music that you love...Al Di Meola. A North Jersey guido playing fake flamenco and shredtastic metal fusion? I am in. I also listen to Yngwie Malmsteen more often than I probably should.

The ABBA fan club includes Lester Bangs, John Lydon, Elvis Costello and Pete Townshend - they were always cool to ppl in the know, it's just they look very uncool to the squares.

Ian McCulloch used to bang on about them in the 80s too

I have a morbid fondness for a lot of 90's and 00's Modern Rock radio hits, I think partially because that stuff comes from such a culturally and geographically distant world to me. "Breakfast At Tiffany's", "Iris", crap like that - I hear it and I imagine a seductive life of normiedom I could never have, a world where Friends is the funniest show of all time and everyone's excited for the big game.

I have no idea of what's cool and what isn't, thus demonstrating my lack of cool from the off. Anyway my lowest-regarded favourites probably include:
- elaborately arranged, fiddly-diddly 70s prog like Gryphon, Kansas, Gentle Giant and Nektar. Also IQ and a bunch of operatic Italian prog (PFM, Le Orme, Osanna etc).
- the first two Europe albums.
- the first two Zebra albums.
- early Queen and Status Quo, because when you say you like them everyone thinks you mean the later, more popular records. Ditto Judas Priest and Genesis.
- Y&T.

I have some affection for the extremely uncool Greg Kihn, almost entirely because "The Breakup Song" was one of the first 45s I ever bought. I ended up having two or three of his albums, although not the one with Jeopardy on it. I know he eventually became a morning rock jock and is probably kind of a dickhead, but there are a couple of album cuts I would rep for.

i would say that Europe and Zebra are the two undeniably uncool ones and that you could find more than a few people who would say the rest are cool. i like early Y&T a bunch!

x-post

These three LPs I absolutely love have at different times severely reduced my cred with different friends

* Fairport Convention - "Babbacombe" Lee
* Captain Beefheart - Bluejeans & Moonbeams
* Bonzo Dog Band - Let's Make Up & Be Friendly

(Think if you are not a fan of these artists then these would most likely barely register as uncool, though I have had v negative reactions when playing Swarbrick-era Fairport to people)

I feel like if I broke down and listened to albums by The Romantics that I would probably like them. I think I have them all in the store.

Sorry but early Europe fucking rule and probably influenced Ghost into the bargain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mcv05PbZ5tA

Daniel_Rf – good post

Camaradarie's post above underscored for me how subjective (and varied) the concept of "cool" is. For me, it more or less means rock-critic-sanctioned, so seeing Fairport and Captain Beefheart was confusing. But for someone else, that may be the complete opposite of cool.

I mean Fairport and Beefheart and Bonzos fans generally hate those albums

Cairo might be considered uncool, even to prog fans? I've said it before but their singing reminds me of gillette adverts, maybe earnest and heroic in a power metal way? Easy to imagine them all with 80s mullets. "Angels And Rage" is one of my all-timers, just incredibly exciting and I like that sort of dense whirlwind quality they have sometimes.

Aren't all the swedish extreme metal bands into ABBA?

Late additions:

Magnum
Saga
Pavlov's Dog
Rhapsody of Fire
Uli Jon Roth & Electric Sun
Steve Hackett
Angel

(xpost) Okay, that makes sense--but I'll stick to "cool" being a subjective concept.

Unless we're talking about Michael Bolton, he's the sole exception.

that first Angel album rips so hard. its awesome.

i'm a big City Boy fan. i win. something. i win something.

i love the first Starz album more than any Kiss album ever made.

I enjoy some Sons of Champlain songs, but I wouldn’t even know of them if not for my dad. Horn rock!

Is union by Toni Childs uncool?

totally.

Returning to the topic of ABBA’s coolness in the ‘90s; just came across this Flying Nun tribute on social media (had never heard of it)

i looked at this on FB and realized that there are secret levels of whiteness that i am not privy to. other than richard thompson and the preservation hall band i had no idea who ANY of these people were. there are local festivals like this all the time around here. they aren't for young people. i should be the demographic. but unfortunately they just look really uncool to me. no offense to sir. richard. who i love. and who plays around here, like, 10 times a year.

https://scontent-bos5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/431883219_931582178343904_5510188593972983208_n.jpg?_nc_cat=101&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=5f2048&_nc_ohc=MK3PyoWjoJEAX-vDaFF&_nc_ht=scontent-bos5-1.xx&oh=00_AfC4SRlMc7HbMyR6lxpbBu_4TcXHe-Isn2-LMuJQ6dp3nQ&oe=65FBE60C

https://scontent-bos5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/432401269_931582175010571_632896888730513714_n.jpg?_nc_cat=102&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=5f2048&_nc_ohc=AsDwIGvx32UAX-fCKR9&_nc_ht=scontent-bos5-1.xx&oh=00_AfCVG904LrGEChN-YXEFpcdG7BAsLRIB0VCAqKP4xHQB4w&oe=65FC5A6F

https://scontent-bos5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/432423551_931582191677236_4885266910016941552_n.jpg?_nc_cat=110&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=5f2048&_nc_ohc=kvdnG8Z_K20AX9NdgUQ&_nc_ht=scontent-bos5-1.xx&oh=00_AfDzFatc1kxG45NKaPYwLTqIzUhLnRGPYy6KroBvJZZvFg&oe=65FC62B5

i know laura cantrell. or of her. didn't she have a radio show on WFMU?

peter blanchette is from here and he plays a crazy guitar. the "archguitar".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COzLdipNUe4

anyway, i don't dig nu-americana for the most part. too many hats.

alright if no one's gonna name anything TRULY uncool I'll just mention that I think both Moxy Fruvous and the Barenaked Ladies have written some excellent songs