Think Radiohead have suffered for this as well.
5 Likes
Yeah Iâm completely ambivalent on the beastie boys and if I had to listen to them more often Iâd probably have given them a 2. As it is theyâre easy to ignore and I canât remember the last time I heard one of their songs so I didnât vote
1 Like
Itâs a leap from âtheyâre a bit overratedâ to âIâll give them a low mark to redress the balanceâ. People can be simultaneously âoverratedâ and âstill very goodâ (I would say this applies to Radiohead).
For the Beasties specifically Iâd say that you would expect them to rate highly as theyâre a very DiS band but they also got a positivity boost from being the first thread back after the lockdown.
Whichever ever way you look at it, itâs a bit embarrassing that DiS rates them as by far and away the greatest hip hop artists of all time though.
Baffles me why it would be embarrassing. Its not Q Magazine/Pitchfork/Quietus/Mojo/whoever listing the best or most influential artists, itâs just supposed to be readers of a website saying who they most enjoy listening to.
One look at the albums of the month/year threads show DiS doesnt have the same tastes as most other sites. Most of us are probably here because mainstream music sites donât cover the
breadth of music we prefer.
Anyway, have really enjoyed reading this thread. Some fascinating stuff.
2 Likes
I just think it doesnât speak well to the musical knowledge and taste of DiSers, but thatâs a subjective judgement. To adopt your comparison, if I saw a magazine or critical website assert the same thing I would pretty much ignore any further critical assessment they made of anything.
Would it not depend on whether or was an editorial or a readers poll?
I know a good few folk who donât like both dylan and young for various reasons (main reason being theyâre idiots 
) but they always take a lot more joy in telling me just how much they canât stand dylan over young. I always assumed it was because iâm a big dylan fan and theyâre looking for an argument. 
Would only really describe Beastie Boys as hip hop artists for their first two albums (and Licensed To Ill was very much aimed at the crossover market - most hip hop albums donât have guitar solos by Kerry King all over them). They completely reinvented themselves in the 90s and were far more of a fusion band from then on. Not really hard to see why they would appeal to a broader base than just hip hop fans.
DISâ favourite hip hop artist is definitely Wu Tang Clan, imo
3 Likes
It depends where the other critical judgements are going to be coming from - on here all the critical judgements come from the posters (we are the writers of the site) so by analogy this is an editorial poll.
While I think thereâs a lot of good points here the things I would question are:
-
who cares what the critical pantheon is (ironic for me to say I know), itâs not the be all and end all of music taste.
-
Beasties probably scored well because of that exact demographic Iâm talking about, and as @anon9806217 says, itâs a bit simplistic to label them as just a hip-hop band, they started off as a hardcore punk (lol) band ffs
I donât really see much in common between Dylan and Neil Young
3 Likes
if you like books and words, go with Bob Dylan, if you like music and feelings, go with Neil Young
1 Like
I get what you mean, Dylan had more of a lyrical focus than NY particularly at the beginning. Dylanâs just more of the New York beatnik tradition coming out of Pete Seeger and Guthrie and then later mixing in gospel and southern blues influences to create more of a jugband sound. Neil Young was more rock n roll mixing with classical folk/country down the line, and then pushing those boundaries further down noisier and rawer directions. Much more experimentation from NY at any point really. Think you could hear 3 seconds of a tune by either and know which one it was.
2 Likes
yeah I donât think they are that similar other than the time period and production, needing to use an acoustic guitar etc
we donât live in an era where you can only buy and listen to music from like 10 artists from your local record shop so itâs stupid to have a pantheon, canon, or listen to critics opinions on music if you are confident in your own taste.
Donât know why we need to cling on to something that has outlived itâs usefulness
3 Likes
I wasnât saying that they sounded the same, merely that there are similarities in the broad âdemographicsâ sense - they are both white singer-songwriter guitarists from
North America with unconventional singing voices who started their careers in the 60s and have carried on since. Theyâve got more in common with each other than either has with, say, The Beastie Boys or Björk.
Got to be a pretty big crossover in their fans too, I would imagine. I guess for me they occupy a pretty similar space in a kind of post-60s âGreat American Songbookâ (sorry Neil), though as Ruffers says theyâve always been on pretty divergent paths sonically. That said, I could imagine an alternate world where something like Zuma was Bob Dylan record. Canât really get on board with the idea that NYâs always been more experimental than BD though.
or as the saying goes, âif you like your words sung, go with Young; if thereâs pages a-fillinâ, go with Dylanâ
6 Likes