Bands that were huge and then disliked*

Poison
Kid Rock
Vanilla Ice

 

Hootie has been promoted to relevance again. From the New York Times last week:
"...a truth that has gone unsaid for too long: At its peak, Hootie & the Blowfish was a genuinely excellent band. Earthen, soothing, a little ragged. And also deft, flexible and unflashily skilled. It splendidly blended the Southern college rock of the late 1980s (the dBs, R.E.M.) with shades of vintage soul, bluegrass, blues and more... "
Hootie & the Blowfish, Great American Rock Band (Yes, Really)

 

Yeah. See, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri, out by the trailerparks, under the electric pylons.

 

They were very different types of bands, so I don't see why there would be any comparison/competition in the first place. (For my money, I'll take The Knack any day. If anything, The Cars' super-sterile production makes them less "real" in my book.)

The Knack brought on some of the opprobrium themselves with generally arrogant and obnoxious behavior. But there is nothing they did musically to deserve this. And to say they weren't "real" ignores their very real apprenticeship in the clubs. They were a completely organic band, and really had no control over the way Capitol chose to hype them.

 

And yet every song they ever wrote sounds exactly the same. For me, they were one of the worst bands to emerge from the 90s alternative rock scene.

 

Regarding Hootie - I could not stand them in the 90s. I was also a teenager and avoided them like the plague, well as best as I possibly could. For whatever reason, I picked up their hit album a few years ago for 25 cents just to finally give it a real listen, 20+ years removed from it. I'm not even embarrassed to admit I really enjoyed it. So much that I went in for their 25th Anniversary set they just released. Definitely the craziest 180 I ever did on a band. I can't ever see myself doing that with the like of Creed, Coldplay, Nickelback, etc. Not a chance.

 

In my experience, the answer is both “all of them” and “none of them”.

In other words, simply being huge automatically generates backlash/hate/insert the negative viewpoint of personal choice. It can be seen in action all the time with bitter comments or apparent annoyance at many/most of the past successful artists. Even THE biggest ones (The Beatles, Elvis Presley, Led Zeppelin).

On the other hand, for every huge band hated, one can surely find another (usually more) that love the artist.

 

Despite their faults, DuBrow, Fieger, Stapp are saints compared to Watkins.

I feel sorry for the rest of the band. How do you have any kind of a career after that?

 

Blues Traveller.
Well, not hated, exactly, but ignored and scorned.

 

That overly-loud, tin-can snare drum sound, for one thing.

 

How about Black-Eyed Peas? They were HUGE and now no one wants to admit they ever liked them. I though a few of their songs were good.

 

I always remember reading in music magazines when I was a kid, in the Readers' Polls, the resulting lists of both Most Favorite Band and Least Favorite Band were always very similar to each other.

 

Nickelback was my first thought. But same could be said with Creed (I enjoy some of their tracks still and the singles), Hootie (again, enjoyable rock songs), Limp Bizkit (rode the wave of stardom but were not set up for success for the long term), etc.

Spin Doctors were wayyyyy overplayed with some questionable production / less timeless sound on their records. Didn't help. However, I saw them live (free concert) in 2004 or 2005 and they were REALLY good. Tremendous skill, I thought.

Coldplay is another one to discuss too... (mentioned a bit above).

 

Gotta view them as two different bands, I think.

 

To be fair, the NYT itself used to be huge and is now hated.

 

Third eye blind is interchangeable with spin doctors imo

Also

Guns n Roses

 

They have suffered along with many 90s acts that sold a ton of cds then, and then fell by the wayside when the masses decided it was better to rent music that they rarely ever listen to rather than enjoy the cds of their past.

 

I still like U2, but they're probably on the list.

 

I quite enjoy the first two Third Eye Blind albums!

 

Guns N' Roses were always huge and hated

 

To a large extent, this is probably more about overexposure, oversaturation, etc.

Come to think of it, The Bee Gees suffered that backlash around the turn of the decade (1980).

 

Elvis P.

 

I think hated by fans and hated by critics is getting mixed up. I think the OP is talking about fan love/hate...but maybe not.

For GFR, I agree with you. Grand Funk Railroad was embraced by the fans and had a good run.

On the other hand, it's true they were hated by critics right from the start.

 

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