Worst Rock Band Ever !!!!


Who was/is the worst?
david99
and another vote for KISS

Dentists and gastroenterologists all over the planet must have made a fortune with patients exposed to their wonderful vocal harmonies
Kiss is too self-consciously parodistic for classification as the worst. However, they do qualify to the extent that fans take them seriously. The Rutles and Spinal Tap were on similar ground. What can one say about an album like "Break Like the Wind"? Good or bad?

To be truly awful a band must have pretensions. Journey, Rush, Styx, Kansas, are fine examples of the worst of their era. Each era has its own examples.
If Jimmy Page is so great, why does he get involved with so many sucky gigs? Remember his super group effort, "The Firm" with Paul Rogers? (I never liked Bad Company, btw, I thought it was one of the worst stoner intertainment bands of the 70s)

Oh yea, I almost forgot the Damb Yankees with Ted Nugent, on the the 90's worst offerings.
"If Jimmy Page is so great, why does he get involved with so many sucky gigs?"

Couldn't agree more! This supposed 'guitar god' has NEVER sounded acceptable anywhere except with Led Zeppelin.
chazro, listen to roy harper "old cricketer" w/ jimmy page on lead guitar, then revisit your rant.
Page was a great producer with an ear for the right sound but not necessarily as a composer. Not enough credit is given to JP Jones in that band for being a rock solid rhythm section with J Bonham and contributing to Led Zeppelin. R Plant has been one of my favorite solo artists.
Hey Chazo, You need to gain some rock 'n roll knowledge about Page. First take a listen to his time with the Yardbirds. Although he's had some misteps Mr. Page is a genuine talent. Then check out his works with Roy Harper as suggested by Loomisjohnson. Many other examples.

Have you ever see him play the 12 string?

Page is not my hero. No musician is. However, get it right.
I think with Page you have to start in the 60s and go through the Zeppline oeuvre. He had a good solid 15 years there. A good fairly long career. He hadn't really done anything since In Through the Out Door but for the most part he gave us 15 years of good material. But as mentioned not a terrific composer but a unreal good guitarist. Watch It Might Get Loud - a kind of documentary with The Edge and Jack White. He makes them sound like sandlot compared to the majors.
Dylan...a voice even a mother can't love.
Greatful Dead...trust me, I'm greatful alright.
Led zepplin...crazy bad
Lynyrd Skynyrd...I'd rather be skinned alive.
Jimmy Buffet...for heaven's sake, is there no GOD?!?!?
The following need no comment:

Britney Spears
99.7% of any top 1000 list on radio...from whence time began to the present.

that should cover it all.
This won't make me any more popular, but most of the "radio"

is "noise" to me.

So I would have to say that,

Much of what is out there now! IMHO.

No substitute for the innovators of music; today, we

live in the "sample" era, no imagination in this

generation.

Remake,remake, remake...It is sad when I tell my grand kids,

when they comment on yet another version of one of the

"Classics", I tell them, sorry, that group are only the 4th

group to copy this song. They did NOT write it! They are NOT even playing ANY instruments?

Sorry, Thank goodness for Pandora.

I Love Music!
Amen "Bjpd57al", they just don't write anything anymore and it's really sad. I think our parents were saying similar thinds about our generation but it is at an all time low. No great guitar players or anything to push the envelope or get excited about.
while there's some crappy stuff here for sure, this is one category where modern music really does set an entirely new musical standard. one word: OTEP.
Most of the bands named in this thread are nowhere near worst rock band ever. Sure, they may not be your cup of tea but that doesn't mean they don't have talent and haven't realized some of it. For example, I'm not fan of Rush, but that doesn't mean they are the worst band ever. Just not my style. There is no denying they've got talent.

The '80s LA glam scene sure led to some of the most superficial music ever, but those guys could actually play and sing and write some catchy tunes. I'd say music of the last 15 years has been some of the worst ever. These pop/punk bands over the last five or ten years, that all sound the same, and some of the so-called alternative genre that was popular in the mid 90s...alternative to what? Good sounding music I guess.

Want to blend punk and hard rock, with pop sensibilities and do it right? That's GN'R. A pity what happened to that band, though all those guys are still rocking hard to this day. Saw Axl's (no e) band twice earlier this year, he's moving and singing like he did back in the day. Pretty remarkable considering he's almost 50!
I usually stay away, far away, from threads of this sort. They are like arguments between Ford vs. Chevy vs. Dodge truck owners at a mud bogging contest. I agree with Fusion10. Very few of these recording artists mentioned are really bad, they have talents of varying degrees. I remember when I was listening to 80's music in the 80's and I thought glam bands were useless no-talents whose appeal was their make-up, hair, and spandex. But as time passed, I realized most of those guys could really play well. In part, rock music appeals to us because of a quasi-tribal sense of belonging to a group we want to count ourselves among. A death metal fan is going to have a hard time admitting to themselves and friends that they think Karen Carpenter can really sing well. Hmm, maybe even Kiss has talents I don't want to admit exist. I suppose at the very least, they are entertaining, if not musically edifying. One thing that really made me lighten up on being musically judgmental was learning to play an instrument myself. It's made me appreciate many artists I used to dislike, at least in an abstract sort of way. They may not emotionally connect with me, but at least I appreciate some aspects of what they are doing.
"In part, rock music appeals to us because of a quasi-tribal sense of belonging to a group we want to count ourselves among."

Well put!
True with so many things.
ACDC and KISS are two "Super bands" I could easily NEVER hear before or again and not give one ratts ass about it.
Never was a fan of Dylan, Elvis Costello, Springsteen or Ramones. All of whom are for the most part "critics" darlings.
Just read a couple of posts stating there were no good guitar players. Ran across a band called Umphreys McGee. Pretty good I thought. Check them out: http://www.umphreys.com/home/?linkId=101
Saw a performance of theirs on Soundstage, pretty darn good.

John Mayer Trio from Where the Light Is DVD.... He exhibits some pretty decent work but seems like its missing soul.
Corazon, the point about "no good guitar players" parallels similar things I've noticed. We've got several college age interns working in our studio this summer and they've been dominating the iTunes selections pumping through the shop for the last month. Last week I was noticing the paucity of instrumental virtuosity in just about everything they were listening to. (Andrew Bird was pretty much the lone exception.) Of course, the music biz has changed so much. Back in the era of the major labels heydays, they paid for expensive studio musicians to work with artists. Those days are gone, unless you're Beyonce or Justin Timberlake. I think ProTools has had a deleterious effect on a number of aspects of musicianship as well. Somehow, virtuosos have fallen out of favor with the general music listening audience.
If one is talking about worst music and not worst musicianship, then I would say there is no such thing.
One either likes it or one does not.
If something does not float your boat then don't listen.

Nowt wrong with those cider drinking wurzels!.
ooh ar ooh ar................
Justin Beiber. I don't care that he's not a rock band. He is without a doubt the least talented act i've ever witnessed.
I was never a KISS fan, but always wanted to see them live for the shows they put on. My boss had an extra ticket to see them this summer, so I went along.

I gained a lot of respect for them as musicians. There's no depth to the lyrics, and some of what they did on stage seemed a bit too choreographed, but those guys can play. Each of them did a solo, and none were weak by any means. They combined flawless playing of their music with excellent showmanship - beyond the platform shoes and makeup.

I'm not running out to buy their music any time soon, but they're talented musicians. There's more to them than theatrics. If you have a chance, see them live, it give you a different idea of them.
I paid for a ticket to the KISS show a few years back when they played at Dodger Stadium on Halloween night. They really do suck hard. I had to leave after the 2nd or 3rd song. I was there for the opening band: The Smashing Pumpkins.
Big Brother and the Holding Company. I saw them twice and they were a pathetic excuse for a rock and blues band. Joplin was simply unbelievable (in a positive way) so was the band (in a negative way). She hit her stride after she split from those losers.
America. After they finished playing their singles, Horse with No Name and Tin Man, they tried doing covers, it was so bad they were literally booed off the stage (Detroit). Really bad musicians at that time that should never have gone on tour with their very limited repertoire....
Yeah, Cheap Thrills is such a shitty record, what with that loser backing band.
Poison. Absolutely pathetic. Thinking of bands that made it fairly big, there's also April Wine, Bad Company, BTO, Bon Jovi and then the newer stuff like Kid Rock, Creed (can't even call this rock)
the Archies-in '72 their hit "Sugar sugar" was a #1 ,can you believe it?
The runner up song was the Hollies "Long cool Woman".

Alan Clarke of the Hollies was justified in stating his hit was a much superior piece of music.
"Sugar Sugar" was released in 1969, 3 years before "Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress".

FYI
any band that has these two characteristics i hate
1. show must include flamethrowers
2. can not perform live. rock must have an audience to be authentic
i have another criteria i left off...
any band fronted by a guy that puts on his resume that he went to the art academy. ha
I dont know many who would say Floyd is MOST overrated, sure some think they are way overexposed but there is no doubt they made some fantastic music.
But Kiss, Poison, and well to be frank most hair metal bands were laughable, video is to blame for many if not most terrible bands since its launch.
Style over substance means we all lose, and lose BIG!
Has to be the band that did that horrid "Pina Colada Song". Remember that one with the lyrics "If you like Pina Coladas, and getting caught in the rain". That sends me running screaming from the room. I challange anyone to come up with a more vapid, insipid, inane song than that one. But then again there was also Archie Bell and the Drells and thet horribly awful song "Do the Tighten Up".
Well that song while officially awful is both by a solo artist and a one hit wonder so I am not sure that exactly fits this thread but make no mistake that is a LOW LOW point in music for sure!
May I humbly submit Captain Beefhart, with all due respect to the recently departed Don Van Vleet.

As far as insipid lyrics go, I gotta put "...yummy yummy yummy I've got love in my tummy..." right up there. Thank god for AM transistor radios for shielding us from being able to hear such dreck full range.
Green Acres
I think I would put Captain Beefheart in the avant garde catagory, as they were pretty experimental, although some their early stuff is pretty accessible. I would classify them as difficult rather than worst. His name was actually Don Vilet. He added the Van because he liked the way it sounded. And thanks for using the word dreck. What a great word. You gotta love Yiddish. Where would we be without words like dreck and schmick.
Ok, just for the record, I googled the old boy and it's actually Van Vliet according to the google gods.

As for the experimental designation, I guess that's cool. All I know is that my "experiment" started and ended with "Trout Mask Replica".