Bands with no bad songs

Why do some bands seem to have no bad songs? Or is this an illusion based on how much of a fan you are?

For example, among people who like Van Halen, I feel like they know and like every song on the first six albums. There are less famous songs, yes. But no truly bad ones — again, among fans. Same with Billy Joel. Everyone from Long Island knows and likes every song on every classic album, at least up to Innocent Man. I don’t know Bruce Springsteen’s work at all, but I would imagine people who like Bruce, really like Bruce, and know and like all the songs. I’m guessing this is also true for Beatles and Zeppelin fans.

I’m also guessing that bands that aren’t gunning for hits may have a more uniform output as far as their fans are concerned. If you’re a fan of a shoegaze or dream pop band with lots of atmospheric songs, I would imagine you’re more inclined to listen to the whole album and like all the songs. It’s not like they’re going to have a “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy” moment where they try disco. Though to be fair, Rod Stewart fans love that song too!

Is it just that when a band gets to a certain level of popularity, the fans devour everything, making all the songs de facto “good”? Or are there really famous bands where their own fans would suggest the output is spotty. I’m not super familiar with Elton John, but he has so many albums in so many styles that I’ve gotta imagine there are more than a few songs in there that the fans don’t totally love and maybe even he doesn’t remember.

Well, maybe we’re into a temporary “musical fantasy”? There are various reasons why you like a band or a musician, but I think the biggest reason is the fresh “music shock” that the band delivered. We seem to be influenced by the new musical shock, and fall into a temporary musical fantasy due to it. The musical influence is unique to the musician, so I think I like the musician. But this musical shock will not last forever, so it will go away someday. This means that the enthusiasm for the band cools down and finds another musical shock. If you keep liking a band, I think it’s a band that has its own musical characteristics and continues to present us with new musical impulses based on it. That is the reason why the band is “Amazing”.

As you know I am a Vinnie Moore fanboy, yet I still have some songs by him that I don’t like: typically the “ballads” with an overly major / ionian vibe.

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I am a big DT fanboy but I think they had quite a lot of meh songs over the years.

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I don’t think there is a band I’m a fan of where I didn’t like some songs… but I do know that friends or random people over the internet are fans of the songs I am not!

So I guess it comes down to, what is a bad song? With music being so subjective it’s a difficult one to speak in absolutes.

There are some popular songs that really grate on my ears and get jammed in my head like a q-tip pushed in too far every time I hear it!

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Total personal opinion, but even my very favorite artists have songs I won’t listen too. In fact, the more I think about this, I only like a selection from my favorite artists and probably could pass on a big part of their catalog. It’s just that the things I do like by them, I REALLY enjoy.

But I think in general I am weird when it comes to tastes and enjoyment. Back when I was into sports I didn’t even have a favorite team. Just a bunch of random players I enjoyed watching. I only go to a handful of restaurants and tend to rotate between the same 3 or 4 meals at each one that I know I like. And I’d probably rather just watch Back To The Future again instead of some movie I haven’t seen that just might suck lol!

Maybe I should make my own thread called Do Any Bands Have Only Good Songs? Lol! The alias title can be Old Man Yells at Clouds.

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Well with the Van Halen one, didnt he record everything that he was doing? He mustve also been a great producer, because he had an ear for what was good, not just to him, but for everyone. Recording yourself playing experminental stuff is one thing, but to hear it, and say “that sounds good”, is kind of another skill.

But even here it is subjective, because not everyone likes Van Halen. So if you like his style, you like his songs.

Maybe it is just how they go out there, and just feel so free. And thats all we really want is to just feel freedom.

They were using some real nice synth toys though so when you have a killer bass synth, I believe it was the Dave Smith OB-X. So it would be kinda hard to make this sound bad, as long as you have a mediocre riff you can let the synth do the work. ROFL!

Make sure to use headphones, listen how that thing punches your face! This is the Ob-6 though, but my goodness does it sound amazing!

Like look into this acid techno producer, Garrett Lockhart aka i_o, that recently passed away. It literally killed me, I still cant go back to EDM. It just doesnt feel the same. He was bringing back acid techno with tremendous force. He was going to be bigger than deadmau5 imo, but he is gone! Breaks my heart thinking about it cause like you said I was into all his stuff. But he was a good producer.

One of my all time favourite albums, which I still listen to regularly since the mid nineties, comes from a band that I only listen to two out of… I’ve no idea how many albums at this stage! A lot anyway lol

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I think I would fall into this category too. I don’t think I have listened to, or own a single album where I have liked every single song on it. I think there are those who like music just for the sake of liking it as well and they may not be as picky about certain things. There’s also the general population too, which also may be less discerning.

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This is right although there are albums I can play all the way through that dont have to many off color songs.

This is one that I recently found from Chris Impellitteri. I think it has that kind of vibe, you can listen to the whole thing without feeling bored.

How on earth are you even posting if you’re dead?

Sorry, couldn’t resist lol :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: That’s been a pet peeve of mine ever since an English teacher I had in high school told us how he’d laugh when people would say “literally” but they really meant “figuratively” lol!

You see this is relevent cause that just shows how much of a fan boy I can be with musicians. I am just a huge acid techno nerd, nobody around me likes it though so I have to hide this side of my musical interest. Kind of hard to play that here in the south where everyone listens to country. I mean I like country too, but I like alot of different styles.

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Actually shoegaze/dream pop is a genre Ive gotten big into in recent years and for the most part, I sit and listen to an entire album. I’ve also made playlists and tend to listen to certain types of tracks together. It can be a bit too… immersing? for lack of a better word, to have a listen to just one track.

How easy is it to really find a ‘bad’ song which is bad to the fans and how universal among the fan base is the sentiment? There’s always a percentage split over it and sometimes the fan base becomes redefined when a band grows and changes.

Totally spitballing a few different big factors that play into changes in fan sentiment - one a big, big factor is when a band changes its style, and especially when they do so trying to chase a trend. You see early Metallica fans mad about the Black Album, early and a bit later fans mad about Load/Reload. This happens a lot.

Then you also see bands, Gojira and Mastodon come to mind (honestly Mastodon is probably also guilty of the former case) - who change their style in a more organic way. Opeth as well. Their music is still very complex and layered and it’s not what some fans are looking for anymore.

You also see bands stick around long enough to lose major talent (Pink Floyd for example) and they just aren’t what they were before and combine this with trying to find a new identity, sometimes that works sometimes it doesn’t.

Then you also have serial experimenters who just have insane output all over the map, Frank Zappa, Buckethead, King Gozzard - some of the output is great, some is a little iffy.

You also have bands that just way overdo the formula without enough variation, or maybe there’s a rut they get into where they can methodically produce songs around a theme or concept at a high level, but the variation itself becomes formulaic or sterile (Dream Theater shows you can be pretty damn talented and complex, have a clear overall plan for each album, and not necessarily have compelling material every release).

Some bands just get lazy or run into serious substance abuse issues, loose motivation etc.

For sure. I would guess that Zappa fans — along with Phish Fans, Grateful Dead fans, and fans of any other artist known for being eclectic and maybe a little weird — are probably more likely to know and like all the songs.

And then there’s Polyphia

From

to

I’m down for all of it.

Sorry, I couldn’t resist :joy:

I don’t think it’s possible for a band to have no bad songs. All the bands I like have songs where I’m like, whats this… Though on a few occasions after listening to the song I don’t like you become familiar with it and appreciate it more. The devil you know right.

I think that happens a lot when a song is played regularly on the radio, you begin to accept it more, and a decade later you got nostalgia for it even tho you weren’t that into it at the time.

I have a few artists/ bands I like that for me were regularly making great music, Tears for fears, Jason Becker, Ozzy Osbourne. But even Jason who I think was one of the best musicians ever has a few tunes that just don’t vibe with me.

I think it’s an illusion based on the mass of fans. Everyone has slightly different tastes and en mass that tunes into a basic uniformity. Does anyone here truly like EVERYTHING a single band has done?

Polyphia are very solid. General point - I think infusing guitar-centric music with diverse genres and experimentation is essential to keeping it alive, and you see way more experimentation with production in a lot of EDM/House/pop/hyper-pop and increasingly obscure subgenres than in most music guitarists tend to be drawn to. On the more well known side - I’m a huge fan of like Carpenter Brut, Dance with the Dead, Perturbator, Mick Gordon, Com Truise, Zedd, Kavinsty, SOPHIE, Dorian Electra, Poppy - all electronic driven music that lends itself to guitar and I want to incorporate some of that production in my own music, I like when I see guitarists experiment like that (Jason Richardson for example has based riffs and songs off of some Zedd pieces

Love this record and his tone is killer. The ballad on here though, that could’ve been left for Japan.