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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Entertainment
Elle Hunt

Ringo was the only good Beatle … so what is your most unpopular music opinion?

Ringo
Ringo Starr in 1965. He was the only good Beatle. In fact the Beatles were rubbish. Photograph: Sipa Press/Rex Shutterstock

No belief is more strongly-held – more close to one’s heart – than the one held by you alone. Standing against the tide of popular opinion makes you cling to it more tightly, this thing that you, and only you, know to be true.

Adele is a one-trick pony, you think, every time you see her face on a bus. 808s & Heartbreak is Kanye’s worst album. Radiohead should’ve stopped after In Rainbows. Camille Paglia was right about Taylor Swift. Bob Dylan is overrated. One Direction have put out some pretty good songs, actually.

Twitter users have been sharing their most controversial opinions about music – the ones they’ve been shouted out of the pub for; the statements still recounted in sneering tones by so-called friends, years later – at the hashtag #UnpopularMusicOpinionHour, a trending topic on Friday morning.

In the spirit of the Twitter trend, we asked Guardian staff to share what argument they get the most flak for. They seemed happy to get it off their chests.

Helen Davidson: Please, no encore

I think bands should stop playing encores. Play your songs and get off stage! Encores used to be great. They used to be rare and exciting. Now encores are so ubiquitous and expected they have morphed into a second set performed after a weird three-minute intermission where people half-heartedly stomp their feet and say “woo” instead of going to the toilet or the bar. There is no suspense, no reward. No act of rebellion against the venue which stipulated an end by 11pm. No story to tell later.

To return encores to their former spontaneous rewarding glory bands I’ve devised these rules:

  1. Decide at the last minute and only play encore if you’re having too much fun or if the audience deserves it. Sometimes they don’t.
  2. Never save your biggest hit for the encore. Play it early or play it last. Or play it AGAIN for an encore. It’s your biggest hit. People like it.
  3. Covers, B-sides, old duets make great encore fodder. But don’t pretend to be surprised by a “special guest” waiting in the wings.
  4. Venues need to stop giving away if an encore is coming or not with their house lights and music. Ditch the house music – people talk. Turn on the house lights, then off again. It’s a switch.
  5. If you’re going to ignore my rules, don’t write the bloody encore on the set list. Kids beg roadies for them at the end of the gig as a souvenir. It puts the deceit in writing.

Bridie Jabour: It’s always a good time to listen to You Were Meant for Me by Jewel

I have loved You Were Meant for Me by Jewel since I first heard it a thousand years ago and it makes repeat appearances on any playlist I have whether it’s cleaning the house music with T Swift and Beyoncé or running tunes with Kanye and Kendrick. my friends are too afraid to mock me but whenever it inevitably starts playing during dinner there is always an odd pause and stifled laughter. I don’t know why the song speaks to me so, it’s been years since I was heartbroken and it is still on high rotation during the happiest times of my life, but every time I hear Jewel hit the crescendo of “you were meant for meeeeee” my heart does a little jump for joy and I press repeat.

Tom Gottlieb: Ringo was the only good Beatle

My two favourite Beatles songs of all time are Ringo’s two solo writing credits, Don’t Pass Me By and Octopus’s Garden. Wonderfully crafted pop tunes. Also the Beatles are the most massively overrated band of all time. The One Direction of their time (edgy hairdos, ooooh), with a better production team and better drugs. Yawn.

Alan Evans: I can’t own up to being a Deadhead

1. I have like 40 Grateful Dead albums and still think they’re amazing, but it’s one of those things you’re not allowed to talk about because everyone is mean to you if you do.

2. Techno didn’t really get good till about 2000. That 80s stuff may as well not have happened for me.

3. The Beatles are a 7/10 band, regardless of how influential they were.

Shalailah Medhora: ‘Best New Music’ from Pitchfork? Zzz

I once walked out of a Sufjan Stevens concert, because staying in the auditorium would have legitimately put me to sleep. This caused a massive fight between my boyfriend at the time and I that nearly led to our break-up. The music was symptomatic of issues. Music can kill relationships.

Russell Jackson: I’ve happily reconciled myself to the fact that live music is overrated

I’m increasingly of the view that music festivals, despite promising people unparalleled joy, are actually one of the least fun things in the world. Camping? Mostly bad. Lots of people in one place? Never that great. Lots of drunk people in one place? Even worse. Lots of drunk people queuing for an always-insufficient number of portable toilets? I don’t think I need to go much further.

I’d go a step further and say that live music in general is about the most overrated form of entertainment there is. Of the hundreds of gigs I’ve been to in my life I could count on two hands the number that are truly worthy of remembering and three of those were in sit-down theatres (Antony and the Johnsons at Hamer Hall, Gurrumul at the Palais and Spiritualized at the Opera House). Hardly the Sex Pistols at Lesser Free Trade Hall ... Live music is normally just a bit rubbish. Realising so is perhaps a sign of age but also a liberating feeling too.

Merran Hitchick: I was happy when U2 forcibly put their album on my phone

I love the fact that U2 and Apple teamed up in a sinister Ocean’s 11-style partnership to sneak Songs of Innocence on to my phone without my permission. Firstly, I am a lazy person. Secondly, it is a great album and I am glad it’s in my life. Had it been No Line on the Horizon, it would have been a different story. It takes guts and yes, ego, to push your music out to everyone with an iTunes account, knowing that at least three-quarters of Twitter will complain vociferously. But if you’ve just recorded Song for Someone, Iris, Sleep like a Baby Tonight, Cedarwood Road and Raised by Wolves, then I see why you would feel that confident.

Nick Evershed: All of Muse’s songs are pretty much the same song. How have people not realised this?

Ben Doherty: Florence and the Machine can’t sing. Terrific tunes. Florence is always flat.

Graham Russell: Mark Morrison was never at any point a terrible singer. Return of the Mack set the tone for many Pommie summers.

Adam Brereton: I really like Missy Higgins and Kasey Chambers, and I will never apologise for that.

Mike Ticher: Most bands should split up at age 30 and never get back together again. Some leniency for solo artists.

Daniel Hurst: I like Meatloaf’s AFL performance and John Farnham should do another farewell tour. Haters gonna hate.

But our views pale in comparison to some of the radical calls being made on Twitter:

Naturally, the hashtag has been co-opted by the fandoms, ever-alert to any hashtag that could be used to boost their favourites.

The hashtag has also raised some valid (perhaps not unpopular, but hey, it’s a hashtag) points about the modern music industry:

And revealed some opinions that don’t seem so unpopular after all:

Not to mention:

And others that are definitely taboo territory:

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