So far, no-one has been able to explain to me exactly what the point of REM is.

Then of course there's Coldplay, Travis and all the other whining nincompoops whose popularity I find utterly bewildering.

The point of REM as far as I got it is that they have at least one nice song. Maybe more, I never listened to a full album. And hot girls seem to like this band for whatever reason.

I really, really like the song "Radio Free Europe." I've found everything else REM did to be barely tolerable.

For Coldplay I have yet to find a purpose. A few years ago there was somneone else on this forum that described that band and it's tedious brand of ennui perfectly.

Never heard "Radio Free Europe". I was thinking of "End of the world" or whatever the title is.

I mention this not because people find it hard to believe that I (utterly, with no greater sense of sincerity) dislike this brand of "music", but more so because the conversation here has made a little sidetrip along the question of "why?" for certain bands. Thus, I say, I simply cannot for the life of me understand the appeal of K-Pop (or J-Pop for that matter). I've come to a conclusion: very much of earlier remarkable non-Korean music was disallowed from entering Korea due to government conservative horseshit, therefore leaving Korean music a barren wasteland of hapless, talentless, uninteresting, uninspired/uninspiring hacks. Even the great Korean artists - Kim Kwang-seok (RIP), Sanullim, and later Jaeulim (not great, but talented and interesting) - were, and still are(!), barred from domestic radio play (especially Kim Kwang-seok with his anarchy/stand up to the government folk stylings).
I tell you, my friends, musically it is a lonely land over here - 'cept at my joint! And one awesome request bar, my watering hole (called Zeppelin), the owner/DJ is likely the coolest man I've ever met.*
Anyway, K-Pop is terrible and I don't understand its national nor regional appeal. Mind boggling. Absurd, even.


*Quick story: walked into Zeppelin the first time and gave the request bar my standard test - asked for 'Preachin' Blues (Up Jumped the Devil)' by Mr Johnson. "Sure," comes the reply. I wet myself, first time a request bar DJ here even knew what I was talking about. He plays it. So, I up the ante. I ask for Fleetwood Mac. "Sure, what song?" comes the reply. I says to him, I says, "Oh Well." "Ah," he replies, beaming, "Green's Fleetwood Mac, the good Fleetwood Mac!" he says with a smile, "You know your music. My name is Mr Kim." "I'm The Zola."
I've been going there ever since.

Anything related to Billy Corgan. I can't stand his music.

Also I'm getting really sick of Tool, and I'm disappointed by more than half of Mike Patton's projects (Tomahawk I like, Bungle I like, can't comment on Faith No More, but everything else, including Lovage, I've found abhorrent).

@Zolaman:

I'm not sure I know any particular K-Pop song, but is it generally anything like "King Kong" by Shanadoo (which I believe is J-Pop)?

Well, Shandoo is a group of Japanese girls, but their sound is obviously Eurodance, so no K-Pop (or J-Pop) is not similar. As you likely know, Shandoo is based out of Germany, produced by a German company (though the producer himself is Swiss), and usually do covers of the band E-Rotic.

K-Pop is more along the lines of this:

(Time Magazine had the mental laps to actually put this hack on their 2006 list of the 100 music influential people)



And this shit. The popularity of this woman is worthy of inclusion in Guiness as the greatest mind boggling feat by a complete hack:

i hear you on the patton angle. his 'one of' discs tend to be significantly weaker than the more focused group releases. but there's still usually a good track or 2 per bad album.

i could never get into rage against the machine.

I have to agree, and it's sad as they have tons of potential. Aenima is still on my short list of great '90s rock records, but unfortunately, I consider it their only significant release.

Really, the concept is lovely - the musical lovechild of King Crimson and Black Sabbath? Hell yeah.

That said, I've only heard 2 songs off of their recent album. I haven't bought it yet and don't plan to do so in any sort of hurry either after listening to those two.