Bands or artists you used to love but eventually grew tired of...

Starting a new thread. I suppose the title makes everything obvious, but... which bands or artists did you used to listen to, love, or obsess over... only to eventually get bored of them? Lost all interest...

To start:

From the US: Eagles, though I only listened for a bit. Can't stand them anymore; just incredibly boring. Prljavo Kazalište—used to like them, but after Street Hero, less and less, now absolutely not.

From outside America:
Bo Diddley, he used to be a genius to me, now I just skip him.

Phil Collins and Genesis—listened to them quite a bit once, now I’m practically allergic. 😁

More to come!

Which exact era of Genesis are we talking about?

Back when I first started getting into music, I was all about that patriotic stuff and used to listen to Thompson... But through him, I actually stumbled upon all those bands he and Quiet used to mention as influences—AC/DC, Nightwish, Iron Maiden, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, Judas Priest, Dio, Metallica... I think you guys can probably guess where my playlist went from there. 😁

I basically grew up on Balašević, man. I used to collect every single album he ever put out and everything... But, you know, once you hit a certain age, all that sentimentality just starts to feel a bit much. 😬 My absolute Peak was seeing him at Madison Square Garden back in 2010, if I remember correctly, and honestly? I think that’s enough for one lifetime.

Naturally, during high school, I went through a massive punk and metal phase. Now, I only revisit a few specific bands from that era because back then, I was such an elitist! I had these huge opinions about having to support the local underground scene, even when—let's be real—some of those bands were just straight-up bad. Luckily, thank God, that phase passed too. 😁

There are plenty of guilty pleasures in my rotation, but also a lot of digging around. Nowadays, thankfully, I have a totally different perspective on music, though I have to admit I don't explore nearly as much as I used to in the past.

Basically, every band or artist eventually loses their luster for me. Every now and then, though, I'll find myself circling back to a few favorites.

Coldplay

Back in the turn of the millennium, they were absolutely everywhere. I remember losing my mind over > when it was spinning on >—you know, back when they still had > hosting that show. Then came the hype for that stellar second album, led by the gorgeous single >.....
Their third record felt like the moment they pivoted toward that massive stadium-rock sound. It was a total shift in concept, though honestly, the songwriting stayed solid enough.
I remember being genuinely floored when I heard them perform a live cover of > by I think somewhere around the > era, I just felt the magic fading... I haven't really kept up with them since. Though, I have heard whispers lately that they might have actually turned a corner and made some positive changes......

They don't exist. I've basically had a fully formed, set-in-stone taste in music since I was in diapers. 😁

Everything I fell in love with during my early years—and let's be honest, "serious" music listening usually kicks in around age 12—is stuff I still find brilliant whenever I put it on today. Take Queen, for instance. Or R.E.M. Of course, my horizons have expanded in all sorts of directions over time, and there are long stretches where I don't touch my old favorites, but when I do come back to them? That spark is still there.

If anything, I have way more examples of the opposite: artists who didn't do much for me at first, but then, eventually, something just clicked.

frozenraven39 said:Everything I’ve loved since I was a kid—and I started actually listening to music seriously around age 12—is stuff I still revisit occasionally and consider absolute genius. For instance, Queen. Or R.E.M.

Those were my go-to bands all through middle and high school. Now, I mostly just play them for my kids. They seem high-quality enough to serve as a gateway to better music.

Personally, everything gets old fast for me, so even the stuff I still enjoy gets played sparingly... usually just for the kids.

Not to repeat myself, but there is just so much unheard music out there. It would be a crime to stick to the handful of artists we obsessed over back when we were young and thought life would last forever.

Lately, I've been diving deep into albums, marking favorites on Spotify so I can find them easily when I don't have the energy to dig. There's so much variety that nothing ever truly gets boring. Thank God for the internet. Too bad it turned most people into idiots. I guess the majority has always been dim, but at least pre-internet media had some standards beyond just making a buck, so they weren't actively dumbing everyone down further. This "democratization" the internet provides basically opened Pandora's box. And then we wonder why nobody talks about music on these forums anymore...🐔

Henry Campbell5 said:..And then we find ourselves sitting in the chat wondering why people don't talk about music anymore. 🐔

Maybe they just don't have time to write about music because they're too busy listening to it? Or perhaps people are just becoming more passive, where they'd rather just hit a "like" button than actually say something. 👍

Not many people actually bother with demanding music, especially when you have to carve out the time to write something meaningful about what you're hearing. I rarely have the bandwidth for an undertaking like that myself, and if I'm being honest, I don't exactly have the motivation either...

Chris Myers, this is a killer topic.

Here are some of my picks—though honestly, I don't spin most of these nearly as much as I used to.

Zappa—honestly, I feel like people give him way more credit than he actually deserves. I have to sit back and really wonder if he ever dropped anything truly essential after Zoot Allures—and lately, I keep finding myself circling back to Hot Rats. To me, that's his most serious, timeless work.
I feel like my massive obsession with his music back in the day was mostly just a side effect of my own teenage failures—mostly because I was super cynical, and Frank just kind of fed into that vibe.
I don't know what on earth I was thinking—calling his comedy-rock stuff funny back then—but honestly, that whole era was easily my favorite part of his work.

Public Enemy—man, they're such a tight, complete band that I actually hate myself for even bringing them up here. Honestly, I think I just hit a saturation point with them since, at their core, they're basically music for teenagers.

Genesis—honestly, I don't even know what headspace I need to be in to listen to much else after Gabriel left, even with some killer stuff from the Collins era. But that Gabriel phase was just pure gems—especially Foxtrot, which is easily one of my all-time favorite albums.

I still absolutely love Tim Buckley—no doubt about it—but I’ve always had this massive issue with artists who constantly shift gears and demand you just follow along. Even with all his insane talent and at least two killer albums, I honestly can't pin down what his actual core identity is as a musician, or even what he's trying to say with his music.

Jimi Hendrix—I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: he’s a killer guitarist, but that’s where his greatness ends for me. He never actually dropped a flawless album without any filler, he isn't an above-average singer, and he's definitely not a standout songwriter. Honestly, my teenage obsession was mostly just because all my friends were listening to him.

The Clash—another band that really should be top-tier, but from where I’m standing, something just feels off. There's this vibe—I don't even know how to put it—that feels kind of fake about them. Honestly, I mostly loved them for the aesthetic and because they were "supposed" to be favorites, rather than actually thinking for myself.

Joy Division is seriously good—honestly, *Unknown Pleasures* is pretty much perfect. But man, that relentless gloom is a struggle—I mean, I don't think they have a single lyric that isn't totally dark or desperate. It felt cool back in the day about 15 years ago, but now? I really need to be in a specific headspace—either feeling amazing or totally trashed—just to actually digest them.

Henry Campbell5 said:Right now, I'm deep in an album binge—marking favorites on Spotify and coming back to them whenever I'm too drained or busy to dig further. There’s just so much material out there that it's impossible to get bored. Praise be to the internet. It’s just a shame it’s made most people incredibly stupid. I suppose the majority has always been dim-witted, but at least before the digital age, the media had some semblance of standards beyond just chasing revenue—they weren't actively making everyone more mindless. Then came democratization—this "freedom of choice" the internet provides—which basically just kicked open Pandora's box. And then we sit here in the chat wondering why people don't talk about music anymore.🐔

The democratization brought by the internet is a double-edged sword. Personally, I’m pretty skeptical of the mantra that the sheer volume of choice provided by the web is an absolute net positive.

If we look specifically at music, sure, the internet allowed me to stumble upon gems I never would have found otherwise. It lets me finish this post, jump on YouTube, click around for a few minutes, and find something new to love. But...

What would life look like without the internet? Without it, discovering new sounds meant hitting up local record stores, digging through crates, and listening until something actually caught my ear—I definitely would have been one of those types. Or maybe relying on recommendations and trading albums with friends. That method was objectively harder and more limited in terms of sheer variety, but that’s exactly why it required actual commitment. It demanded engagement. It carried certain values we're drifting away from in this era—like real, face-to-face socialization versus this virtual substitute.

Nowadays, that brilliant new track I'll discover in five minutes will probably just end up on some random playlist—if I even bother to make one—which I might listen to later (if I don't get distracted by a hundred other things first). Back then, an album sitting on my shelf after months of hunting through shops or weeks of saving up money actually meant something. When I finally put it on the player, I gave it my full attention. I valued the opportunity. There was a ritual to it.

Dennis Hall41 said:The Clash - yet another band that should be legendary, but from where I'm sitting, they just feel a bit off. There's something... I don't know, fake about them.

I caught a documentary on them recently and honestly, they just felt calculated. But hey, everyone was like that back then—that kind of pragmatism is exactly what made them immortal. Same goes for Bob Dylan or David Bowie.

Yeah, but Bob Dylan and David Bowie are absolute geniuses, so I'll give them a pass—not so sure about Joe Strummer, though.

Dennis Hall41 said:The Clash—yet another band that should be legendary, but from where I’m sitting, there’s just something missing. There's this... I don't know, this sense of being fake about them. Honestly, I mostly loved them for the iconography and because you were basically supposed to love them—not necessarily because I was actually thinking for myself.

If you can actually put into words what that "something" is—what exactly feels off or fake about them—I’d be more than happy to push back against you.😉

Maybe I should've worded that better—and honestly, the fact that they're fakes isn't even the main issue.
The real problem is they were just "good" at everything without ever actually being great. You could find technically superior musicians anywhere—look, they were punks, so that's understandable—but it wasn't a dealbreaker.
The thing is, you had way more talented songwriters out there by a mile, singers who actually moved you, heaps of better lyricists, and tons of people who channeled their rage in a much more convincing way.
And all of this was happening within the punk scene, let alone in other genres.

So yeah, they managed to blend a bunch of elements together quite skillfully, but they never truly mastered any single one of them—and frankly, mastering one thing would have been better than being mediocre at everything else.

Take Bob Dylan, for instance. He’s no instrumental virtuoso or master composer, and some might say he’s a lousy singer (though if you ask me, when he's on his game, he conveys incredibly complex meanings and emotions—he's a genius vocalist, really)—but what he *did* do well, he did damn well.

Dennis Hall41 said:Maybe I should have phrased that better—and honestly, the fact that they’re fake isn't even the main issue.
The bigger problem is that while they did everything well, they rarely did anything exceptionally. You could find technically superior musicians anywhere—which makes sense, given they were punks, and that’s fine by me.
But you had, by a landslide, better songwriters, much more emotionally convincing singers, piles of stronger lyricists, and heaps of people who channeled their rage in a far more believable way.
And all of that within the realm of punk, let alone other genres.

So, they skillfully blended a lot of elements together, but they didn't truly master any single one to an extraordinary degree—and frankly, mastering one thing would have been better, even if every other segment was just mediocre.

Take Bob Dylan, for instance. He wasn't some virtuoso instrumentalist or songwriter, and some might say he’s a subpar singer (though personally, I think when he’s on his game, he conveys incredibly complex meanings and emotions—making him a rather ingenious vocalist), but what he *did* do well, he did damn well.

At this point, I suppose it just comes down to personal taste.

Joe Strummer is often described as someone who could hit the core of an issue with just a few words better than anyone else, and I agree—that was his greatest strength. Plus, he had that perfect raspy voice for spitting out those lyrics. For example, when I wake up at the crack of dawn, I don't know what else would be ringing in my head besides "Ring Ring It's 7 AM, move yourself to go again."

Mick Jones, on the other hand, was a highly musical guy who likely would have succeeded in any genre. Paul Simonon had his own merits too. And regardless of the critics who claim someone isn't a "real" punk or anarchist just because they aren't blowing up embassies like the RAF or the Red Brigade—or because they make a capitalist compromise (though releasing an album is a compromise in itself; how else would anyone hear about it if they didn't?)—all three of them seem like people whose hearts were in the right place. Their work after the band split only confirms that.

Musically speaking, The Clash's defining trait was their successful melting pot of different styles. Is there any other band that mixed punk, rock, reggae, dub, funk, and hip-hop better than them? (It’s going to be pretty hard to convince me that anyone did it better before they did.)

PS: Zappa was also that "one in a million" kind of genius. I get that people can get bored of someone for purely subjective reasons—you can just get tired of them, and it happens to me too—but objectively, you have to acknowledge those who stood apart from the rest through sheer talent, their body of work, originality, or pure discovery. David Bowie was a unique force, too, and Bob Dylan remains one of the most vital and influential figures in 20th-century art (what he does in the 21st century is still solid, just maybe not quite as revolutionary).

Lately, I’ve drifted exclusively toward metal. I've realized nothing hits quite as hard as Slipknot, Slayer, Iron Maiden, or Suicidal Tendencies.

I'm honestly getting sick of all that pathetic "Classic" stuff—the ballads and whatever else. There's just too much whining and self-pitying in those lyrics. When you listen to Angel of Death, it actually gives you a boost.

Adding this quickly (if I remember right, or rather, how I skip through playlists) 🙂

Bajaga, I used to go to concerts by that guy and his Instructors back in the day! But now... the guy is just a massive musical bore... especially those depressing vocals in the slow songs!

Psihomodo Pop - I don't even understand myself, how could I ever listen to that!

Zappa - for similar reasons as Dennis Hall41.

Hey everyone! 🙂
... ugh, there's just way too much to go through here ...
First thing that pops into my head? The Doors.
It’s not even that I just listened to them; I was absolutely obsessed with Jim back in the day during my teenage years 😁... I wasn't just infatuated, I lived for the music and the vocals—it was all I wanted to hear, constantly. I actually went out and memorized every single lyric, just went all in on it...😁
But then, everything just kind of faded away. Now, if I catch a track on the radio, sure, I'll get a little happy and crank up the volume to sing along, but that old euphoria? It's gone...

frozenraven39 said:I guess it just comes down to personal taste at this point.

People always talk about Strummer being able to cut straight to the core of an issue with just a few words—and honestly, I think that’s his superpower. Plus, he had that perfect gritty voice to deliver those lyrics. For instance, whenever I wake up right at 7 am, I can't get "ring ring it's 7 am, move yourself to go again" stuck in my head.

Then you've got Mick Jones, who's such a musical guy he probably could've made it in any genre. Paul Simonon has his own strengths too. And look, there will always be people claiming someone isn't a "real" punk or anarchist just because they aren't blowing up embassies like the Red Brigade or RAF—as if making any kind of capitalist compromise isn't baked into the system from day one (I mean, how would anyone even hear about them if they didn't sign a record deal?). To me, all three of them were the real deal, which shows in everything they did after the band split.

Musically speaking, The Clash's biggest strength was being this incredible melting pot. Is there any other band that blended punk, rock, reggae, dub, funk, and hip-hop better than them? (Seriously, good luck finding a band that did it better before they showed us how.)

PS: Frank Zappa was also one of those one-in-a-million geniuses. Sure, someone might get bored with him for purely subjective reasons—I get that, it happens to me too—but objectively, you have to respect the people who stood apart through sheer talent, originality, or breaking new ground. David Bowie was a total original, and Bob Dylan is easily one of the most vital and influential figures in 20th-century art (what he's doing in the 21st century is still solid, just maybe not quite as world-shifting).

I'm not saying you should actually blow up embassies, I'm just saying some other groups felt like more convincing critics of reality to me—especially since they understood how complex things are and that you can't just write off the individual in the middle of it all.

But if we're talking about direct social commentary, Gang of Four has always been the standout for me.
I don't think I've ever heard a better critique of alienation and the absurdity of consumer culture than their absolute classics like It's Her Factory, AT home He's a Tourist, or my personal favorite, Paralyzed.

You're right that The Clash mixed genres well, but I've always leaned toward the more niche, enigmatic acts from that era—like Wire (you seriously HAVE to listen to Pink Flag) or Gang of Four. They always felt a bit more my speed.

Zappa definitely had flashes of genius, but his biggest hurdles were his own elitism and this weird, almost obnoxious obsession with technicality over raw emotion. He often lacked a sense of balance and taste, which didn't help him much.

Great topic choice here. 👍

I’d have to go with Muse.

They used to be in my top five favorite bands, but honestly, they aren't even close today.

In my eyes, they hit their creative peak with 'Black holes & revelations'. 'Resistance' was still pretty solid, but after that, it’s just been a steady decline.

Whenever a band announces they're "returning to their roots," you know they've officially run out of ideas. That’s exactly what happened with Muse and 'Drones'; sure, there are a few standout tracks, but for a band with their massive reputation, they didn't bring anything fresh to the table.

Then they dropped 'Simulation theory', a synth-heavy album that took another radical turn away from what they previously did. It feels like they're just bouncing from one extreme to the other, desperately searching for that old spark, and in the process, they've become quite uninspiring.