Speaking of something relatively universal, in my experience Michael Jackson is it. I don't mean everybody likes him, I mean I've found very few people who actively hate his stuff. I swear I've been around the countriest of country-lovers who generally despise pop, R&B, you name it......I've been around heavy metal guys tatooed up their arms and back down their legs, punk guys who shot their necks out thrashing years ago.....and I swear, if I put on Billie Jean not ONE of those MFers through the years did anything but start bobbing their head to the rhythm of the drums. By the time the little synth line comes in their eyes are lighting up and they're humming along. Some of them just own it. Others look sheepish and try to play it off. But it's too late....I caught 'em. Probably doesn't go across age groups....anecdotally, this always happened with people relatively my age. But once I noticed it, sometimes I'd test it just to see if it would keep happening. It does.
Cue all the contrarians here to tell me how much they hate him/that song.
I'm not a Michael Jackson fan, but Billie Jean is one of the greatest pop songs of all time. Full stop. Bad, Thriller, Black or White, etc.? I couldn't care less for any of them. But Billie Jean? That song is a banger.
Which leads me to the many artists (the Rolling Stones, AC-DC, Eminem, and many, many more) who have been prolific, and several of their songs are great. For a hot second I thought I liked Eminem, but then I listed to Eminem Radio on Spotify and I realized, "nope, I just like a handful of his biggest hits." But that's not really the topic here, I don't think. I loved AC-DC as a hormone-fueled, dumb-ass 16-year old. Now I think they have about ten songs that I still love (Ditry Deeds: chef's kiss), but most of it is just stupid. Gimme Shelter and Paint it Black are two all-timers for me, but I've never really liked the Rolling Stones--so maybe they fit in the original post category for me.
And on that topic, bands I
should like, but don't.
I don't really dig Alice in Chains. And I know given my taste, I probably should, but I don't. I like Nirvana well enough, but never understood all the drooling over Curt Kobain's genius. Just don't see it. I did walk through a Seattle Mo-Pop museum exhibit about Nirvana, and I do remember walking away having at least a better understanding of his reptuation, even if I didn't hear it in his music.
I'm not a big rap guy, but I like a lot of the "classics" (up through Eminem). I just have never figured out what people like about the Wu-Tang Clan. I just. don't. get it.
I love Green Day--is there a more GenX band? And I like a lot of emo music (MCR, Panic, IDKHow, Twenty One Pilots--probably not quite emo, but the emos love them--etc.), but I think Fallout Boy is just ok, which opinion is frowned on by the black nail polish crowd.
