Music Hot Takes

Submitted by aestheticdirt on February 15, 2026
Hello all,

Recently user SteveTheEagle had a very interesting thread on here on controversial movie opinions. I was thinking about just how wildly people’s musical tastes differ (a similar post about top 5 songs had different answers for everyone), yet how ubiquitously music reaches the soul. So it got me thinking, what are your hot takes in terms of music?

I’ll start:

- The Grateful Dead is one of the most mid and overrated bands I’ve ever heard, and I don’t find their songs particularly engaging at all. I hear people saying it’s so deep and all but many of their songs just feel like boring, seventeen minute jam sessions. Similar feelings about bands such as Phish and DMB. I don’t get the appeal of bands where you have to be stoned to enjoy it. I really like Touch of Grey but that’s about it.

- George Harrison’s solo stuff was as good as the Beatles, and he tends to always get overshadowed by John and Paul. When you listen to songs like What Is Life, When We Was Fab, Crackerbox Palace, etc., they hold up.

- Many of my friends are huge on Whiny One Pilots, and more power to them, but they are possibly the worst band I have ever heard. I used to have to listen to Car Radio everyday at work and it was torture. I hate the singer’s voice.

- Jump, and most of 1984, is what most people think of when they think of Van Halen but it doesn’t hold a candle to classic Van Halen. I still love 1984 but it feels almost like a different band at times, even before Sammy Hagar replaced David Lee Roth.

- Blackstar is my favorite David Bowie album (RIP). Hunky Dory and Ziggy Stardust are still absolute masterpieces though.

I have more but want to hear what you’ve got.

74 Comments
+10
Level 65
Feb 15, 2026
Taylor Swift is overrated as and 95% of the time when I hear her songs I can feel my ears bleeding (I don't like Taylor Swift, in other words)
+9
Level 72
Feb 15, 2026
Thats not a hot take
+3
Level 65
Feb 15, 2026
it is to about 90% of people I know for some reason
+7
Level 53
Feb 15, 2026
100% agree. She strikes me as an obnoxious forever victim that panders to other obnoxious forever victims and all of her stuff is painfully generic. Good friend of mine is a swiftie and even she admits it’s a cult
+1
Level 18
Feb 15, 2026
Imo Style and You Belong With Me are really good but a lot of her other songs are overrated
+3
Level 63
Feb 16, 2026
I wouldn't say she's not overrated but she's not completely devoid of good music or worth writing off.
+10
Level 57
Feb 15, 2026
I think Taylor Swifts music is immensely basic and uninteresting. It does not deserve hate, nor does it deserve love. It is uninteresting.

At least, in my humble opinion.

+2
Level 75
Feb 16, 2026
All is said.
+5
Level 61
Feb 15, 2026
Taylor Swift is extremely overrated. I extremely prefer 80s music. Currently I have Centerfold stuck in my head
+5
Level 65
Feb 15, 2026
I actually prefer modern songs, but not the pop ones they play on the radio

I'm a The Living Tombstone kid

+3
Level 61
Feb 15, 2026
I'm an 80s kid who was born in 2009. I even got the mullet lol
+3
Level 53
Feb 15, 2026
2009? Holy crap i’m getting old lmao
+5
Level 68
Feb 15, 2026
Ditto.
+5
Level 81
Feb 15, 2026
Without exaggeration, Michael Jackson is the most overrated musician of all time.

The country music most people viscerally imagine is both terrible and unreflective of the genre as a whole.

Listening to folk music should be more socially accepted.

South coast rap easily beats out east and west coast.

Meta take: disliking popular modern music isn't a hot take.

+6
Level 53
Feb 15, 2026
Not a country fan but there’s lots of great older country/folk out there

Gotta disagree with you on mj but hey that’s what hot takes are for

+1
Level 81
Feb 15, 2026
Also, for anyone who listens to them, For the Birds is Southall's best album.
+3
Level 72
Feb 15, 2026
I agree with the fact that that is certainly a hot take.
+2
Level 61
Feb 16, 2026
I do have to admit that I don't like new music, the International Harvester by Craig Morgan (2006) is pretty fire. Just as long as you be careful as it is 100% an earworm song.
+3
Level 54
Feb 17, 2026
YES, folk needs to be accepted. People underrate bob dylan but hes easily one of the greatest writers of all time.
+1
Level 39
Feb 15, 2026
All music other then Joplin Music is just noise
+1
Level 61
Feb 16, 2026
Joplin, Missouri? The town that got stuck hard by an EF5 tornado in 2011?
+2
Level 39
Feb 16, 2026
No music by Scott Joplin
+3
Level 53
Feb 16, 2026
Thought you met janis
+3
Level 39
Feb 16, 2026
What is janis
+3
Level 53
Feb 16, 2026
Janis Joplin, one of my personal favorites from the 1960s
+1
Level 69
Feb 18, 2026
Janis is my personal #1, so I also thought about her
+5
Level 53
Feb 15, 2026
Another one spurred on by a comment from my roommate: saying “rap isn’t real music” is just thinly veiled racism
+5
Level 72
Feb 15, 2026
😭 eminem taking that one to heart
+4
Level 63
Feb 16, 2026
barely disguised
+4
Level 61
Feb 16, 2026
How is it racism? It is more of a music preference than racism. I don't like rap either, mainly for the overusage of swear words.
+8
Level 53
Feb 16, 2026
Saying you don’t like rap is different, that’s your opinion. And you know what, that’s valid, it’s not everyone’s thing. Saying it doesn’t even count as music however is a. not true, b. dismisses the huge influence hip hop has had on the music industry and c. disparages its black influence/origins. Similar to how many said jazz “wasn’t music” back in the 30s and 40s
+6
Level 61
Feb 16, 2026
Saying it doesn't count as music is an opinion as well and doesn't make someone racist. At the end of the day, it is your friend's opinion and they could not know if it was racist or disparages the people who made it.

An opinion of "Rap isn't real music" can be formed by people thinking that rap lacks traditional melody or harmony.

+5
Level 63
Feb 16, 2026
But its still often just thinly veiled racism that spurs attacks on the music
+5
Level 53
Feb 16, 2026
Plus, the majority of rap songs do have these two elements to some degree, if not in the vocals in the songs themselves.

Just a Friend by Biz Markie, 21 Questions by 50 Cent, Lose Yourself by Eminem, and those are just off the top of my head.

All of these songs are either clean or have clean versions btw

+2
Level 61
Feb 16, 2026
Is that what we call opinions these days? Thinly veiled racism?
+2
Level 63
Feb 21, 2026
If they are thinly veiled racism, then they are. If they aren't, they aren't! If you feel defensive on this, it may be indicative of other factors which effect you.
+9
Level 66
Feb 16, 2026
What an absolutely ridiculous statement.

Are you suggesting that all non-black people have to acknowledge that rap *is* real music in order to not be racist?

What if a black person says that rap music isn't real music? Does that make them racist too?

Comparatively, I also consider house music to not be real music. Does that make me racist?

I don't think that Beyoncé's country album was real country. Does that make me racist?

Does a black person saying that country music isn’t real music make them racist?

Like Pontiac, I don't like rap either (barring the very odd song). I don't need you to condescend me by telling me that that opinion is valid, but I will firmly assert that your opinion is strongly invalid.

Honestly, you and your roommate need to grow the **** up

+4
Level 63
Feb 16, 2026
lol man got impassioned over a hot take
+4
Level 66
Feb 16, 2026
Does accusing people of racism constitute a “hot take”?
+5
Level 53
Feb 16, 2026
Lot of false equivalencies with this one.

First off saying house music or country music isn't music when they have all of the elements of music, similar to rap music, is a poor take to begin with. You just don't like them. There's a difference.

Second, as Dimby said, dismissing forms of black art and aspects of black culture, as well as other cultures I might add, as being not legitimate has been a thing for how long now. This is just one example I frequently see with the music industry. All of these individual examples you listed doesn't change that, nor does the race of the individual spouting it.

Also, the only one being condescending here is you. Maybe you're the one who needs to grow up, pal.

+3
Level 61
Feb 16, 2026
But black people can dismiss white art and aspects of white culture and it is okay??? This is a severe problem in society these days. People believe that racism goes one way but in reality people deny it goes both ways.
+3
Level 61
Feb 16, 2026
Also that wasn't the point JustJoshing was making. He stated that since he doesn't think House Music is real music, does it make him racist? This might have gone on for a while but just because of that does not make the statement racist. It is not supposed to denote or belittle black culture. Everyone is entitled to their opinion whether that be thinking certain types of music isn't real music or noises should be music (not stating anything with that so calm down).

Accusing people of racism when they aint being racist is getting old. It is causing society to not believe anything is racist because everything is racist now. I am quite sick of it as well.

+4
Level 83
Feb 16, 2026
Well, of course no one is saying that white culture is bad and deserves to be dismissed. The music industry was openly racist less than 70 years ago, though. The mainstream was dominated by racist societal factors, stemming from Jim Crow laws and Minstrelsy culture. I mean, the N word was still being used by white people in blackface to demean black culture into the 1940s. It’s the issue of the power dynamic. White people demeaning black culture because they believed that black people were inferior, using pseudoscience like Social Darwinism and phrenology to justify that belief, is specifically meant to dehumanize black people. Dismissing black culture for this reason is racist. Dismissing black culture because you don’t feel a connection to it… not racist, but maybe closed minded. I’d say the same about minorities not connecting to white culture. Probably not racist, but probably closed minded. I think few minorities actually believe white people are inferior human beings.
+5
Level 66
Feb 16, 2026
In my opinion, house music has no musicality whatsoever.

I don’t consider the genres I mentioned to be music because I don’t like how they sound, not because of anyone’s skin colour.

Do you realise that it’s possible to dismiss forms of black culture because you dislike the forms rather than black culture?

You’re the only one spouting false equivalences. Some people dismissing rap as “not music” due to racism does not mean that everyone who does so is racist. I do not understand how you don’t see that.

Dimby’s comments might be factually accurate, but they’re contextually irrelevant. American attitudes from decades ago have no bearing on my ability to think for myself in 2020s England. In fact, I haven’t liked rap since becoming conscious of music in the early 2000s, so are you suggesting I am just naturally racist and have been since the age of 3?

Please stop digging yourself into a hole over a topic you know nothing about

+5
Level 66
Feb 16, 2026
Also, anybody who accuses me of racism is no “pal” of mine.
+1
Level 23
Feb 20, 2026
oh no
+3
Level 83
Feb 16, 2026
This is a bit glib isn’t it? It depends why someone is dismissive of rap music. Of course, with the US history of segregating mainstream radio and “Negro Radio” in the early to mid 1900s, it’s more complicated. Segregationists often called black music, like jazz and ragtime, degenerate and harmful to white audiences. White radio often claimed only white music led to erudition. Since most African American culture was labelled as non-culture by much of the mainstream in the Jim Crow era, there clearly is a point to be made. Widely dismissing an African American music form could be racist. Saying it doesn’t count as music because it’s not what your “normal” white music sounds like… yeah, that’s closed-minded and dismissive of the value of black culture. And if you listen to early rap, it’s talking about societal problems faced by black people. Gangsta rap only became a thing in the late 1980s. Lots of rap isn’t vulgar or violent at all, just a point of view from another culture.
+2
Level 61
Feb 16, 2026
I have heard many swearing in rap music (especially the usage of the n word)
+3
Level 57
Feb 20, 2026
To be fair, there is plenty of swearing in other music genres, and you shouldn't judge rap because of the fact there is loads of swearing in some songs.

At least, in my humble opinion.

+1
Level 57
Feb 20, 2026
My take on this: Make sure to acknowledge and examine whether or not an opinion like this is thinly veiled racism. It could be, or it could be not! just make sure to reflect, because it definitely could be. Theres a lot of bias nowadays.

Also, whoever replied "is that what we call opinions nowadays? Thinly veiled racism?" peak ragebait

+8
Level 18
Feb 15, 2026
My hottest take is that Bohemian Rhapsody is really overrated. Another take is that autotune really ruins some rap, like Playboi Carti or Travis Scott for example.

Contrary to your take, I think that twenty one pilots hate is mainly because their popular songs got overplayed

+3
Level 71
Feb 16, 2026
No idea what a hot take is, but I have PTSD from pop music, mostly Katy Perry, because last year a bus driver blasted the music top volume in 1 4-hour bus trip, and was too deaf to hear my classmate's pleas for the music to stop - the songs kept repeating, and we'd be sighing in relief whenever there was a spotify ad (because somehow the music happened to be louder than the advertisement? That's not normal...)

So hey, if you want to know how to make me fall down screaming, there it is!

+2
Level 33
Feb 16, 2026
Disney songs are horrible
+7
Level 81
Feb 16, 2026
The Beatles are overrated. There I've said it. People go on about how great they were, but lets face it, they were only a band for 10 years. Yes, they had a massive amount of hits and an even more massive fanbase, but it was in an era when everything was new. They were no worse or better than other bands at the time, they just had better promotion.
+5
Level 61
Feb 16, 2026
John Lennon was extremely overrated as well (Solo Artist). He has to be my least favorite Beatle member.
+3
Level 54
Feb 17, 2026
I agree with this
+2
Level 54
Feb 17, 2026
I do not agree with this
+1
Level 81
Feb 21, 2026
And that's fine, it is your opinion, that you are entitled to.
+1
Level 76
Feb 21, 2026
+1
+2
Level 54
Feb 16, 2026
limp bizkit- not even really music, the 2000s must have been rough in terms of terrible popular bands.
+4
Level 66
Feb 16, 2026
Every genre has already peaked and it’s all downhill from here, no matter what you’re into.
+1
Level 53
Feb 16, 2026
A lot of that stems from changes in the music industry following the rise of the internet, sadly.

Back in the day you had agents scouting out people who had talent, dedication, and passion. Nowadays, those agents have been replaced by algorithms, based on whatever drives a profit. Everyone has their 15 minutes of fame, and the industry is flooded with mediocrity.

It's the same with the movie industry, it's the same with most industries nowadays. Mediocrity sells, our attention spans decrease, creativity dies, talented musicians with a passion go unheard, as people only focus on appeasing their executives. It's a shame.

+1
Level 54
Feb 17, 2026
Underground hip hop is on the up, trust me
+5
Level 45
Feb 16, 2026
Ellie Goulding is better than Taylor Swuft
+6
Level 71
Feb 16, 2026
Pop music is horrible, meaningless, repetitive, short-attention-spanned 'music'.

#GoClassical

+1
Level 92
Feb 16, 2026
100% Agreed.
+2
Level 92
Feb 16, 2026
Well at least with this MB post it's not a hot take anymore to say that you don't like Taylor Swift so I guess I'll just keep my mouth shut lol :)
+5
Level 63
Feb 16, 2026
Disliking music genres as a whole is stupid imo, its just not one's fancy. Too many people always hate newer music, in every single decade in memory where the predominant genre has changed. Someday someone will be nostalgic for what you write off, just as you are nostalgic for what someone wrote off back in the day. And being so defensive or offensive about music is usually not worth it.
+1
Level 81
Feb 21, 2026
In the words of my dad..."Turn that bloody racket down"..."You can't tell a word they're singing"..."That just sounds like a cat being strangled"..."You should listen to some real music"
+4
Level 54
Feb 17, 2026
Hey, Thanks for shouting me out in your post!

I only listen to Harrison/Beatles and Bowie of the things you mentioned, and I agree with the Harrison take(the highs are just as high as the beatles), but I have to disagree with bowie. Blackstar is great, but i just prefer station to station, ziggy stardust, and hunky dory more.

+4
Level 72
Feb 17, 2026
Bohemian Rhapsody might be the most overrated song ever made.

Saying the state of the music industry now is the worst its ever been is just conformation bias of a handful of artists. Every decade has their Benson Boone's and Shaboozey's. Only the best or most popular music from previous decades stays in the cultural mainstream which is why people tend to forget how much bad music played back then.

+2
Level 61
Feb 18, 2026
But there are no questions about it, the older decades had more hits than modern day.
+2
Level 63
Feb 21, 2026
how is that even possiible? there were more top 100 songs back then or smth? 110 songs in the top 100? they sold more copies, in an era of less total people? as a whole, without accounting for genre popularity change?
+1
Level 18
Feb 24, 2026
autotune is not that bad if it's used right. for example, i hate the way that Don Toliver and Travis Scott use it, they just throw it on 90% of the lyrics they sing. but when used well, it can contribute to the song. Lil Uzi Vert uses autotune much more tastefully to create vocals that complement the track better. YoungBoy has a god-awful voice and even though his producers create excellent beats, if he doesn't autotune his voice somewhat then not even a banger beat can make the song sound good. autotune allows YoungBoy to make some absolutely fantastic songs (Outside Today, Untouchable, Raq Shit, House Arrest Tingz, to name a few) by making his voice sound significantly less annoying