Top 5 most underrated musicians

In a world of trending topics, and the “newest and now-est” excitements, it’s not always easy for the general public to notice the tortoise for the hare.

I have compiled a list of five artists, spanning genres and eras of popular music, who have been woefully neglected in our collective consciousness. These artists or bands should have garnered more popular acclaim than they have; even if they have been critically successful.

They are important to culture in their own idiosyncratic ways and excel in their particular genres. Iconoclasts and innovators alike, these are the five best musicians or bands that should be your new favorites.

#5: Gil Scott-Heron (April 1, 1949- May 27, 2011)

Scott-Heron’s voice booms like a late night train’s exhalations criss-crossing gravelly America’s inequalities. His spoken word style influenced hip-hop heavily and those bluntly poetic lyrics lead to his greatest commercial success, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.”

His songs are based in his own philosophical “bluesology” or “the science of how things feel.” Scott-Heron considered his song-writing, or more aptly, his poetry, an extension of the 1920s “Harlem Renaissance.”

You can almost hear Langston Hughes shudder in mutual understanding as Heron speaks full of conviction in “Bicentennial Blues”, “The blues has always been totally American;/ as American as apple pie....The question is why./ Why should the blues so at home here?/ Well, America provided the atmosphere.”

Many artists note his influential style. ‘90s West Coast rapper, Warren G, used the above quote from “Bicentennial Blues” to open “Do You See?,” identifying with the struggle and the search for answers.

Even internationally, Scott-Heron is seminal. His last album I’m New Here, released in 2010, was posthumously remixed by Jamie xx (of The xx), into a garage-y/ dubstep wonder. In the past and into the future, Heron remains a true artist and innovator.

"Bicentennial Blues"

#4: The Cramps (active 1976-2009)

The Cramps make feeling outcast cool. Iconoclasts to say the least, they basically created the “psychobilly” genre that the Misfits took and ran with in the later ‘70s. They fused older styles into the disaffected anger of the burgeoning underground punk scene.

Their first full length studio album, Songs the Lord Taught Us, was recorded with former Sun Records label owner, Sam Phillips, bringing The Cramps from just another pissed-off punk band to audiophiles with a respect for older styles.

Their lyrics are always crass, and usually pretty clever. “Cornfed Dames,” boasts a Hamlet allusion; “Now, there’s more things in Tennessee/ then is dreamed of in your philosophy,” juxtaposed next to the “whip that cream until the butter comes” quips. The band’s intelligence is sometimes undermined by the vaguely threatening sexuality of their lyrics; but in a more frustrated adolescent vein than in a convicted sex-offender way.

The Cramps’ repetitive themes of horror and sex could be a timely reaction to the coinciding glam rock movement’s musical excesses, as well as an early punk gimmick.

The Cramps portrayed the kind of effortless cool that only clenched teeth and a middle finger could emit; but it’s not like they cared.

“Cornfed Dames”

#3: The Crystals (active 1961-67, ‘71-present)

One of Phil Specter’s Pygmalion -esque creations, The Crystals had one of the best and tumultuous runs of the era. After three moderately successful singles, Specter showed himself for the snake he is. “He’s a Rebel,” one of the most well-known songs by the group, was actually recorded by Darlene Love and the Blossoms under The Crystal’s moniker.

The original Crystals couldn’t get to LA quickly enough for Specter to record the single before a competing record company planned to release the song. Specter chose the Blossoms for The Crystal’s follow-up hit, “He’s Sure the Boy I Love.” Both songs released by the fake Crystals charted higher than any song the original line-up had produced.

Moreover, The Ronnettes even sang four tracks on the 1963 compilation, The Crystals Sing Their Greatest Hits, leading to royalty disputes and bruised egos.

Though The Crystals were play-things for the mad scientist, Specter, they had some of the dearest hits of the girl group era. Trapped in the misogynist recording industry of the ‘60s, songs like “He Hit Me (And It Felt Like a Kiss),” show how little respect these young women must have garnered in their tenure and all the opportunity they were denied.

"He's a Rebel"

#2: Daniel Johnston (Jan 22, 1961-)

Daniel Johnston is a troubled singer/songwriter type with those kind of demons that a pen and paper can draw to the surface, but never release. Diagnosed as bi-polar and schizophrenic, Johnston uses stringy, untrained vocals and tinny, thin-sounding production as a therapeutic release.

Johnston’s DIY aesthetic is the basis of his localized popularity. He created his initial hype in Austin, TX during the 1980s by handing out self-produced tapes to anyone who would take one. Suddenly, as he was involuntarily committed to a mental hospital, a music industry bidding war ensued over him.

This was thanks, mostly, to all the musical clout that is associated with becoming music industry it-boy, Kurt Cobain’s, pet project; who was frequently photographed wearing a t-shirt with Johnston’s Hi, How Are You cover art on it.

With only one studio album to his name, Fun produced by Paul Leary of Butthole Surfers in 1994, Johnston is a living treatise on the connection between insanity and creativity. His circumstances gave him the gift of brilliance, but refused to let him take advantage of the fame he could have appreciated.

“True Love Will Find You In the End”

#1: Beck (July 8, 1970-)

I know what you’re thinking. “Beck is super popular! I’ve heard ‘Loser’ enough times to make my ears bleed.” But I contend that Beck, born Bek David Campbell, isn’t nearly popular enough. He is an absolute musical genius, seamlessly spanning multiple genres and making any style he endeavors sound perfect.

As a multi-instrumentalist, Beck recently released a songbook because he’s a BAD ASS. Known best for his 1990s alt-rock releases, Mellow Gold and Odelay, Beck has since forayed into scads of other influences. If you have never heard his funk-inspired Midnite Vultures, drop everything you’re doing and listen to it now.

Growing up as a poor kid in L.A. and dropping out of high school in his freshman year, Beck had to work one menial job after another just to get by as a struggling musician. His signature non-sensical songwriting and bizarre stage antics started just to keep his audiences interested. For these reasons, Beck has commented that he rejects the “Slacker King” persona given to him by the record industry after “Loser”’s success.

Beck is absolutely not a slacker; he is a creative juggernaut, the William Burroughs of songwriting for a new generation. He is our Salvador Dali, he is the savior of the ‘90s. And because of this, he is incredibly underrated.

“Sexx Laws”

Comment below on your favorite underrated musicians that I missed, or if you think I’m all sorts of correct. I’d love to hear your feedback!

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