I struggle with the "overrated" thing - how should we define overrated?
Is a player who's technically limited but writes great music overrated? Personally I'd rather listen to someone like that than someone with technique up the ying-yang whose music sounds like a series of wanky practice exercises. I couldn't give a sh!t about technical ability.
I agree with that. That's why I have Vai on my list of favourite guitar players, I love his compositions and his sense of melody and I would too if he never played a 16th note in his life. It seems like some people can't grasp that it's possible to like someone who happens to have great technical ability for anything other than technical ability. I'm not saying that's what you said, but I thought I'd bring it up before the whole "technique vs. song writing" argument breaks loose. I think Steve Vai and Jimi Hendrix are some of the best song writers of all time, and I think Cat Stevens is. It doesn't have to contrast each other.
I'd definite "overrated" as a person liked by many but not by me, making the person overrated in my opinion. That makes overratedness entirely subjective, as it should be.
Top 5 guitarists whose playing, style, and songwriting is liked by many but not by me:
Eric Clapton
Dimebag Darrel (while we're at it, yeah he had great technique but I never heard him play anything that impressed or inspired me)
Johnny Ramone
Angus Young
John Mayor
Kurt Cobain would be the obvious choice, but I actually like a few Nirvana songs ( :oops:). His playing and music is definitely overrated, but not as much as those guys ^ (IMO)
