sometimes I find myself among fine friends in a well-appointed oak-paneled drawing room . . . snifter of amontillado in hand, ruminating about world affairs and the grand design. once this question came up:

what band never should have existed?

the simple answer for me is the Eagles. they suck dry turds. and had they never existed I would have been spared countless hours of molar-grinding annoyance over the course of my lifetime.

but there is a more nuanced way to view the question, in which the influence of a band is taken into account. a friend pointed out that he might choose Nirvana as the band who should not have existed. why Nirvana, I asked . . . they had some good songs, and even those who hate them have to admit there are many, many bands who are worse. he replied by asking whether I personally felt that Nirvana were worth having to put up with all of the shitty bands who tried to copy them, and he had a point.

we ended up deciding that for us the ultimate pernicious influence was probably the Beatles, not even because of copycat bands but because they made the whole megastar studio-auteur thing viable, though I guess if you wanna get technical you could blame Brian Wilson or Phil Spector.

anyway, every musician I've asked has their own take on this one. so I ask you:

what band never should have existed?

GNR

depeche mode

i think that the beatles are okay, the problem is their popularity.

well, according with the thread, we are talking about bands that were waaay too popular for what they were.

ps: ok, guns n´roses. just to never listen again to axl´s voice ever in my life.

The Search Engines.

Thank god Axl's doing us all a favor by not singing much anymore.........

Thank god

i could really, really agree with the eagles.

but i will go with korn, which could have spared us years of indescribably bad radio, as opposed to just bad radio.

The Beatles actually PLAYED instruments though. They also made really incredible music. The musical world would be a little drearier without The Beatles.

The Eagles are a good choice. They haven't added anything redeeming to the music world, for me.

Ever since the mid-90's, popular music has become "here today, gone today". Lots of terrible, aggrevating bands dissapear after a short time. No one cares about Limp Bizkit anymore. Disturbed's popularity is starting to fade. Creed is no more.

I honestly can't think of any band who's influence on music was really for the worst. You can blame Rites Of Spring for modern mainstreamo, but I think we can dig deeper than that...

So, I can't really pick one.

Now that's kerbling with style.