Oct 29
Why Do People Hate John Mayer?
What song do I hate? I think “Daughters,” by John Mayer, would be a good candidate. I don’t know why he bugs me so bad.
–Brandon Flowers on what song would be playing if he went to hell. (2005) (Rolling Stone Magazine)
Well, that song used to bug me too, for a reason I can’t ever admit, because men don’t admit sh*t like that in public, and yet somehow, despite his Alanis Morissette-esque “too much information”-style of songwriting, I’m betting he’s getting laid on a regular basis. So why do people (read: guys) hate Mayer? That’s a good question. So is, why do haters hate?
For myself I’ll say this: I own all his albums.
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I’ve never even heard of Mayer. If he sounds anything like Alanis Morissette, then there’s a good reason why I don’t own any of his work.
Well first of all when one of his song came out it was so overplayed I began to hate it. His songs kept on playing on my Yahoo! Launch cast custom station and the Adult Alternative station.
Second I don’t think that his voice is all that great. It sounds more coarse and I don’t like his singing style.
Third, I saw someone interviewing him and by his attitude and reaction made me dislike him.
That is all.
winningpose, what did he do in the interview that made you dislike him so much?
@winningpose: hater. ROFL!
lol, I forgot what he said but he made some “holier than thou” reaction. I just have a 6th sense in not liking him!
The guy has said in the past that he has a very difficult time communicating sincerely in interviews and stuff. Unless somebody is some kinda closet pedophiliac or some shit, I don’t think the “6th sense” justification is a good enough reason to make a judgement about somebody you’ve never even met. To me, unless you’ve gotta good reason for not liking somebody, then what you’ve got is a bad reason for not liking somebody, and that’s called being a hater.
I don’t hate him, I dislike him, theres a difference. He’s just not my cup of tea.
Ok here’s a quote from Tom Johnson:
From Craig Lyndall:
John Mayer blows. He’s completely insincere with all his music. I found this, and it about sums up my feelings for him.
All of this animosity for a person I don’t even know. Guess it’s a good thing I’ve never heard of this Dave Matthews Band rip off.
John Mayer is an accomplished songwriter and guitarist. His performance is rooted in technique, his compositions are excellently styled, and his lyrics are at the very least, lyrical. Look, I’m a music lover. I know good music. I like good music of all kinds. Dave Matthews Band is an awesome band, but they’re simply a different kind of music than John Mayer. There’s no comparison — they have little in common other than the fact that they’re both good guitarists and good songwriters (Dave’s a great songwriter, and Mayer’s a great guitarist, and out of the two, I think Dave takes the cake for his live performance). Just because they both had smarmy pop hits (”Crash”, “Your Body is a Wonderland”, etc.) that made the girls’ panties drop doesn’t make them automatically comparable. Think: the difference between the Dead and Clapton. (Do not get me wrong, I am not comparing DMB and Mayer to the Dead and Clapton, I’m just saying, they’re as different as those two acts were.)
Unless you can do better than Dave or John, then shut yer yap. Learn to play a damn instrument, and then maybe I’ll consider paying attention to your stupid opinion about music. (No, I really won’t.)
This is the classic wanna-be music critic mistake. Just because a song is marketable does not mean it has no substance. Just because a record company decides to market one lousy poptastic song from an album filled to the brim with excellently written songs, does not make that songwriter “artificial”. What uneducated, irrational nonsense!
All these losers who are whining about Mayer and Dave marketing themselves as something they’re not, or being “artificial” or changing themselves, or not being themselves or whatever, who cares? This is F-ing America. I can be whatever I wanna be. If I want to be some slickified marketable girl magnet with a guitar, then dag nabbit I have the F-ing right, and the rest of the world can go screw their never-scoring selves.
P.s. Don’t listen to these haters, s1n. Trust me, Mayer is not a Dave Matthews Band rip-off. He more that stands on his own.
Nels, you need to keep in mind that opinions are like assholes; everyone has one and we think they all stink but ours.
I will most likely not become interested in John Mayer mainly because I do not follow the mainstream. In very few cases does the mainstream know good music. In fact, I haven’t watched MTV in years, and can’t name one popular single (I hate singles) or album. I do not listen to those wanna-be rockers cry about thier father beating them not not loving them on crappy “Play It Until You Puke” radio stations.
So even if John Mayer is unique in his own right, I could really care less.
Yeah man. I am fully aware that opinions are like assholes. But assholes are also like opinions — they can stink. Additionally, when the opinionated are themselves illogical assholes, and the nonsense they’re proferring is baseless, that’s where I draw the line in terms of actually allowing them to have undisputed forum.
As far as music in the mainstream goes, I guarantee you that if Clapton were suddenly blessed with being cool among the 14-25 year old demographic again, he would be playing non-stop on MTV. But he is still mainstream, ain’t he? Why is he mainstream? Because he’s an F-ing guitar GOD, that’s why. Just because somebody is overplayed does not mean their music is tripe. Just because someone’s music is not overplayed does not mean that they are not in the musical mainstream.
Furthermore, there are plenty of new up and coming Indie bands who have attained considerable amounts of popularity in the mainstream and also extraordinarily talented musicians. Interpol and Death Cab For Cutie are shining examples of these.
It’s a new world, guys. Your old habits of dissing the mainstream are a backward tool of the past. Especially with the world being on the brink of an explosion in decentralized mass communication, the old new is the new old. You can no longer dismiss music out of hand as poor music just because it is popular. More and more, as mainstream music fans at large become more educated and savvy about what good music is, and as record companies and the music industry in general lose their deathgrip on the copyrights of musicians’ works with their lawyer-slicked record contract deal language, you will see that what is part of the mainstream is what the people truly want, and will more than likely also be damn fine music.
Let me ask you, isn’t this thread titled “Why Do People Hate John Mayer?”.
So with that as a title, this thread would draw a lot of people answer the question expressing their opinion about him.
What people’s opinions say doesn’t neccessarily means it’s true. IMO in order to be an artist or celebrity you have to be able to take people’s criticisms, either good or bad. Name anyone in the world and I can find a group of people who hates that person.
I don’t even know why you are so defensive about John Mayer. My favorite band was Linkin Park and when they first came out people gave me shit (and still do) saying they suck and etc, but I could care less what they say. Its just something you have to deal with.
Final thought: The world would be a very scary place if everyone likes John Mayer.
It was a rhetorical question. As I stated in the original post, the real question is, why do haters hate?
Mother Teresa? Now there would be some haters.
It isn’t about John Mayer, it’s about haters and the objects of their hate. I was using the instance of Mayer’s unpopularity amongst the noisy, uneducated, wanna-be indie-elitist music scene as a rhetorical platform upon which to engage my issue. I think I’ve made my point.
Linkin Park is pretty cool, though.
I thought there were two questions:
Even though you proclaim this thread is about haters hating I am sure a lot of people would interpret (like myself) that its about John Mayer.
I searched for “I hate mother teresa” and clicked on I’m feeling lucky.
Let me up the ante by asking you:
Do you hate the haters? That’s a good question!
But then I thought about the question for a moment and thought to myself: if I was hating the haters, that would make me a hater of hate, and a hypocrite for thinking like that!
Dang, thats deep!
@winningpose: You don’t know what you are talking about, dude. No offense.
Nels, in response to the “mainstream” response of yours, I very well can think that way. If you think that media has become decentralized, you are poorly informed. Bands do not produce and market their own work. In fact, it still falls on the recording labels to provide that kind of funding. Sure a few bands have made the leap to independent production, but those bands are far and few between. In fact, Interpol was produced by Matador records (only somewhat indie) and they don’t even do their own distribution. Fact of the matter is, fewer and fewer radio stations and record labels are independent.
I don’t follow the mainstream because the mainstream tends to follow current fashions and trends. Since I hate both of those things, you can see why I abhor anything that appears on MTV. Singles are not the future of music. Record labels are not likely to crumble anyimte in the near future. How do you think you’re going to get all those slick MP3s or AACs?? Record production still has to take place and as long as it proves to be a profitable market, a company will be there to make money.
Also, think of all of the other “mainstream” acts of the 70s and 80s, such as Flock of Seagulls, Duran Duran, and KC and the Sunshine Band. Still think those bands are cool?? Not likely. Great music transcends time and place, such as Pink Floyd, Eric Clapton, John Coltrain, and Beethoven.
@s1n: I do not “think that media has [already] become decentralized.” What I said was, “the world [is] on the brink of an explosion in decentralized mass communication.” Are you even reading my posts?
Look man, there is rapidly evolving software out there already that allows users to create custom professional grade album recordings. Those “slick MP3s or AACs” can be made by the musicians themselves, or soon will be. This will reduce or eliminate the need for record companies studio producing technologies and facilities. This, combined with the power of decentralized, anonymous file sharing, which I have already blogged about, will help to enable hobbyist musicians and everyday people to create and distribute their own music and other content.
It will happen. Mark my words.
P.s.: I grow weary of this thread. Plus, I strongly suspect it has been hijacked by trolls. I’m outta here.
Let me make something perfectly clear here.
You don’t get to lock a thread just because someone disagrees with you on something. That’s a quick way to scare people away from this site and I won’t allow that. There is nothing wrong with a good healthy discussion, and as long as someone does not cross any ethical boundries, then there is no reason to lock a thread. The only people posting comments have been regular users of the site, so there has been no hijacking by trolls.
Besides, this thread has brought more traffic in the past few days than any other. For all of the aforementioned reasons, this thread will stay open.
Okay fine then. From now on, I’ll either make two threads at once — one for the trollers who just wanna vent their pathetic frustrations in an attention-getting way, and one for the people who actually want to consider interesting and new ideas in a fun and reasonable way — or I’ll simply stop authoring new threads here. Furthermore, I started this thread. If I don’t get to manage it the way I see fit, then I think you should use your super-duper admin abilities and remove my capability to do so. That way, I’ll know exactly where I stand with this blog.
I thought the whole idea of blogging is to have as many people to read your blog as possible? Or am I wrong here? And what’s wrong with some harmless subjectivity?
I think you’re taking offense to what’s being said, even if the commenter wasn’t intentionally trying to do. And no, I didn’t take offense to this:
if you ever see john mayer live, you’ll have a harder time cutting him to pieces. like other ARTISTS, it is impossible for him to disguise the joy and release he gets from playing and it is immediately apparent the amount of talent and late nights that go into crafting one of his songs. check out “any given thursday” dvd. there’s a lot of great music out there if you open yourself up to it…
The problem is that I don’t want to see him live. In fact, seeing a band like that you have a distaste for makes the experience even worse. It doesn’t matter to me that he gets joy from playing his music. For all I know, he could be happy that he filled the seats and will get paid well. I’m open to great music, I don’t think he is a representation of the concept “great.”
I’ll have Crystal play some of his music, but I should probably get a sharp pencil ready in case I need to jab it into my ear.