Singers/musicians who are underrated or overlooked due to their genre of music?

So, I've seen a few music threads on here lately and the Queen thread has got me thinking.

Freddy Mercury is rightly lauded as being incredible and has an almost universal appeal to music fans no matter their taste. There are lots of other artists who never get spoken about in the same way Freddy was/is, and I can only put it down to the style of music they play.

I'm a massive metal-head. I like my music fast and heavy(almost like my women!), and so always thought Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson never got the plaudits he deserved. This was a guy with a range up there with the likes of Mercury, but because he is in the NWBHM club that has become a parody of itself to many(largely thanks to the amazing Spinal Tap, that was inspired by Barnsley's own NWBHM monsters, Saxon), he is never in the conversation when talking about the musical greats.

The other is the songwriting of Metallica's James Hetfield. I think he's one of the most underrated lyricists of the last 50 years, and it's because he is associated with the heavier side of music.

Who are yours?

 

Don van Vliet ( Beefheart ).
He was a brilliant poet although some would say not.
I think “avant garde” would be the most common description for his work.
His fame was more linked to his unmistakeable voice and his lunacy and presence

 

I'd agree with you with the metal singers, I think corey Taylor of slipknot is one of the greatest singers around, people think slipknot vocals are all screaming rar rars (which are really difficult to do and take years of vocal training to get right) but corey taylors range is just impressive, I would say the same about Chester Bennington and disturbed David draiman, just listen to sound of silence.

 

Steven Wilson / Porcupine Tree.

 

Why do Queen fans always think that we should all like them or that they have universal appeal?
I’ve got friends who are incredulous that I just don’t like them.

 

I love Corey Taylor. The amount of emotion he has in his vocals is immense!

Echo your thought son Dsisturbed's Sound of Silence. Everyone should listen to it...

I think a lot of it comes from their resurgence after Live Aid(people forget they were considered washed up and Geldoff didn't even want them on the show!), and then the surge in popularity after Bohemian Rhapsody was featured in Wayne's World.

 

Not just the singer but also the band. UFO with Phil Mogg a constant on vocals were an incredible band, a big influence on Iron Maiden's Steve Harris. A frequently shifting line-up especially after Michael Schenker's first departure meant they never sustained their mid to late 70s success. Phil was an incredible singer and still had it when I saw them on their Farewell UK tour in 2019.

 

Steve Harris, there is another one. An amazing musician who doesn't get the credit he deservers(that can be said of a lot of Bass players. Often the lynchpin of their bands).

 

Tomás Enrique Araya Díaz....Oooooooh yeah.

 

I agree with this, but would also give a special mention to Paul Chapman who replaced Schenker, hugely underrated in my opinion.

 

Queen are fantastic IMO, TBF Couldn't give a t0ss if folk don't like them.

 

Jay Buchanan of Rival Sons is an astonishing singer . The only time I’ve seen Queen was in the mid 70,s at George’s Hall Bradford and Freddie must have had a bad night because he was decidedly underwhelming, Brian May was brilliant .

 

Another band who never got the credit or success they deserved was Diamond Head.
Hugely influential for many metal bands who came after them, especially Metallica.

 

I love Diamond Head(and all the big NWBHM bands, to be fair). They needed better management and direction to capitalize on the interest Maiden created with Number of the Beast. They seemed to just drift a little while your Saxon's and Tigers of Pang Tang really hit it big on the continent. Brian Tattler was great...

 

Definitely another vote for Chester Bennington. Celebrity deaths don’t usually bother me too much but that one got me a bit.

Sam Carter of Architects too.

Both of those can do the clean vocals but also the more aggressive ones.

 

Must be summat in the watter in the West Midlands because, if I remember rightly, Diamond Head vocalist Sean Harris had been at the same school as Zepp's Robert Plant.

 

Rick Parfitt.

Unfairly dismissed as a three chord wonder, but he was insanely talented and incredible longevity.

Plus he wrote Mystery Song, which is the best song written about nobbing hookers.

 

Yep, and at the same time you had Ozzy, Iommi, Butler and Bill Ward bursting on the scene in Sabbath(called Polka Tulk at first), as well as Plant(once he left Hobbstweedle( was just about to join up with Page in Zepplain. That's two monstrous, genre-changing/defining bands to come out of a very poor area.

 

It always makes me laugh how metal fans are so insecure about the supposed talent of their idols. Or the perceived lack of it. Like they're desperate to turn the (often enjoyable) primitive, sexist-come-homo-erotic noise posturing into some kind of art form to be taken seriously. Instead of just enjoying their music for what it is & not looking for depths that simply don't exist.
I saw & heard enough of this stuff when I first went to big school. I did see Diamond Head at Sheffield City Hall, I even had their album. They were about five foot tall with socks shoved down their crotches. Tank opened for them, who were a far more interesting band

 

Parfitt wrote a lot of Quo's "non-3-chord" music including 4500 Times and Living on an Island.