Bob Dylan is one of those polarizing artists that most people either love or hate. He’s either revered or ridiculed depending on whom you’re speaking with. Whether you prefer the acoustic or plugged-in version of him, the question remains… is Bob Dylan overrated?
The answer: of course he is. Reports of Bob Dylan’s talent and influence have been greatly exaggerated for years. So yes, yes, yes he’s overrated! Frighteningly so…
And it’s almost frightening writing these words knowing full well that many congregates of the ‘Church of Dylan’ are rising up in protest at this very moment to debunk the heretical claim above by citing the many reasons that support this music icon’s legendary status.
So let me be clear: I don’t hate Dylan’s music. I think it’s alright; there are some decent moments (after fifty years there’s likely to be some). I appreciate the longevity and his collective body of work. I just believe the majority of "DYLAN" is vastly overrated. The real greatness here is the marketing of Dylan. This is definitely NOT overrated. Whether we're talking about Dylan the man, or Dylan the musician - the marketing of him and the mystique surrounding him, has been done exceptionally well over the years.
This article is timely because, according to UncleJoe.com, on this day in 1961, Bob Dylan recorded his first album for Columbia Records. One of the best known songs on the album was his cover of "House of the Rising Sun," which the Animals turned into a huge hit three years later.
Sure Dylan wrote some pretty good songs (some say), but cover versions of his songs have consistently been WAY better than his own versions. Dylan’s clever lyrics are arguably his greatest contribution. It’s rarely proven to be his melodic sense, and certainly not his “singing” voice. Hats off to the many great artists like The Byrds, Jimi Hendrix, and Guns-n-Roses to name just a few, for covering Dylan songs and making them sound great by making them their own. Props to Dylan for writing them in the first place, but music is full of great songwriters throughout history who aren’t venerated as much as Dylan is.
Lots of musicians and non-musicians alike give lip service to Dylan’s “major influence” on music. I don’t buy it, nor do I hear it. No one sounds like they’ve really been influenced by this guy (unlike, say, the Beatles). Dylan can be called a great songwriter, but not a great performer. There’s a big difference. The claims therefore of Dylan’s musical influence, are far greater than the actual influence.
Socially speaking, this occurs because Dylan is one of those rare few, what I call, “bandwagon artists.” There’s a difference between actually liking an artist and being a bandwagoner. Bandwagoner’s jump onto and claim reverence to certain artists because so many others do; because it’s trendy to do so; because it’s uncool NOT to like them. Whether you actually like them or not becomes irrelevant.
In this scenario, people “like” what they “learn” to like from others. The social psychological term for this is called social proof. To be apart of the in-group, people become motivated to embrace the fanaticism that surrounds other bandwagon fan's claims of transcendent influence and greatness. This phenomenon then snowballs over time rendering the claims of this profound “influence” to be mathematically inflated and logically overrated.
This becomes painfully obvious when you overhear twenty-something year old hipsters at the local Starbucks discussing their plans to attend a recent Dylan tour stop in my hometown. They weren't discussing the merits of the music mind you, only the social implications of attending or not attending. Later media reviews of the performance ranged from gushing to grating.
And the latest developments…? The god-awful Christmas song and video. Have you seen it? Don’t. It may scar you for life. I’m not sure what’s worse: a bad Christmas song, or Bob Dylan “singing” a bad Christmas song. Probably the latter…
Happy holidays anyways.
Follow Tom on Twitter: twitter.com/tomleu
Comments
You apparently no very little of Bob Dylan(Robert Zimmerman)his prolificbody of work alone speaks for itself. His influence on music goes well farbeyound the Beatles. The band for instance(errrrr.... his band---THE BAND) was heavily influenced by him, and in turn influenced many more. Yes his covers are better, he is afterall a songwriter, one of the best if not the best. So, when you speak of Dylan's influence think instead of what song writers he has influencedd, not musicians(though Neil Young immediately comes to mind as being HEAVILY influenced by Dylan on all counts).......
As one of those twenty-somethings, I have to chuckle at this story. I agree that quite a few people who like Dylan are joining a bandwagon that's been running around since before they were born. However, you can say the same, more so probably, about fans of The Beatles, The Clash, ACDC, Nirvana, Snoop Dogg, Hannah Montana and representatives of numerous genres.
When I saw 'I'm Not There' this article probably would have surmised exactly how I felt. Dylan is a man, not a prophet, but I think it's his willingness to change as an artist, his longevity and the fact that you can hear his heart in his music that drew me in, not the opinions of my friends. Especially since most of them still have no idea exactly who he is.
His songwriting is unsurpassed...I would agree that his voice and guitar playing are not his forte...The body of work that he has written is legendary,as Jimi Hendrix brought to the forefront among a plethora of other notable musicians..
Contradict yourself much?
"Bob Dylan is one of those polarizing artists that most people either love or hate. He’s either revered or ridiculed depending on whom you’re speaking with."
3 paragraphs later:
"So let me be clear: I don’t hate Dylan’s music. I think it’s alright; there are some decent moments (after fifty years there’s likely to be some). I appreciate the longevity and his collective body of work."
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