Your favorite deeply unpopular music
I've got a few albums and songs that feel like they were made just for me, simply because they are obscure.
-
Freedom by M-Fuge/Centrifuge - An album produced in the late 90s for a single year's program of Southern Baptist summer camps - one I didn't even attend. It's got some pretty simple but surprisingly well produced praise music. I don't believe in God, but it's a good comforting listen to me.
-
They Eat Their Own - The one and only album from the very short lived band of the same name. Full of 90s grungepunk rock. Includes "Like a Drug", which actually was very briefly popular, but the rest of the songs in the album clearly didn't get the same level of attention that that song got. But the roughness is kind of appealing in it's own way.
-
The entire discography of Cool Cavemen - Once again, another band that was popular enough to get signed with a record label, and actually released a few albums. They still make the list because as hard as it is to get people to listen to Funk/Rock fusion music, it's even harder to get them to listen to French music, even when their best songs are in English. I almost didn't bring them up because they're still big enough to make it onto Spotify.
I've got tons more I could talk about that are much more obscure, but they're not quite on the same scale and quite a bit more niche. Just take a look at the last album I purchased on Bandcamp.
How about you? What's some music that you like that nobody else in the world seems to be aware of?
I unironically love Chumbawamba. I like their early anarchist punk stuff, I like the pop-rock of the Tubthumper era, and I especially like the acoustic folk stuff they did after that.
They’re amazing! Going from Tubthumper to the rest of their discography is a real surprise, but a good one for sure.
Literally started listening to them this week and am immediately obsessed. We have good taste. :P
Just started listening because of this comment. Great recommendation 👍
I did a semi-deep dive after listening to the 60 Songs that Explain the 90s episode on them. There is some stuff in there. I personally like Rappoport's Testament quite a bit
I'd heard this decades ago. And seeing the other comments, guess I'll finally have to check them out!
None of these are obscure, but they often do get a lot of hate.
Aqua got famous for Barbie Girl, and has a lot of haters as a result of that song, but I actually like a lot of their music. It's suuuuuuuuper cheesy 90s/00s euro pop/dance, but still fun. :) Ditto for Vengaboys and Ace of Base.
And I also absolutely love a lot of 90s boy bands too. NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, New Kids, 98 Degrees, 5ive, etc.
I'm majorly into Eurodance, Eurobeat, House and J-Pop. Pretty much anything with TR-909 and FM bass.
Along the lines of Aqua and Vengaboys, I'd also recommend 2 Unlimited, Le Click/La Bouche, Smile.dk, and Culture Beat offhand.
I'm also a huge 90s/00s eurodance fan too, so those were all already on my radar, along with Haddaway, Eiffel 65, Fun Factory, C+C Music Factory, Technotronic, Whigfield, etc. The list goes on and on. But I appreciate the recommendations nonetheless, and hopefully they can help others get into the genre. ;)
Fun Factory, C+C Music Factory and Whigfield are new names to me. I'll have to look into them.
You might not recognize the band names... but I suspect you will probably recognize at least some of their songs if you dig into their discogs. C+C Music Factory in particular had some massive MASSIVE hits in the 90s. E.g. Gonna Make You Sweat. Although they were actually American, and a lot of their stuff was as much rap as it was dance music, so their other hits might not be as familiar to you.
p.s. Some other tracks you might recognize:
Whigfield - Saturday Night
Fun Factory - Take Your Chance
C&C Music Factory was omnipresent in the early 90s. You couldn't escape it if you tried (I did try). In my brain, it might be the most 90's of all music groups, despite me not actually liking it.
Honestly, I don't really have any understanding as to how unpopular it is, because it seems that plenty of people online actually like it, but I know not a single person in my life beyond myself who actually enjoys Black Metal as a genre. Most of the time if it comes on during a shuffle, I just skip it to spare my wife and my kids, because I know they find it absolutely intolerable.
But something about the buzzsaw guitars and shrieking of a band like Horna just absolutely gets me going. To me, the music feels both incredibly expressive, badass and melancholy at the same time. I like a lot of different styles of music and Metal, but Black Metal just gets me going.
Yeah, there are many underground subgenres like this. Hard to say if they're deeply unpopular or not, because I think that unlike some super cheesy late 90s bands or Nickelback most people just don't care.
Personally I'm a big fan of crossover-grindcore bands like Birdflesh or Insanity Alert. The average person probably wouldn't hate it as much as they would an average goregrind band, but they would still hate it. On the other hand these bands regularly tour and play some of the best festivals within the broader genre (metal), like Brutal Assault.
Birdflesh sounds pretty cool from the link you posted, nice riffs. I usually find Grindcore pretty boring, but it seems like they might actually have some hooks.
People definitely just don't care about Metal, I don't think your average person even thinks about it in any sense. Though, it might be qualified as Deeply Unpopular, given that I feel like all the more extreme stuff is very much an acquired taste; people are aware that this stuff exists, but can't fathom why anyone would listen to it or create it.
I knew a few people in Black Metal bands and I like the genre as a whole, but I also spare my family from it as well as my other more extreme music tastes. That's probably why I tend to favor headphones!
I'm from Finland so to me it's very common to find out someone I know is into black metal. I'm not just talking about the long black haired skinny dudes with black scribbled band name t-shirts, who are also a very common sight.
I unironically love vaporwave and most of the subgenres that spawned from it. I know it had its popularity in certain corners of the internet and the overall visual aesthetic has had more influence in pop culture than the music itself, but it feels like the music itself is considered more of a joke by and large. I genuinely love Macintosh Plus, desert sand feels warm at night, Windows 96, Nmesh, Telepath, etc, etc.
I have pretty broad musical tastes, from The Mountain Goats to Run The Jewels, from Bill Monroe to Buckethead, but vaporwave is the only genre in my top 5 that I'm hesitant to tell people about.
Honestly I haven't heard anyone talking bad about vaporwave; it seems to have a better standing than simelarly-aged genres like dubstep. I personally like most of the new city pop derived genres. You might be interested in Mikazuki Bigwave.
Oh, some of those names I understand as related to vaporwave but some feel like they’ve drifted away from the original premise and I’ve struggled to describe or define them! Might be easier to just say vaporwave in future when people ask what I’m listening to?
I stumbled across 2 8 1 4 first, then found a chain of collabs which introduced me to HKE, telepath, Nmesh, Remember, and VAPERROR
They’re my go-to for deep focus at work, and I deliberately don’t listen to them any other time, because that way they also act as a shortcut to mentally switching into focus mode more easily.
Edit: okay looking back on this list I think I was mostly thrown by Remember, because they incorporate a bunch more of like... ambient industrial sounds? And that feels like a step further away from vaporwave, but I guess still pretty close.
Buckethead! Some of his tracks are easy to recommend, like Big Sur Moon or Nottingham Lace or even Three Fingers. But I had to warn my coworker that he gets pretty experimental so it isn't going to always "sound good".
Jamiroquai for me. The lineup has changed constantly, with only Jay Kay really remaining constant. But I got into them after Virtual Insanity, and I've bought all of their albums since. Their style changes with each album, but that's fine by me - because I change, too.
I've been chasing after a band that sits in such a groove between funk, pop, jazz, and soul, without ever leaning too hard in a direction, as Emergency On Planet Earth. There are spotty bits of later stuff I like by Jamiroquai, but I feel like there's some freedom or grounding on the first album that gives it a little needed grit.
Check out MonoNeon. Anything by him, really. I really dig Louis Cole too, "Park Your Car On My Face" is pretty groovy but his solo discography and his other projects are all solid. Even Clown Core.
(Edit to clarify. KNOWER's most recent album KNOWER FOREVER is probably a better example of jazz/funk/pop overall from Louis than his upcoming release, their older work is much more electronic generally. "Overtime" is worth a listen for that vibe though. It's all good stuff, just not all the same genre.)
Oh man, I wasn't crazy about KNOWER until I heard the string of Clowncore and KNOWER FOREVER recently - Do Hot Girls Like Chords is perfect. That is like exactly the vibe I'm chasing; Louis's first self-titled album hit the electronic side of that really well too. Will definitely check out MonoNeon!
Every one of their albums sits in a neat little place by itself. Emergency On Planet Earth for your funk/jazz fusion, Return of the Space Cowboy is more mellow and groovy, Traveling Without Moving is more dance club, Synkronized dials the club feel up to 11 ... a lot of their later stuff starts to sit in the dance club sort of space, but I really enjoy A Funk Odyssey and Rock Dust Light Star. Dynamite isn't quite as memorable, and Automaton never quite gelled with me, but I love it all all the same
That would be Venetian Snares. Saw him live 10 years ago, most insane performance and crowd ever.
Some of his music is kind of digestible, but I've heard the Doll Doll Doll album described as "sounding like a meth psychosis".
He has a couple of albums/songs which are very digestible indeed and one of my favorites all time, but others make my ears bleed. The same applies to Aphex Twin.
Two that I like that I never hear much are Meg Myers and Dead Sara.
Dead Sara's cover of Heart Shaped Box is fantastic. Some other good ones are Radio One Two and Unamerican, although I enjoy their whole discography.
My favorite Meg Meyers album is probably Sorry, especially Motel and Desire. Her style has evolved a lot in her latest album, but my favorites are probably Waste of Confetti and I Just Wanna Touch Somebody.
I just wanted to thank everyone who responded. You all have impeccable tastes (except for the one who liked Nickleback ;-P), and it has been a blast listening to some of the stuff you mentioned. I am legitimately having more fun listening to this than I have had with any music for a very long time. While I haven't listened to everything yet - there's just not enough time in the day - I look forward to doing so in the future.
There used to be an SNL cast member that went by the name Melissa Villaseñor. She was often called an underrated cast member, she wasn't used a whole lot by the show. I don't find her comedy or her acting skills to be terribly great. But, she makes music. And not comedy music. I liked her music so much that her song Selfish was my number one song on Spotify wrap for 2018. Puzzle Piece also ended up somewhere in there.
In a similar vein, Chloe Frances originally became popular due to this Vine. She releases music, but I became aware of it pretty early on, as in 2017. Little Kid was the first song I became aware of. She also had a song titled King Kong, which was really messy and really fun, but which since got deleted and there is no trace of. She's exactly my age, and she has built somewhat of a following since 2017 and there's so many kids that don't know her from Vine.
Let's start with the unpopular- as in, MASSIVELY unpopular... if a bunch of musicians I know are to be believed. I unironically actually LIKE Nickelback. I'm well aware of the criticisms- they just recycle the same music over and over, and Chad Kroger is an absolute douchebag- but I rock out HARD to their bangers.
(Plus whenever someone points out how much of a terrible person Kroger is, I like to respond with "So, how do you feel about Guns'N'Roses?")
As for obscure... There's only a couple of bands that I've listened to the full album from beginning to end, no skips. One of them was called Taking Dawn. I think they changed their name a few times, and I'm not even sure they're still active. But, they are the ones who got me to love The Chain, due to their hard rock cover of it.
I’m not sure if we can count Nickleback after all, they were hated so much precisely because they were so popular to begin with. They’ve got some good stuff, even if it does sound a bit samey to my ears.
That did get me interested in hearing that cover of The Chain and I liked it! I thought the organ was a really interesting touch.
Probably something like Zeal & Ardor. I grew up in the South, where you'd often hear blues and classic rock, but was myself a metal fan. Black metal in particular, thanks to a friend who would get tapes/cds sent to him from Europe. It's a contentious genre, to be extraordinarily mild about it. Designed to be deeply unpopular and obscure, home to all manner of actually-really-horrible acts and behavior. Combining elements of it with something that sounds more...southern folksy, is what I want to say...has an appeal I just didn't know existed within me. Like when I first heard Acid Bath, it's bringing together stuff I grew up hearing with things I once sought out.
My taste is completely different these days, in that I really do listen to just about anything, but hearing something like Zeal & Ardor brings me back to a specific time in life and so, it evokes for me feelings similar to what you're talking about, like it was made for me and me alone.
Edit: This one is wild to me too. I went and listened to the album again, because of course that happened after writing about it.
I absolutely love Zeal & Ardor too! Also the best live show I've been to.
Count me envious, I've never gotten to see them. I stumbled upon the tracks I linked to not long after they got uploaded to Youtube and, as tends to be, was the only person in my area listening to anything like that, that I knew of. They remind me of some of the things I really liked about older Opeth, the bluesy riffs and screaming comes off to me like "home, but how it was". Opeth didn't have the connection to home, so it was more like a hint at what was doable than the complete feeling if that makes any sense. When I heard Acid Bath it was like being slapped, because it did have that connection and felt like music that expressed more of the shit I saw than what folks like to show, if you get my meaning. Zeal & Ardor feels like a years-later resolution of the feelings around all of that, the anger doesn't leave because it's got good reason for being there. It just doesn't come out until it's appropriate, until it works, when it can be properly understood.
Church Burns is another one that stuck in my mind from that album. If someone asked me for a song to understand how I've felt, there you go. And as a genre thing, that's about the best attempt at combining black metal, blues, and gospel stuff I think I've heard, so far.
This project had a huge impact on me growing up and I still listen to all of it frequently: https://www.metroidmetal.com/songs/
Highly unpopular isn't really accurate, but my experience is that 100 Gecs is highly polarizing and sometimes an acquired taste. I only recommend music if it seems within a couple degrees of the type of music they like.
I've recommended 100 Gecs to both dubstep heads and fans of experimental music. The initial reaction was "no way, this makes my brain feel weird. I can't stand it." but reliably I hear from them several months later that they revisited the band and now love 100 Gecs.
I hate most of the genres that obviously influence their music, but I love the result for some reason. It is kind of a one hit wonder for me, the 1000 gecs album is brilliant, but after that it felt like they had nowhere else to go with their crazy postmodern mishmash and everything they released has been merely okay when compared to it.
I liked 1000 Gecs a lot but the album I return to most often is 1000 Gecs and the Tree of Clues. I think after their first album it was awesome to see so many established artists with a desire to collaborate on remixes of their songs. You've got Charli XCX, Injury Reserve (RIP), Fall Out Boy, Dorian Electra, and a bunch of others getting in on it. One of my favorite albums of the last 5 years
In terms of obscurity, I've found quite a bit of small-time artists on bandcamp, from bedroom pop to ambient to powerviolence to dungeon synth. Tons of good stuff out there. I'm deep enough into the metal world that every week I'm encountering tons of underground metal acts too.
In terms of the "disliked" side of things, I'm not really sure. Plenty of stuff I like is disliked by various fanbases/genre elitists/etc (nu metal, industrial, pop acts, etc- all just depends on who is doing the hating) but I don't know if I listen to anything widely disliked/hated.
In terms of very underground or not understood/accessible to the general public- most of that listening for me would be in the extremes of extreme metal I suppose (very lo-fi black metal, genres involving harsh noise or extreme dissonance, etc) - but even as inaccessible and extreme as it gets- still has plenty of fans... didn't realize how hard this would be to answer, heh!
This is the greatest Christmas album of all time.
That's a lie, the best is Vince Guaraldi"s Charlie Brown Christmas. But like. I listen to this every year. I bathe in it. I let the white trash seep into my pores. It's June. Make everything 4/4 for no reason. Make it rain on the infant messiah. Listen to the Family Force 5 Christmas Pageant.
George and Jonathan’s Beautiful Lifestyle only has ~80 owners on Bandcamp (quite low especially because you can choose to get it for free) and the opening track only has ~450 plays on YouTube.
Something about it clicks with me. I’ve loved it for years. It’s fun; it’s charming; it’s campy; it’s catchy; it’s got neat ideas and surprising range; it doesn’t overstay its welcome (the songs are short and the whole album is over in less than half an hour).
I’ve listened to their other stuff and it’s all fine but none of it grabs me like this does. Beautiful Lifestyle is an instantly accessible feel-good mood lift.
Holy shit, it’s incredible that you brought this up because I nearly brought up George & Jonathan’s The Best Music album - they just got cut for brevity along with some other netlabel releases.
I’ve liked Jon Baken in particular since his 2008 release of the Candlelight EP on Piston Source. If you haven’t already, you should check out some of their other projects; they’ve got some really interesting art across different media.
What a coincidence! That's wild. I definitely didn't expect to have a direct hit on a thread about obscure music, lol.
Also this means I definitely need to dive back into their other stuff. I listened through their other releases (as George & Jonathan) years ago but none of them stuck with me like Beautiful Lifestyle did. Your endorsement of The Best Music makes me think I missed something though, so I'm due for a re-listen. I also didn't realize they had other projects, so I'll look into those as well. Thanks!
The Books - I've been listening them heavily for 3-4 years now. Nothing else like this disbanded band. They seem to have had the same wavelength as how I think about music and life at large. I'm very conflicted I only learned about them a decade after they broke up and didn't get to see them live, but I also know I found them at the right point in my life. Their music has guided and guides me through this transformative period of my life and the world more broadly. The Books songs and albums are experienced differently each and ever time IMO and I learn tidbits that change their meaning from old blogs and news articles here and there.
Edit: Another great mini-documentary on them https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoSWqy3L78A
I am a big fan of Japanese music, with my favorite artist being Shiina Ringo / Tokyo Jihen. That said there's one indie hip hop band that really stand out with a uniquely weird style that I really love, despite them being vastly unknown and underrated. Moe and Ghosts - GINGA
Darth Vegas
Found them on reddit many years ago and was instantly blown away. It's goofy, insane butcher music with stupid heavy metal elements and it makes me wanna jump and laugh like a stereotypical crazy person.
When I share Daniel Johnston's music with people, they either really get it, or they don't.
Fun fact, the "Hi, How Are You" mental health threads here on tildes actually came from the charity in inspired by Daniel:
https://www.hihowareyou.org
Always Estradasphere. No one ever remembers Estradasphere...
EDIT: Cheeto's Magazine also seem fairly underappreciated on YouTube.
I've never heard of Estradasphere but listening to them now, they're fantastic! I have been listening to the first result from that search, Hunger Strike, and I'm loving how they manage to seamlessly shift through so many different sonic textures and even genre. And it just doesn't stop! They've got some of the things I love most about Jazz music.
Don't get too surprised when you also get chiptune, comedy and death metal growling in their songs. They were... rather unique.
Hunger Strike is from their first album. It's a good one! I like songs from all of their albums.
Oh man, don't threaten me with a good time!
No-one I mention them to seem to have heard of Major Parkinson. I can't even recall how I stumbled upon them. So many awesome songs.
Euthanasia Roller Coaster
Madeleine Crumbles
Heart of Hickory
It's a Job
I also tend to really enjoy the last place finishers of Eurovision for some reason.
I recall one more that actually fits really well I think.
There was a very unique post-punk/post-hardcore/math rock Canadian band called Nomeansno, existed for over 30 years, toured all over Canada, US and Europe. I've seen them 5 times I think. They have a very dedicated cult following, but despite being quite influential among musicians and not really being strongly bound to one music scene, almost nobody apart from music nerds interested in the overall genre seems to know them. And since they have a specific sound and the singer has a unique voice, many people who do discover them do not end up liking their music.
For me though it's the one band that I've been listening to for almost 25 years now and still come back to it and I'm still always impressed. The one thing that still fascinates me is how they are able to mix music full of energy and sometimes almost cheerful and silly with total nihilism and simple punk-like forms with deceivingly complicated arrangements.
Three examples for three different styles: Tired of Waiting, The Phone Call, Cats, Sex and Nazis
Complex and frenetic electronic music: Jorts - 201
Orchestral technical death metal: Fleshgod Apocalypse - And the Vulture Beholds
Sort of a hybrid? Savant - Fantastique
I recently discovered The Tiger Lillies - Banging in the Nails. Not sure if they count as deeply unpopular since in my head they are too obscure.
I don't know about unpopular, but Dream Theater "fans" love to hate on DT. They talk about how each album that gets released is terrible, that Mike Mangini was terrible and then him being replaced was terrible. They say that James LaBrie's vocals are terrible. I don't know if I've ever seen so much hatred for everything that a band does.
There are a couple of bands like that. Nightwish has gone through a number of lead singers, and every time they do there's a section of fans that pop up to hate on them. Sadly my favorite singer is the one people tend to hate the most....
Ah, you just be talking about Tarja. I didn't discover Nightwish until after she was gone, but still heard references about her. I do really like Floor, though.
Oh boy, is Tarja the most hated one now? The times, they keep changing. I was referring to Anette. Dark Passion Play is my favorite Nightwish album.
That being said, I like all of their work but I'm not super big on them.
Dark Passion Play is great. The Poet and the Pendulum is great to listen to and I love to sing The Islander or Eva on karaoke. And there are two Dark Tower references with 7 Days To The Wolves!
Imaginaerum is even better.
I thought she was because of the drama dealing with her departure, but I guess Anette had drama as well. I don't follow too closely, I just like their music :)
Same here.
Shoegaze.
It's probably not super unpopular but I just wanted to share this apocalyptic neofolk song that I just found:
It's not perfect but it was interesting enough that I listened to the rest of the album. It reminds me a bit of my brother's music