Whether its for shamelessly ripping on more credible sources or just simply peddling annoying music, some bands just seem to be hate magnets (*cough* Nickelback & Avri Lavigne).
But of those same acts that seem to draw so much negative attention, how many are actually bad? As in, morally questionable harbingers of nasty in a way that the squeaky-clean likes of One Direction couldn’t even conjure nightmares of.
It’s a question that’s been put to the online community in a poll that asks ‘Who Are The Most Evil Musicians Of All Time?’, put together by the folks at Consequence Of Sound as they get into the spooky spirit in the lead-up to Halloween.
The music website has “pared down a list of eight names from 60 possible suitors; those we feel could rub shoulders with the very oogiest of boogeymen,” putting together a tournament style bracket of the music world’s most dastardly for the public to decide on the most evil mind of them all.
So who qualifies as genuinely evil? Well, on the more notorious end of the scale, there’s the not-so-Rihanna-friendly RnB singer Chris Brown, and Ms. Kurt Cobain herself, Courtney Love, while controversial hip hop duo Insane Clown Posse also make the cut, the Australia-bound rap twosome most recently caught up in a full-blown sexual harassment scandal.
Also up for nomination is convicted pedophile and 70s rock star Gary Glitter, American rapper Chief Keef (for his questionable behaviour and legal run-ins), Wall of Sound innovator and convicted murderer Phil Spector, The Eagles (go have a Google), and the lesser-known but no less disreputable GG Allin, the punk singer-songwriter whose menacing live shows could contain anything from self-mutilation to munching on faeces (and not always his own).
In fact the loony punk frontman of such bands as The Jabbers, The Cedar Street Sluts, The Scumfucs, and The Texas Nazis, is now squaring off against Courtney Love in the Most Evil Musicians poll as voting reaches its second round. The next phase has also seen Chris Brown and The Eagles knocked out of the competition, with Consequence Of Sound noting they “were a little more terrified from Glenn Frey and Don Henley than [Insane Clown Posse’s] Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope, but hey, we’ll stick to the data.”
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Given their cult-like Juggalo fanbase, Insane Clown Posse are in for a good shot to claim the title, and would likely take pride in the mantle to boot. After all, this is the duo that were recently named as one of the top 15 most hated bands of the last 30 years. Violent J is well-aware of the duo’s appeal as “the only group in the position in the history of rock ‘n’ roll that ever sold as many millions of records as we had and had as much success as we’ve had and it’s still considered a joke… we love to be hated.”
For our five cents’ worth, the antics of the Beatles-harassing, Beach Boys-associated, mass murdering Charles Manson is a glaring omission; committing far more evil deeds in his lifetime than simply shocking others with wild stage antics, tampering with the Nirvana catalogue, or wearing make-up and provoking religious fanatics and feminist groups, but hey, the internet’s all about giggles and debate, right?
