Mostly every artist is to a degree , you have someone say their favorite is underrated someone will say no they are overrated. I just listen to what I like and don't worry about opinions on it . Most of the people I listen to are overrated and I don't care lol.

My opinion of overrated is overhyped, which meaning, that they are promoted to be more than they actually are. That being said, I would say the first that come to mind is John Legend and Alicia Keys; They were supposed to be something in the vein of Stevie Wonder and I like their music, but they aren't there on a conceptual or even talent wise.

On the other hand, you may not like guys like, Van Hunt or Anthony Hamilton, but they never tried to be more that they actually can do which reflects in their music.

Harlepolis said:

errant said:

As much as I hate to say it, Stevie Wonder. I love him. I love almost everything he's ever done, even the decidedly crap stuff from the 80's. He's incredibly talented. Brilliant in fact. But I sometimes feel that he's overrated in that he didn't really invent anything. He did the most perfect version of a kind of music that already existed, rather than transforming it into something new. His talent transcended it, perfected it, but was never really transformative.

It kind of kills me to say it, considering how wonderful I think he is.

I think Stevie get the accolades deservingly because of the way he introduced electronics into soul music.

His ONLY curse though was the fact that he longed for the critics approval, when he released Journey Through The Secret Life Of Plants(which to me, it was his version of Bitches Brew in comparison to everything he released previously), critics slammed him for being "self-indulgant"(there goes that word again ) and poor Stevie who never turned a deaf ear to the writers scrapped anything that had the potentials of being experimental, and resorted to the air-play friendly routine.

I think also Stevie should get the credit for being the first(or one of the first) musicians who combined different styles of music so effortlessy into RnB. Stuff like "Sunshine of My Life" with its samba feel and his mixing of country and blues ("Looking for Another Pure Love, Big Brother) and world music, which dramatically expanded the sound of what RnB could be. Yeah, I'm totally biased, but there really wasn't someone who was doing what Stevie was doing in such an individual style and with such ease and pop sensiblities until Prince came along, IMO.