{"id":483112,"date":"2026-02-22T03:21:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T03:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/483112\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T03:21:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T03:21:09","slug":"4-classic-hits-critics-hated-at-first-and-i-can-kind-of-see-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/483112\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Classic Hits Critics Hated at First\u2014and I Can Kind of See Why"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first rule of the music industry: The critic is not always right. While some songs resoundingly deserve<\/a> the torrent of hate they receive from the writing class, others have retrospectively earned their place in music lore. Here are some classic rock songs that critics hated at first\u2014some with good reason.<\/p>\n

\u201cBohemian Rhapsody\u201d, Queen (1975)<\/p>\n

The lead single off the British rockers\u2019 1975 album A Night at the Opera, this sprawling, six-minute epic essentially thumbed its nose at music conventions. \u201cBohemian Rhapsody\u201d has no chorus, instead consisting of an\u00a0intro, a\u00a0ballad\u00a0segment, an\u00a0operatic\u00a0passage, a\u00a0hard rock\u00a0bit, and a reflective\u00a0coda at the end.<\/p>\n

Many bemused music critics didn\u2019t quite know what to make of the song, with the New York Times dismissing it<\/a> as \u201cpretty empty, all flash and calculation.\u201d However, music fans loved \u201cBohemian Rhapsody\u201d for the same reasons that critics panned it\u2014because it was nothing like anything they\u2019d heard before. <\/p>\n

The Queen song ascended to the top of the UK singles chart. Five decades later, most naysayers have re-evaluated their stance and declared \u201cBohemian Rhapsody\u201d among the greatest songs of all time. And sure, it\u2019s bombastic, strange and overwrought\u2014but in the hands of Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor, and John Deacon, \u201cBohemian Rhapsody\u201d is also pure gold.<\/p>\n

[RELATED: Revisiting the Meaning of \u201cBohemian Rhapsody\u201d by Queen]<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIdiot Wind\u201d, Bob Dylan (1975)<\/p>\n

Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your teeth, Bob Dylan sings on this brooding tune from his 1975 album Blood on the Tracks. You\u2019re an idiot, babe \/ It\u2019s a wonder that you still know how to breathe.<\/p>\n

Harsh. Critics didn\u2019t particularly love this abrasive turn from the songwriting titan. Rolling Stone slammed <\/a>\u201cIdiot Wind\u201d for its \u201cchildishness (without any redeeming childlike wonder)\u201d, bemoaned that Dylan sounded \u201clike a shadow of his former self.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, however, the fan favorite is regarded among Dylan\u2019s best work.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t Stop Believin\u2019\u201d, Journey (1981)<\/p>\n

Much like \u201cBohemian Rhapsody,\u201d this anthemic power ballad off Journey\u2019s 1981 album Escape may take itself a bit too seriously at times. Upon its release, the musical powers that be criticized its overproduction and perceived inauthenticity.<\/p>\n

With time, however, the urge to belt the opening lines (Just a small-town girl, living in a lonely world) became irresistible\u2014even for the most stoic of detractors.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe Didn\u2019t Start the Fire\u201d, Billy Joel (1989)<\/p>\n

This one\u2019s place on the list has room for debate, as even its own writer sort of gets the hate. \u201cIf you take the melody by itself, terrible,\u201d Billy Joel later said. \u201cLike a dentist drill.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Joel\u2019s antipathy didn\u2019t stop \u201cWe Didn\u2019t Start the Fire\u201d from becoming his third Hot 100 chart-topper. Don\u2019t expect an updated version for the post-Internet world, though. \u201cNo, I wrote one song already and I don\u2019t think it was really that good to begin with, melodically,\u201d Joel said in 1994.<\/a><\/p>\n

Featured image by Andrew Putler\/Redferns<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first rule of the music industry: The critic is not always right. While some songs resoundingly deserve…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483113,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[2617,88,216],"class_list":["post-483112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-classic-rock","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}